Problems AI My Sows

[bobpet79]

Last summer I had a combination of 9 sows and gilts bred naturally. When it came to AI this fall, 8 of the those sows did not stick on their first breeding. All eight needed to be serviced at least twice. I bred 1 of the 9 naturally and she stuck on her first service. We also had a sow that did not have a summer litter stick on her first service. She was AI'd. I also bred 4 gilts this fall and they stuck on their first service. In fact, I gave 2 doses of semen to a sow(one of the 9 above), didn't stick, and 1 dose to a gilt, and she stuck! Getting to my point now. Has anyone ever have this same problem between AI and natural breeding?

Comments please.

[SPRINGBRANCH]

if the semen is good and you hit that female 24 hours apart in her standing heat AI should be very successful. I think I see bigger litters with a live bred female, although we certainly have had big litters with AI'd females too. Timing i think is the biggest thing. We have an experienced boar that won't even try to mount the female unless she is standing hard, he's experienced enough to smell that i suppose. as a result he is most likely breeding her when she is very fertile.

[villageidiot]

Do you check the quality of the semen before you inseminate. I didn't think I needed to own a microscope until this year. we have been inseminating sows for 20 years. I have had excellent results in number bred and litter size from semen from prairie state and north iowa boar stud the past few years.. this year we tried semen from other studs with very mixed results. Very disappointed with premium blend, less than 10% bred, and schaffers, settling only 20% . Alot of money down the drain and open sows. I had very good results from zimmerman hog farms, southern gold, and poland semen from sugar creek.

The common denominator that i found so far is that the poor results came from studs using modina extender, which may be effective, but doesn't possibly maintain the semen quality in shipping. Maybe issues with their labs, i don't know. Semen is handled and kept in an appropriate fashion.

All I know is that we will have a microscope for next season, and will be cancelling payments for semen not not of usable quality.

[Darin]

Sorry to hear about your fertility problems. Unfortunately, it's a relatively common tale in the showpig world. My company does a fair amount of work in this area and we enjoy helping small producers. You can check out our products and services at www.cerdosllc.com

Regarding semen extender, many showpig breeders and studs have begun using FertiMaxx, including Prairie State, whom you mentioned gave you very good fertility. Prairie State has been a good customer for several years. You can read about FertiMaxx here: http://www.cerdosllc.com/fertimaxx/

Let me know if there is anything I can help with.