Practical Experience With Synchronized Breeding At The K-State Purebred Unit

The week before spring break was Dr Griegor and Dr Nicholls’s AI class. I could not believe my luck when Dr G had messaged me to see if I’d like to come along. Unfortunately due to our plans to leave early for Montana, I was only able to attend one day of the class but it was excellent! They covered an introduction to the course and the basics of Artificial Insemination in cattle. I learnt a little about proper handling of semen straws and the implications regarding their effectiveness leading up to pregnancy in the cow and storage of the remaining straws if not handled properly. There are multiple compartments within the semen tank that are used to store the straws and I learnt a little about that during my little stop over in that class also. They had real cow uterus brought in for training and Dr Griegors 3D printed cervixes. These were designed and engineered to mimic the passage through the cow’s cervix to enable training for palpation and artificial insemination. There were also different difficulty levels to imitate the difference between heifers and cows.

I have literally had absolutely nothing to do with artificial insemination in cattle or any other species of livestock for that fact. Given my background with feedlot cattle, where the aim is to maintain pregnancy levels as close to zero as possible and commercial naturally bred sheep, where rams are set out to get the job done on their own, this class introduced me to the practical component of a side of beef production I had only ever known the theory behind. To have been asked to sit in on this week of training was a real honour and a treat for me, it was a shame that I was only able to be there for the first day but I appreciated that time all the same.

Following spring break I was given the opportunity to help out with the artificial insemination of the heifers at the K-State purebred unit. All of it was performed on site in a portable AI box, which for no apparent reason, maybe just because it’s square and portable, reminded me of a crutching trailer. I have a lot of fun out there with those blokes. Dr Griegor and Tyler Leonard (Boss at the K-State Purebred Unit) are very good to me. Within the last month or so I have been ‘put to work’ out at the purebred unit quite a bit, which has been excellent! Prior to my helping with the artificial insemination of all their Heifers, I had been invited to help put CIDRs in to synchronize estrus within the herd. Call me stupid here with my complete infatuation with the feedlot industry causing my very limited cow calf experience, but that there is something I had never even HEARD of until Dr Griegor’s Farm Animal Reproduction class, let alone implemented. How lucky am I to not only have been invited out to help move cattle for them and watch, but I actually even got the chance to put a few in myself!

This week I have been out to help with the controlled burning of the Purebred Unit’s pastures. This is a grazing management strategy that is widely implemented and utilized in the Flinthills of Kansas and depending on the area and the frequency of rainfall, all throughout the state. I am told due to western Kansas receiving significantly smaller amounts of rain than eastern Kansas, the utilization of fire for pasture improvement is much lower than that of eastern Kansas. Prescribed burning in the spring season is very beneficial for brush and weed control and the revitalization of warm season grasses here in Kansas. It’s also a great way to control the population of ticks and parasitic worms on a widespread basis and encourage cattle to have less uneven grazing patterns, as the pasture is more uniform.

I have probably mentioned before, that the area I grew up in in South Australia has very little rainfall relative to many other areas in the world (here in Manhattan they have already received Kyancutta’s average annual rainfall and it’s not even May!) and a considerable focus on broad acre cropping of drought hardy cereal grains. It is very uncommon for producers in that area to have a business whose sole focus is livestock production. However it IS common to see producers managing multi-enterprise businesses consisting of a broad acre cropping component along with a livestock element, whether that be sheep, cattle or both. Therefore livestock in that area are widely grazed on crop residues and pastures that have been strategically seeded with nitrogen fixing plants (such as medic clover for example).

When pastures are left to rest, it is a part of the rotation plan farmers determine with their agronomists but are rarely left for too many years before they enter back into crop production. Therefore grazing management regarding naturally grown native grasses that are never interrupted by the cropping cycle was a new and very interesting concept for me to understand and be a part of.

I have never had to think a great deal about grazing patterns in pastures relative to species and plant size uniformity. Dr KC Olson had mentioned something very interesting to me during his Grazing Nutritional Management class this year relative to seasonal behavioral changes cattle apply upon their own grazing patterns. He had mentioned how these cattle naturally migrating to the southern end of the pastures during the colder times of the year as an instinctive attempt to ‘escape’ the wind which causes overgrazing in these areas at said times of the year. How interesting is that!?

Call me a nerd, but I just really love learning about those quirky little behavioral things livestock implement into their daily lives that as humans, and a natural predator, we may not usually even pick up on, let alone try to understand.

I am learning so much here and having an absolute ball! The longer I stay here in Kansas the harder it is going to be to get me to leave!