More cattlemen saying OK to AI
Target mating and time management make can make labour and drug expense worthwhile
BY DON STONEMAN
Artificial insemination in the beef industry keeps getting more attractive - to such an extent that, on some commercial farms, bulls are literally being put out to pasture.One AI advantage is enabling cows to be bred to a superior bull that might otherwise be unaffordable. Another is for target mating to ensure birthing ease or other desired characteristics. Yet another, combined with synchronization, is time management. Fixed-time or controlled breeding can eliminate the need for heat detection.
The disadvantage is the extra cost involved - for labour in terms of multiple handlings, and the drugs to synchronize the cows. Additionally, some of the protocols being tested or used in the province involve off-label or research-approved drug uses. Your vet, or your breeder's, will be involved in scripting and/or administering the products.
Beef AI is being promoted at units such as Gencor, but it isn't for every producer, warns Dennis Eagles, Gencor's western division regional manager. Only cows that have calved relatively close together can be bred AI.
If the calving interval in a cow herd is tight, cows can be synchronized. If theyare spread out over 120 days it isn't going to work, he says.
"We recommend cows be 45 days post partum before a herd manager starts thinking about using an AI synch program," Eagles says. "For heifers, it is important that they be mature enough to cycle normally every 21 days."
Females still need to be on a good plane of nutrition, be healthy and cycling normally.
He stresses that a synching program shouldn't be used as a crutch to prop up a breeding program that failed in other ways. For example, if a farmer had a breeding failure with a bull last year, he can't use it to try to repair the damage from a late breeding season by bringing the herd into heat earlier.
Gencor promotes feeding melengestrol acetate (MGA) to heifers to synchronize heats. The system works well where farmers already feed grain to their heifers and have lots of bunk space to ensure that the heifers get enough of the drug. MGA can be mixed into the ration.
Each animal needs half a milligram of MGA in its daily ration for 14 days. Then MGA is removed from the diet. Heats in the next two to eight days are sub-fertile and should be ignored, says Eagles.
Seventeen days after the heifers are pulled off MGA they get a shot of prostaglandin. The treated females are observed for heats for two to five days after the shot. Most come into heat on Day 3, Eagles says.
MGA costs 40 to 50 cents per heifer for the entire program. The prosta-glandin is relatively inexpensive. If the first insemination doesn't catch, prices are halved for the next insemination. That pays for the prostaglandin, he says. MGA isn't as effective on cows as it is on heifers, says Eagles.
Farmers considering a synchronization program should talk to their AI organization or vet first. Says Eagles: "Communication is essential for results." It doesn't help if the AI technician is called in on the wrong day, he adds.
Fixed-time breeding is an alternative - albeit more expensive in terms of the drugs used. Researchers at New Liskeard research station have achieved conception rates as high as 95 per cent using a four-times-handling protocol over 10 days before breeding, and 84 and 70 per cent using three-times-handling treatments in the same time period (See Per cent pregnant to fixed time AI).
"Compared to other ways of using AI, the whole system is quite an advancement," says Tom Hamilton, New Liskeard-based beef cattle specialist, in spite of the chute sessions. The benefit is that no heat detection is required. Cows are bred 10 days after first treatment.
The required heat detection is the big stumbling block to using AI, Hamilton says. And then arrangements have to be made to breed cows one or two or three at a time. "It's a huge hassle factor," Hamilton says. With this system, AI service can be arranged in advance.
Each protocol involves inserting a progesterone-releasing vaginal insert on Day 0. In the four-times scenario, there's a prosta-glandin injection on Day 6, removal of the insert on Day 7, an injection of estradiol benzoate on Day 8, and then AI breeding Day 9 (See Synchro success).
The vaginal insert is CIDR-B, produced by InterAg/Vetrepharm and used in New Liskeard under an experimental licence. Mid-April, InterAg/Vetrepharm expected to get clearance from Health Canada's Bureau of Veterinary Drugs shortly.
Eagles notes that the fixed-time beef synchronization that Hamilton talks about seems to work better on cows than on heifers. Making a fixed-time operation work depends on the individual producers' situation and facilities, Eagles says. Running cattle through chutes gets them "worked up." He sees more farmers with head gate systems in their barns. The head gates can be closed on cows and heifers while they are eating. "You can go right down the row and needle the animals."
His company offers a program developed at the University of Laval that's similar to the New Liskeard research but has only a limited number of producers using it: "We haven't had a lot of response, to be honest." He says it costs $10 to $12 more per cow than other programs because of thecos t of the drugs and the labour involved in putting cattle through a chute.
Both Eagles and Hamilton say people who work off the farm certainly benefit from fixed time. They don't have the time for heat detection.
Time was, cattlemen used to think they didn't have time for AI, either.
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Ontario adopts broader-based pricing
Indiana-Illinois benchmark is toast, but will new formula ensure fair returns?BY ROBERT IRWIN
Everyone agrees the Ontario pork industry's recently unveiled price discovery mechanism promises greater accuracy in price determination. Nevertheless, some think more is needed to ensure producers get a fair return for their pigs.The new formula will be based on the National Base Lean Hog Carcass Slaughter Cost Report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is available on the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/mncs/mnreports/NWLS295.txt
Ontario packers and the pork board have agreed that National Cost, as the shortened version of the report is called, reflects the value of a greater volume of pigs over a wider geographic area than the previously used Indiana-Illinois live weight prices.
USDA officials estimate about 30 per cent of American hogs are included in the new National Cost compared with just eight per cent that were going through Indiana-Illinois. That's because increasing numbers of U.S. producers are either on contract or have decided they get more for quality hogs by selling them on a dressed weight basis rather than through traditional live weight markets.
Ontario Pork chairman Will Nap says Indiana-Illinois had become "a market of last resort. Packers bought everywhere else first." National Cost provides three choices of lean yield to base prices on.
Indiana-Illinois live was based on an assumption of a 47 to 49 per cent lean carcass. The new Ontario formula is based on a 51 to 52 per cent lean.
Nap says the good news is "it's a higher-quality animal that we are pricing from, so it's probably a little more indicative of the quality that we sell in Ontario." Still, if there is any bad news, he concedes, it lies in the fact Ontario producers are still selling a higher-quality hog than even the new price reference is based on.
Ontario producers will still receive their customary grading grid premiums. Nevertheless, Nap argues, "we should be selling at a 54 or 55 per cent lean."
He says the immediate goal was to replace the Indiana-Illinois benchmark with something that was revenue neutral, but he hints at further enhancements: "That task lies ahead of us."
Although Quality Meats, Maple Leaf Pork and the Ontario Meat Packers and Processors all agreed to the change, a key point of contention during negotiations was the value of a divisor used to make the formula reflect the value of Ontario hogs. The number agreed upon was 1.1195.
National Cost is based on information U.S. processors voluntarily provide to USDA on a daily basis. Data comes from all regions and is then mathematically weighted to reflect each region's volume as follows: eastern corn belt, 33 per cent; mid-south region, 27 per cent; western corn belt, 40 per cent.
Dressed weight in the U.S. usually means the head and often the skin aren't calculated in carcass weight. Therefore, the National Cost dressing percentage is only 74 per cent.
Ontario pigs with head and skin on dress out at 80 per cent. Ontario's new formula converts the U.S. dressing percentage to 80 per cent.
Despite having price data from a large number of hogs, the U.S. National Pork Producers Council, whose producers have become increasingly concerned with concentration in the industry, warns price reporting in that country doesn't go far enough. Several congressmen have proposed bills that would establish a temporary three-year pilot program requiring mandatory price reporting by all packers.
Early last month, on a swing through Iowa, U.S. vice-president Al Gore announced an even tougher proposal being sent by the Clinton administration to congress. On a permanent basis, it would require anyone who buys, sells or markets livestock, livestock products or meat products to report the price of each transaction to the USDA.
Commenting on the situation, Al Tank, NPPC chief executive officer, said, "Knowledge is power. Mandatory price reporting is a component of that knowledge."
Around the same time as Gore's announcement the USDA filed suit against Cargill-owned meat packer Excel for changing hog producers' pricing formulas without their knowledge. The suit alleges that Excel, which is that country's fourth-largest pork processor and the third-largest beef processor, deprived producers of US$1.8 million.
There is no accurate public price reporting in Western Canada. Maritime pork boards base prices on Ontario. The Quebec board has been using National Cost, but has chosen the 47 to 48 per cent lean category. In most other respects Quebec's formula reflects Ontario's.
Quebec, however, is using a different divisor. It's based on the 13-week rolling average index of all hogs sold in the province. The number being used was 1.09 at the end of March.
Mid-April, the Quebec pork board was negotiating a new formula with packers. Pierre Gelinas, the board's manager of sales and transportation, predicts Quebec will "move up to a higher percentage [lean], a correction index or a premium that will be added on the price."
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Line up lawyer to break contracts
An unexpected development has occurred in the aftermath of the change in Ontario's formula. Two producers who spoke on condition of anonymity told Farm & Country the new formula provides them with an opportunity to earn extra money by switching from a contract with a packer to one of the New Beginnings programs launched by Ontario Pork at this year's annual meeting in March.They reason their direct packer contract is no longer valid because settlement is based on the old formula.
Ian Muir, Ontario Pork's director sales and marketing, admits he's had a few questions from producers about using that escape route. "I tell them if that's what you're thinking you'd better talk to a lawyer," Muir relates.
Bill Oakley, vice-president of Maple Leaf Pork, maintains "the change in the formula doesn't allow the producer to renege on a contract; neither does it allow the processor to." In a contract supplied to Farm & Country by one producer, Maple Leaf reserves the right to adjust the reference, but other stipulations include a clause that reads "such adjustment must be agreed to by the producer."
Oakley doesn't dispute the advantages of Ontario Pork's New Beginnings program, which he describes as "a win-win for producer and processor."
Don Collis, Quality Meat Packers vice-president and general manager, fresh meats business, says he isn't aware of any producers contracted with his company who want to opt out.
Like Oakley, he doesn't view the price formula change as a valid reason for cancellation of any contracts.
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Agriculture ambassadors rewarded
Last month six pork producers from across Ontario received Ontario Volunteer Service Awards for promoting agriculture. Award winners, who have donated their time for at least five years, were nominated by Ontario Pork. The awards are sponsored by the ministry of citizenship, culture and recreation.Lance Pocock gives up his Mondays for six weeks every summer to educate children at the Farm Museum in Milton. "I bring along a box of weaner pigs and tell them all about pig farming," he chuckles.
Like many of the other award recipients, Pocock, who has been farming for 45 years, also helps out at local fairs and exhibitions. During the school year he accommodates a steady stream of requests from elementary school teachers for his porcine show and tell.
Why does he do it? "I have fun," he says.
He collects no fees for his efforts. Instead he gets his reward in the form of thank-you notes and photographs sent along by grateful teachers and students.
It requires extra effort to bring live pigs along but Pocock, who has honed his skills dealing with animal rights activists at the pork board's Royal Winter Fair booth, reasons they are an important inducement. "I tell the school kids if they'll hear me out for 20 minutes, I'll take [the pigs] out of the box and let them play with them."
Cobden farrow-to-finisher and former pork board director Patricia Egan also received the award for her educational efforts, especially as an organizer of Farm Comes to Town and Renfrew county's innovative Rural Ramble.
Each fall for the past few years, Rural Ramble has drawn an increasing number of urbanites who purchase a passport that entitles them to tour specified farms along a picturesque route that spans much of the county.
Farm Comes to Town is an annual, multi-commodity display, set up in the town of Renfrew. Classes spend 20 minutes at each commodity.
Sharon Douglas, Clifford, received her award for educational initiatives at the Canadian National Exhibition's model farm as well as her efforts at the Royal Winter Fair and International Plowing Match. Her husband Ron served at the same events and was also recognized for his "outstanding service" through the Ontario Farm Animal council, where he and Sharon co-ordinate the animal care help line, established to respond to reports of animal neglect.
Walter and Sharon Petheram, Waterford, each received an award for their efforts over a 25-year period in educating the public about agriculture, and for their leadership in the Norfolk county fair education area. - Robert Irwin
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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