Calving season is rolling right along in the northwest. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back with some thoughts about the next "season" in the cattle production cycle.With calving season just starting, in full swing, or winding down cattle producers are looking forward to breeding season that will produce next year's calf crop. Bull sales for most breeds are happening all around the northwest, but some producers are looking for the sires of their next calves in artificial insemination sire summary catalogs put out by various independent companies or purebred breeders themselves. Artificial insemination or AI has the advantage of producing calves from expensive superior bulls that producers could not buy outright but can use semen from that bull at a reasonable cost. AI lets a rancher breed more cows to a desirable bull than could be accomplished by natural range breeding conditions. This results in a more uniform calf crop with advanced growth and quality traits. On the other hand AI is labor intensive, so producers look to research from sources like the Nancy M. Cummings Research and Education Center in Salmon, Idaho. T. J. Burnham, in Western Farmer-Stockman magazine reports the center's superintendent, John Hall, says cow estrus synchronization helps AI users condense the labor force needed in breeding season. What are some of the methods available to synchronize estrus? What are some of the costs involved and what other AI innovations have been studied at the research center? Well, if you're listening tomorrow, I'll be here on the Northwest Ag Information Network to tell you about them. I'm Jeff Keane.

Western-Farmer Stockman March 2009