forget AM-PM

One of the recent meeting presentations in Orlando, by Dr Paul Fricke University of Wisconsin, concerned the very long-standing tradition AM-PM rule of breeding cows. I've seen for some time now the published work that once a day breeding works as well as twice a day. His comments emphasized that many of the cows that you wait 12 hours for to breed may be too late - why? It could be that the standing mount that you saw at 7am was the last one of her standing heat and she's actually been standing since 7pm last night. By the time she's inseminated 12 hours later, she's past the optimal period for conception. If you have to wait, wait four hours. But if you see a cow in standing heat, you can put semen in her right away and expect as good or better results than you typically have had in your herd.