I am kicking around the ideal of A.I.

[Honey Tree]

MS Feed in Tulare are shown as High Noon dealers on the High Noon website.  If they are still dealers they'll probably order the ewe ration for you if they don't normally carry it.  They may require that you purchase a minimum quantity, though.

[Bigiron59]

I would venture any feed mill ,has a sheep balancer protein pellet.  Appropriate amount of that ,mixed with grain, should do nicely. If a feed mill ,is making sheep feed ,they have it.
 Supplies all of the vits,minerals, usually has deccox or lactosoid, and has ammonium chloride for urinary acidification.
I would not feed sheep ,with out it. 300 to 500 pounds per ton of grain, and you got a pretty nice grain mix. I would use some oats or barley, to cut the corn,if hot weather is an issue
Late gestation,lactatiin, and breeding, protein is your friend.

[ARLambs]

It is definitely at least a 3 month management plan to get ewes ready for LAI, however in terms of conception rates, I will say we got 100%, using Tad Thompsons protocol, frozen semen, and a local LAI tech.  The tech does claim that the semen collected by Reproductive Specialty Group is the best quality he uses in all species, sheep, goats and deer.  The only variation we made was using the Vitaferm Concept Aid mineral instead of the one Tad reccomends.  Do your homework, best conception rates are in 2-5 year old ewes that have carried previous twin pregnancy, that in proper body condition, proper vaccinations, proper handling, ect.  Alot of factors to consider. 

[shadowran]

Honeytree I found a store close to me also thanks for the help, I am guessing you gave shots to your ewes as well? I have never gave prelambing shots of any kind and since is the first time I would take my ewes to get LAI I want to make sure I do that right thing

I want to thank all of you guys for the help and indulging my questions I feel a little foolish since I have raised sheep so long.

[Bigiron59]

Murphy's law WILL apply to LAI or ET ewes. Anything that can go wrong will.
I seem to remember abortion issues, coccidia issues and weak lamb issues. All things that can be mitigated by aggressive vaccination,nutrition and management.
Since the money was spent on trying to make LAI work, the mishaps will Start in that gruop of ewes.
  It would be a shame to have a bunch of same issues ,after spending money of LAI.

[Honey Tree]

Jim, I followed Tad Thompson's protocol.  If you follow it closely your take rate should be good.  There are many factors that go into success plus a bit of luck.  If you follow the protocol and your ewes are in proper condition, use a great tech and semen of excellent quality, you should be pretty happy five months later.

[EmsoffLambs]

I visited Three Sisters Sheep last week. They purchased a full draw of Burn semen and bred most or all of their ewes. I don't know the actual conception ratio but over 50 lambed with Burn lambs. The results were nothing short of impressive. Tremendous quality and consistency. With this said, they have a strong set of ewe and are experienced with AI, which I am sure helped with both conception rate and overall quality. I suspect the investment was a wise one for them.

Obviously you won't be going to this "extreme" but it does show that with proper management and solid ewes that it can work out well. However, if either of those two pieces are missing, it probably won't be worth it. A great ram bred to an average ewe is only going to give you slightly above average lambs. It probably wouldn't be worth the investment unless the ewes were significantly above average. Look at it this way. It's going to cost you $300/ewe to breed. Being conservative, if only half your ewes settle, that's $600/pregnancy. Figuring on a 150% lamb crop, that ends up being $400/lamb. That's JUST for breeding and does not take into account feeding the ewe for a year or feeding the lamb, etc. You better hope those AI lambs are worth significantly more than $400 each to break even. Of course you may get a better conception rate, but always wise to figure on worst case scenario. Just something to think about.

[shadowran]

I have been doing my homework before I decide and the cost per ewe to AI is $150 that is semen and tech service next ad in the feed CIDRS  PG600 and other misc. meds as well as travel I think it would be just under $200 per ewe but I am still kicking around the ideal

[PCrome]

That's an interesting account of the visit to Three Sisters. I'm not a club lamb person, but I'd point out that I don't think you can overstate the value of experience and high quality females no matter what kind they are or how they're settled. I'd also say they had a pretty good idea what to expect if they were willing to commit 50+ ewes to one ram.

I'd also say that going on the cheap for the ram half of your equation is a false economy, whether on four feet or a glass tube. A half-price technician is apt to give you half-price results, in the same way that a cheap ram is going to give you cheap lambs.

If most people would spend the same money on prepping their ewes for natural cover that they do prepping for AI, and spend the time and money they spend on semen on improving their live cover rams, then combine saving the resulting ewe lambs with ruthless culling of their old ewes, they'd be further ahead in my opinion. The problem with that is that it's designed for consistent success in five years, not in lightning striking in five months. All of that said, it's your money- spend it how you like.

[Bigiron59]

Well stated Phil. I have always said ,your flock is only as good as your ewes.  People wonder where the consistent good ones  come from. A deep set of ewes , will carry about any ram. Most rams ,will not carry most ewes. And people with a deep set of ewes, rarely use a poorer ram than the ewe.
But a lot of crossbred ewe Flocks, pin all Thier hope, on the next ram.

Maybe Jim found a bargain priced ram. And it will work out.
I never seem to find those deals.😀

[Honey Tree]

Shane, I said in an earlier post that Viking Genetics is offering their entire ram base for $100/straw frozen.  Their ram base is rock solid and have consistantly produced top quality lambs.  Terry uses Dr. Tad Thompson for the LAI.  Dr. Thompson charges around $50 for the procedure.  Prior to using Viking I was afraid to use frozen semen because I had heard a lot of negatives about lower conception rates.  My conception rate using VG frozen semen has been great.  I am not a paid spokesman and have not received compensation.  Just a happy customer   I don't know if you are near one of his clinics but you can find your bargain with Viking.

[EmsoffLambs]

Phil, I suspect their only complaint will have to do with lambing out 50+ ewes that were all bred the same day. It was a busy, exhausting week. I sure wouldn't be afraid to breed my whole flock to Burn. He is certainly a proven ram.

[Bigiron59]

Glad it worked out for you Laura. He has some interesting rams,  and I have seen lambs out of several of the rams. Others have spoken of success and quality of service.  I typically have only used linebred Hampshire and linebred Dorset rams and when raised Suffolk's, linebred Suffolk rams. I have never had very consistent results , with using crossbred rams, so when I talk about a  bargain ram, I am talking Hamps, or Dorsets. Not crosses , and any of the "Proven " Hampshire or Dorset rams , will set you back from 250 to 600 a straw .
If I am going to spend the money, I am using a proven purebred. I am looking at making the next breeding peice ,in my program.
You won't find a "proven" hamp or Dorset in that 100 price range.You can find some good rams, if crosses are your game.
I am not trying to bag on any programs, or breeder ,or genetic supplier. A lot or crossbreds ,being marketed as hamps and Dorsets. To some it matters, to some it doesn't.

[trademark]

Hello all,
This is my first post here.
We experimented with AI for the first time last season.
We're a small breeder with 32 ewes. While other breeders were breeding with the latest rams, we were buying our rams. We lost a really nice ram a few years ago that we paid 4k for and that compounded our issues.
Last fall, we AI'd 12 ewes and had 8 pregnancies, so based on what we've been told and read, we weren't disappointed with those percentages.
We used Viking Genetics and Wheaton Hampshire's and this year, we'll be using both breeders again.
We're scheduled to breed 26 ewes between the two breeders this fall.
We understand that AI'ing isn't going to give us instant gratification. We're really using AI to HOPEFULLY get keeper ewes. Last season, we had 4 keeper ewes and one keeper ram that we've decided to breed with this fall.
I'm hoping that with some serious culling/flock reduction and the purchase of a few ewes over that span, we'll realistically start being comparative again in about 3 years.

[EmsoffLambs]

Welcome. What you are doing is roughly what we have done, only we did it with rams rather than AI. We really started out the wrong way, buying whatever hodgepodge ewes we could afford. They weren't all bad ewes but they were all over the place genetically. And our lambs were all over the place too. A good one here an there, a few bad ones and a lot of mediocre ones. It wasn't until we started tightening things up genetically that we really started getting some consistent quality in our lambs. We did this by using good rams, retaining ewe lambs from out best ewe families and culling hard. At one point a three years into this process, a good 75% of our ewe flock were all daughters of one ram, almost all out of half sisters themselves. This made it MUCH easier to find a ram that would work on our ewes. We really tried to find something that lined up well genetically and it worked. Since that time we have been focusing on the Composure line and it is paying off. Quality and consistency have been improving every year.

You can do the same with AI. The biggest risk I see with AI is the temptation to try a bunch of different rams. There are so many available! This may give you some good lambs but if you are trying to build a ewe flock, genetic consistency is very important. My suggestion would be to stick with just one or two rams from whatever genetic line you want to focus on. And then stick with it. Keep the daughters from the ewe families that line works with and sell the rest. Cull the ewes that don't work well with that line. And when you breed those daughters you keep, breed them to something lined up with them. We are to the point now that many of our lambs will have five or six or even more shots of Composure. It's back anywhere from three to seven generations, so they aren't so tight we end up with problems. But they are lined up enough that we now now what we are going to get from them and we know what kind of ram to put on them.