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south central WI | Bst has little effect on my breeding program. The reason cows and heifer prices are way down is because people are losing $$$ milking cows so they aren't buying replacements. Also there are more replacements out there because of sexed semen.
We have been using it since it came out. We have plenty of old cows. Start them early in lactation. Late in lactation they may lose their peak and not make it worthwhile. We have had cows 2-3+ years in milk. Before bst they would have been shipped at 400 days when they lost their milk production. Now we milk them until they stop making money. A cow at 1000+ days open and 90-120 lbs milk is hard to ship. They aren't open from the bst, they are still alive because of the bst. When they had production issues a few years back, there were many older cows shipped because once they went off the shots they stopped milking. | |
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