What does it take to flush a Cow?

To start with it takes a really, really good cow! She really should posses one or more of the following.

Donor Cow:  KAP Gentle Utica

1. She has an incredible pedigree behind her.  
2. She has won a number of shows and a lot of people know about her - meaning her eggs would be valuable.
3. She has already produced some outstanding offspring
4. She has one or all of the above but cannot (mostly because of health or age) raise another one on her own.  

Flushing is not cheap!  So you better know that this is what you want to do from the beginning.  So here is the breakdown on costs:

1. Drugs for flushing - $110-$130
2. Flushing - $150-$250
3. Semen costs - $25-$300 depending on what bull you are using - Miniature Hereford Semen is crazy expensive! Don't forget, you may have to pay for a semen certificate when you register the calf as an added expense.
4. Freezing embryos - $35-$50/embryo
5. Implanting Embryos - $45-65/embryo
6. Boarding a cow if you need it can be $4-$9 per day

"Bianca" an ET calf out of the above cow Utica - she's good!

Do not forget that you will need to sync some cows for fresh transplanting or be on the lookout for good recips. It is good to have one or two cows ready in case you do have a couple non-freezable embryos but may be good enough for immediate transfer.  If you were to send your embryos to a place like Trans Ova because you do not have any recip cows, you can buy the pregnant recip for $2200-$2500 after 60 days verified.  (That may have gone up after the crazy cow prices around this area.)

One last thing to remember, the percentage for an embryo to develop into a pregnancy in a recip cow is around 50-60%, but you can't always count on that.   

SO, what does it take to flush a cow?   It takes quality (cow/heifer), cash, and planning (time to give shots, time to flush, and time to get your recips ready).

I sure hope those calves turn out!