What effect does dry lotting breeding cows have of conception rates and fertility in general?
I seem to be getting this question more and more and this is likely due to the annual increase in pasture prices. I have searched and can’t find data where they have dry lotted cows and bred for an entire breeding season. There are data where they have dry lotted cows and AI’ed then turned to pasture and natural bred. The conception rate to AI (AI’ed once) in these experiments was in the 60% range which would be pretty typical. Following are my comments in regard to advantages and disadvantages of dry lotting beef cows. As pasture prices continue to increase and as grain (corn) prices remain low, producers will look to lower production costs, especially feed cost and dry-lotting cows may be an option. If you do dry-lot cows, it would be important that the lot be big enough or you have an adjacent pasture that can be used as an exercise lot. When you indicate dry-lotting cows, I assume that cows may have calves at their side and breeding may occur in the lot. Disadvantages: • need feed
