Synchronizing Success
MGA Select - The New Standard for Beef Cows
For many beef producers, getting most of their cows to
conceive early in the breeding season is a desired goal,
but hard to achieve. Helping customers reach this goal
has been a primary focus of our research efforts at Select
Sires. Recent funding of Dr. Dave Patterson, University of
MO, led to the development of a new system called MGA-Select.
The MGA-Select system basically superimposes two proven
protocols and may be the best system ever developed for
suckled beef cows. MGA-Select allows producers to take advantage
of the opportunities that A.I. offers, as well as maximizing
one of the real keys to profitability in beef cattle—pregnancy rates.
Past studies have shown that in the average herd only 50% of the
cows are cycling at the start of the breeding season. The early
calving, older and better conditioned cows are usually not a
problem—they cycle back quickly and are among the first to become
pregnant. It’s the ‘other half’ (young cows, thin cows, late calving
cows) that cause problems. Select Sires and the various research
groups that we work with have spent a great deal of time and effort
to develop systems that can successfully induce and synchronize a
fertile estrus in both cycling and anestrous postpartum beef cows.
MGA-Select shows tremendous promise as a program that can get more
cows to cycle earlier, allowing producers to get more early pregnancies
in their breeding season. And with more heats earlier, cows can have
more opportunities to conceive during the breeding season, improving
overall pregnancy rates.
 When you’re in the A.I. business, as with any business, the success
of your customer is a priority—and getting cows pregnant sure helps
with success. “Our semen does very little good until it gets inside
a cow—so making A.I. simpler has always been a goal,” says Roy Wallace
of Select Sires. Roy has been working with synchronization programs
for well over 30 years—to improve conception and pregnancy rates to
A.I. and to improve reproduction in beef herds. Roy believes that
this system is the best he’s ever worked with and adds, “The MGA-Select
system, because of its ability to get lots of cows cycling, can have
a big impact in beef cow herds everywhere.”
 MGA-Select was developed by researchers at the University of Missouri
and combines two systems that have already proven themselves to be
good methods of synchronizing beef cattle. Dr. Dave Patterson and his
group have done extensive work with MGA in heifers. Because of this
background data and knowledge of how the Select Synch system works
in beef cows, Patterson combined the MGA-PGF system for heifers with
the GnRH-based Select Synch for cows to see just what it could do.
This protocol provides a progesterone influence to stimulate anestrous
cows to cycle, GnRH to turn over follicles and synchronize follicular
activity, and PGF for synchronization of estrus. In the initial project,
the Missouri scientists theorized that anestrous cows could be ‘jump
started’, early heats (before PGF) could be eliminated, and synchrony
of estrus could be tightened without compromising pregnancy rates.
Their early data made it clear that this was a system that Select Sires
could take to the field and promote as a method to get more cows bred.
The MGA-Select system (see figure) starts with 14 days of MGA feeding
at 0.5/mg/head per day. Twelve days after the end of MGA feeding
(day 26) cows receive a GnRH injection, then seven days later (day 33)
cows are injected with PGF, followed by heat detection and breeding.
Thus far our results have exceeded expectations. With MGA-Select, we
have found that not only A.I. pregnancy rates can be increased, but
the overall pregnancy rate for the entire breeding season can be
improved as well.
Calm Cows and Convenience
David Gazda runs a small herd of Angus cows in GA. Because of his
travel schedule, Dave knows that timing of any breeding system is
critical. As a Regional Fieldman for the American Angus Association,
Dave knows the value of A.I.-sired calves. “I tell my customers that
having an A.I.-sired calf is worth $400 to $500 more,” says Gazda.
“It makes just as much difference in my cows, too.” The part that
really intrigued Dave was MGA-Selects’ ability to ‘jump-start’ anestrous
cows. His cows are fall calvers and made up of primarily 2 and 3-yr-old
females. Because they are sometimes the hardest to get bred, Dave was
willing to try MGA-Select.
“When we started this program, we didn’t know what cows were
cycling and which ones weren’t,” states Gazda. “Because of the MGA
feeding schedule, we were able to feed our heifers and cows at the
same time. The heat distribution was just like it was supposed to be—I
wanted to breed most of them on a weekend and we bred almost all of
them on Saturday and Sunday. Timing and convenience—that’s everything—and
secondly, we got a lot of cattle in heat. What sold me on the deal was
that I was scared I wouldn’t get all of my young cows bred. The way I
looked at it, even if a few cows didn’t get bred the first time, they
would still get bred early.”
Dave was really impressed with the way his cows behaved and adds,
“We were in our cows every day for 30 days, feeding and checking, so
the cows were used to being handled. We could really see the difference
in the disposition of our cows. I’ve never had cows that worked so
quietly. It was the easiest we’ve ever bred cows. My wife Carolyn knew
the schedule and knew when to be there—so when I was gone, I knew
she could handle it.”
Gazda spent lots of time scheduling the days for his program. He
likes the convenience of MGA-Select because he had only so many days
to make it happen. He claims, “We bred most of our cows in a short
period of time and the heats were just the way they were supposed to be.”
Amazing A.I. Results
Phil Jerde ran 92 head of 2-yr-olds through this system last summer.
Knowing full well that his 2’s are always a challenge, Phil was willing
to try MGA-Select to eliminate the early heats from Select Synch and to
get more of his 2’s pregnant. He had gotten along good with Select Synch
the previous year but he didn’t want to give up the heats that came early.
After breeding, his ultrasound preg check showed he had gotten 74 out of
the 92 bred A.I.—an astounding 80.4%. And he got a 97.8% preg rate for
his overall. (Remember this is on 2-yr-old females.) Jerde states, “We
start supplementing our cows about six weeks before breeding to boost
energy levels. Since we were already supplementing the cows, it was not
an inconvenience for us to feed the MGA, and the cows went right to it.”
He adds, “Feeding MGA to the cows certainly shortened the time we
normally spend heat detecting, and helped to increase our A.I. rate
by 10% or more.”
 Tim Olson, of Cache Valley/Select Sires, was the person that got Phil
hooked up with this system. Tim adds, “We didn’t have any early heats
and the cows were in great shape. We bred very few prior to 48 hours
and about 70% of the cows came in heat from 50 to 72 hours. We mass
bred the bulk of them around 78 hours with an additional shot of GnRH
to those cows that had not shown heat.” Tim states, “It’s kind of fun
to look at the total time invested in this project and see the results
that Phil got.”
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Injections (both GnRH and Lutalyse) | 3 hours |
| Heat detection and sorting | < 4 hours |
| Inseminating | < 3 hours |
Total time: less than 15 hours resulting in 76 A.I. pregnancies—WOW!
Get Lots of Cows Pregnant
Does this program make for happy customers? You Bet!—just ask
Charlie Swaim of Drakesville, IA. He used MGA-Select on over 300 cows
last year with help from Tom Johnson, Prairie State/Select Sires.
Charlie had fed MGA before to heifers but never to cows. He said it
posed no problem for him—he fed 3-4 lbs. of corn each day after honking
his truck horn to gather cows. “We absolutely think that this system is
the way to go. It worked just like the book.” Charlie took 21 days of
heat detection and condensed it down to three days. “I got a 98% final
preg rate on 300+ cows and we’ve never done that before,” says Swaim.
He is a believer because MGA-Select got so many cows in heat. He only
bred cows that showed heat and did not time-inseminate any cows. But
with his high preg rate, he knows this system helped to induce cows
to cycle and conceive earlier.
Having his cows grouped together improves his opportunities at
selling time. At Bloomfield Livestock in IA, Charlie expects to get
a little extra for uniform calves that are all born in the same 3-4
week period. Tom Johnson states, “The main thing MGA-Select does for
cattlemen like Charlie—it allows him to take advantage of an A.I.
program with confidence. Without synchronization programs like MGA-Select,
Charlie and others like him wouldn’t A.I. their cows. Charlie travels
away from home often so his time is valuable, but he wants to improve
his herd and he likes what he gets from A.I.” Johnson adds, “Charlie
has increased the marketing potential of everything he sells.”
Inducing heat in more cows is just one of the benefits that MGA-Select
provides. The more cows you see in heat, the more cows you can breed
and conceive to A.I. Research data has pointed out that calves born
from synchronized breeding are on average 13 days older and 21 pounds
heavier than their natural-bred contemporaries. Uniform groups of
calves are worth more—and since they’re heavier, they bring more too!
The calves can more than pay for the program—and the benefits of better
genetics in your replacements and improved reproductive performance of
the entire cow herd are an added bonus.
Many producers throughout the country will be using MGA-Select this
year. The list of success stories continues to grow because it works.
Keep in mind—planning up front is crucial because this program spans
more than a month of time. But the benefits far outweigh the costs in
terms of getting more cows pregnant. Contact your Select Sires Sales
Representative about this new and effective program for synchronizing
beef cows. For synchronizing success, MGA-Select is the way to go!
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