Time, observed Sir Francis Bacon, is the greatest innovator. While that may be, a dose of cowboy logic can certainly help things along.

Take, for instance, the concept and practice of artificial insemination (AI). It's been around awhile now, and innovation over time has improved its ability to help cattlemen breed better cattle.

Now, splice in the cowboy logic, supplied in this instance by Carl Hansen, his brother Chris and dad Ed, who comprise both the brain trust and the elbow grease on the Hansen Ranch, a 350-head commercial cow-calf operation in northern Colorado near Livermore. While they've been easing into an AI program with their mature cows the past five years, they've approached it with a slightly different twist.

The Hansens buy genetically superior bulls, have them collected, and use the semen AI on a portion of their commercial cows.

That kind of bull doesn't come cheap — the Hansens will pay more than twice what they'd spend on an average range bull. But they don't mind. They've always paid good money for the best bulls they could buy. Carl's dad and grandfather both hold that buying bulls isn't the place to save money. “But realistically, you can only afford to spend so much on a range bull and make him pay for himself,” Carl observes.

And that's where the innovative cowboy logic kicked in.

The Hansens weren't new to the concept and practice of AI. They'd been breeding their 40-50 replacement heifers artificially since the mid '90s, so they had an idea of what they were doing and how to do it. And based on the success they saw with their heifers, they began to wonder if it might be feasible with their mature cows, too.

They first took their leap of faith five years ago, starting slowly at first, and gradually increasing the number of cows they bred AI every year. They bred about half their mature cows AI this breeding season and anticipate breeding their entire cow herd AI next spring.

Here's why

On the natural-service side, they pay an average of $3,000 for a good range bull. Assume $1,000 salvage value, and the cost is $2,000. “We figure our range bulls will last an average of five years,” Carl says.

They ranch in the foothills of the Rockies, running one bull/15 cows. Giving the bull the benefit of the doubt, Hansen calculates it will sire 75 calves over its five-year productive lifetime. “You take that against your $2,000 cost/bull and you have a $27/calf average,” he says, admitting his figures will change from year to year based on market prices.

“On the AI side, you go with a $7,500 bull with the same salvage value. Then I add another $1,000 on top of that with the collection of 500 straws of semen at $2/straw, and that gets you back to your original $7,500/bull cost,” he says. “If we figure 64% conception (a conservative estimate that they usually beat), we should get 320 calves out of those 500 straws. Put that against your $7,500 bull and you've got a $23/calf cost.” Add $5 for the cost of AI supplies and the cost per calf is about the same as natural service.

Given that they use their high-dollar bulls as part of their clean-up crew, the associated costs of keeping bulls are no different. And they've been able to reduce their bull inventory by at least half on the cows they breed AI, which cuts cost and adds more dollars per cow.

Bottom line is quality

But the economic benefits described above really aren't the bottom line for the Hansens. “The number-one thing we've seen is it's improved our replacement heifers dramatically,” Hansen says. “And that has a direct effect on our overall herd quality.”

Beyond that, their focus is to achieve a consistently high overall conception rate. In 2008, that was 96.6%, a 1.5% increase over the last three years. Of that, they figure they're getting a 67% conception rate from their AI breeding, based on the number of calves born the first week of the calving season.

On top of that, they've seen a 12% increase overall in the number of cows that calve in the first 21 days, with 87% of the entire herd calving in the first cycle. “That's huge,” Hansen says.

While a lot of factors go into achieving a consistently high AI conception rate, Hansen thinks part of their success is because they do all the breeding themselves. They start heat checking and breeding the morning they synchronize, continuing to heat check and breed cows for the next 72 hours.

Three days after they synchronize, they mass breed their cattle in bunches of 100 each. But in every batch there are always cows in standing heat the morning they begin mass breeding. Those are sorted off and bred later in the day. This system, they believe, yields higher conception. “I don't know how much,” he says, “but I've got to believe it helps.”

And they've seen a 5% increase in weaning weights, which last year averaged right at 800 lbs. for their steers. That increase, Hansen says, comes primarily from having more calves born early in the calving season.

Management considerations