How to use · Kiba Scope Cattle

How to use Kiba Scope Cattle: one person, one cow.

You breed with the camera gun the way you were trained. One gloved arm goes in the rectum and holds the cervix; the other hand holds the gun. The screen shows you the opening of the cervix and the mucus before you breed. Past the opening, the rod goes through the rings by feel.

This page is about using the camera gun. Heat timing, thawing and loading the straw are in our guide how to AI a cow, step by step.

Real footage
The screen of Kiba Scope Cattle showing the live view of a cow's cervix: pink folds gathered around a small dark opening
Off the gun's screen: the folds of the cervix around its opening. This is as far as the camera sees.

Before you start

What the camera does, and what it doesn’t.

✓It does

  • Show the vaginal wall and the opening of the cervix, lit and in colour, on the screen in your hand.
  • Let you check the mucus at the opening before you use a straw.
  • Help you put the rod tip on the opening first time, instead of hunting for it blind.
  • Clear a fogged lens with the air button, without taking the probe out.
  • Warm the steel probe with the heating cable, so she doesn’t get cold metal.

✕It doesn’t

  • See through the cervix or into the uterus. The view stops at the opening.
  • Pass the rings for you. Your hand in the rectum still holds the cervix and works it onto the rod.
  • Replace AI training, heat detection or good semen handling.
  • Diagnose anything. It is breeding equipment, not a veterinary device.
  • Guarantee a pregnancy.

If you have never inseminated a cow, take an AI course or have your vet or AI trainer show you first. Anything about your cow’s health is a question for your AI trainer or vet.

1Before the cow

Set up and warm the probe.

Ten minutes at the truck saves fumbling at the chute.

  1. Charge the gun the night before with the charger from the box.
  2. Plug the heating cable into the grip and give the steel probe a few minutes to warm before the first cow.
  3. Switch on and check the screen shows a live picture.
  4. Wipe the probe and its tip with an alcohol swab, and let it dry.
  5. Thaw and load the straw into the 70 cm rod under a fresh sheath, as in the guide. Keep the loaded rod warm, wrapped in a paper towel inside your coat.
  6. Get her ready: in the chute or headlock, tail tied to one side, vulva wiped clean and dry.
Real footage
A gloved hand holding Kiba Scope Cattle switched on, with a live picture on the screen above the five buttons
Switched on and showing a picture before it goes in.

2One person

Arm in the rectum, Scope in at about 30°.

The same hold as any AI gun. Your rectal hand stays on the cervix from here to the end.

  1. Glove and lubricate your arm, go into the rectum gently and clear out the manure.
  2. Find the cervix through the rectal wall and hold it. It feels like a firm tube, about the size of a broom handle or bigger.
  3. Press down with that hand to open the vulva, and with the gun in your other hand slide the probe in pointing upward at about 30°, so it rides over the urethral opening on the floor of the vagina.
  4. Then level it and move it forward towards the cervix, holding the grip where you can see the screen.

No helper needed. The screen sits on top of the grip, in the hand that holds the gun. A second person to hold the tail is handy, as with any AI, but nobody has to hold the screen for you.

Illustration · not to scale Side view of a cow from behind the tail: a gloved arm in the rectum holds the cervix while the Scope's probe goes into the vagina at about 30 degrees, then level, up to the opening of the cervix. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  • 1Your gloved arm, in the rectum.
  • 2Your hand holds the cervix through the rectal wall.
  • 3The cervix and its rings.
  • 4The uterine body, where the semen goes.
  • 5The Scope’s steel probe in the vagina, camera at the tip, facing the opening.
  • 6Goes in about 30° upward, then level.
  • 7The urethral opening on the floor of the vagina: the upward angle rides over it.
  • 8Grip and screen in your other hand.
Real footage
Behind a cow in a crush: the probe of Kiba Scope Cattle going in under her tail at an upward angle, the screen facing the operator
The probe going in under the tail at an upward angle. In this demonstration clip the operator keeps both hands on the gun; on your cows, your other arm is in the rectum holding the cervix, as drawn above.

3The screen’s job

Find the opening, and check the mucus.

This is the part the camera is for: you see where to start instead of feeling for it.

  1. Watch the screen as the probe moves forward: first the pink vaginal wall, then the folds of the cervix gathered around a small dark opening.
  2. Bring the cervix to the probe with your rectal hand, and steer the tip until the opening sits in the middle of the screen.
  3. If the picture fogs or goes white, press the air button to clear the lens. If it stays white, draw back a little: the tip is pressed against the wall.
  4. Look at the mucus before you go further.
Clear, glassy, stringyThe usual sign of heat. Breed on your normal timing.
Cloudy, yellow, white or pus-likeDon’t breed her. Call your vet.
Streaked with bloodOften seen a day or two after heat. Write it down and ask your AI trainer or vet before you breed her.
Real footage
Live view on the Scope screen: the opening of a cow's cervix in the middle of the picture
The opening in the middle of the screen. Now the rod can start in the right place.

4By feel

Through the rings, the way you were trained.

The camera sees only up to the opening. From here on it’s your rectal hand, exactly as with a standard gun.

  1. Feed the rod in through the port at the back of the grip until its tip shows at the opening on the screen.
  2. Hold the cervix with your rectal hand and work it onto the rod, ring by ring. Move the cervix, not the rod.
  3. Most cows have three or four rings. Feel for the tip of the rod with the fingers of your rectal hand as it passes each one.
  4. Never force it. If it won’t pass, draw the rod back a little, reset the cervix and try again. If it still won’t, stop and ask your AI trainer or vet.
Illustration · not to scale The camera at the probe tip sees as far as the opening of the cervix. The rod passes the rings by feel and deposits just past the last ring, in the uterine body. A B C
  • AThe screen’s part: the probe in the vagina, camera looking at the opening of the cervix.
  • BYour hand’s part: the rod through the rings, by feel.
  • CThe deposit: just past the last ring, in the uterine body.
Real footage
A gloved hand feeding the insemination rod in through the steel port at the back of the Kiba Scope Cattle grip
Feeding the rod in through the port at the back of the grip.

5The semen

Deposit just past the cervix.

Into the uterine body: not in the cervix, not deep in one horn.

  1. Stop when the tip is just through the last ring, about 1 cm (half an inch) into the uterine body. Check it with a finger of your rectal hand.
  2. Press the rod slowly, over about five seconds.
  3. Draw the rod out, then the probe, gently, and then your arm.
  4. Look at the sheath tip. Blood or semen left in it is worth a note in your records.
Real footage
One gloved hand holds Kiba Scope Cattle under the cow's tail while the other presses the insemination rod in at the back of the grip
Pressing the rod at the back of the grip to deposit.

6Every cow, every day

Clean the lens, clean and store the gun.

During the pass

Press the air button whenever the view fogs. It blows air across the camera, so you don’t have to pull the probe out to wipe it.

Between cows

Throw away the sheath and the glove. Wipe the probe and its tip with a fresh alcohol swab. One new sheath for every cow.

End of the day

Wipe the probe, rod and grip, and keep the grip and screen out of water. Let everything dry, charge the gun, and pack it in the padded bag with the rod and sheaths.

Straight answers

What cattlemen ask us.

Most of these came from comments under our ads. Fair questions, so here are straight answers.

“You can’t get through the cervix without holding it.”

That’s right, and we don’t say otherwise. The camera sees as far as the opening of the cervix. The rings are passed the way they always have been: your hand in the rectum holds the cervix and works it onto the rod.

What the screen adds is the start. You see the opening and the mucus, and the rod tip goes onto the opening instead of hunting for it in the folds of the vagina.

“There’s no room in there for an arm and a camera.”

They’re not in the same place. Your arm is in the rectum, as with any AI gun. The Scope’s probe goes in the vagina, where a standard AI gun goes.

The probe is wider than a bare AI gun because the camera and light sit in its tip, so go in slowly with lubricant. On a small heifer, if it doesn’t slide in easily, don’t force it.

“You’d need a second person to hold the screen.”

No. The screen is on top of the grip, in the same hand that holds the gun, so you see it without anyone holding it for you. Your other arm stays on the cervix. A helper to hold the tail is handy, as with any AI, but not needed.

“So what’s the point, if I still go in by hand?”

Finding the opening blind is where time goes, and where the rod gets caught in the folds of the vagina or in the blind pocket above the cervix. The screen takes the guessing out of that first part, and you see the mucus before you use a straw. If you already find the cervix fast by feel, you may not need it, and that’s fine.

Do I need AI training to use it?

Yes. It’s a tool for people who already breed cows by AI, or are learning with a trainer. If you have never inseminated a cow, take an AI course or have your vet show you first.

The picture went white or blurry. What now?

Press the air button to clear the lens. If it stays white, the tip is pressed against the wall: draw back a little and re-centre. If it’s still blurry, take the probe out, wipe the tip with an alcohol swab and go again.

Can it tell me if she’s in heat or sick?

It shows you what the mucus looks like at the opening, nothing more. It’s not a veterinary device and doesn’t diagnose anything. Use your heat records or a heat detector for timing, and call your vet about anything that looks wrong.

Where are the steps for heat, thawing and loading?

In our guide how to AI a cow, step by step: catching the heat and the AM/PM rule, thawing by your semen supplier’s sheet, and loading the straw. This page picks up when the loaded rod is ready.

Kiba Scope Cattle Camera Insemination Gun

Kiba Scope Cattle, $549.00

Gun with a 35 cm camera probe, 70 cm rod, 25 sheaths, heating cable, charger and padded bag. Free tracked shipping, 30-day returns, 1-year warranty.

See the gun

Kiba Scope Cattle is breeding equipment for people trained in AI. It is not a veterinary device and does not guarantee a pregnancy. Photos marked “Real footage” are stills from a demonstration video of this gun on a cow; drawings are marked as illustrations. Questions: email info@kibaclub.com and a person replies within 24 hours.