Dairy cow Heat Detection options

Farfield

Can i ask what do most of you use in your dairy herds? I pick up most of ours from visual watching them but there are a few real hard to spot - i have tried the wee stickers now on their back that scratch off (so will see how they go), do you find they work or do you also:

- just plain watch and see
- kamar or some stick on equivalent
- Electronic Heat detection systems

The electronic is the biz i'm told, but very expensive and hard to justify for about a 60 cow herd?

Timmaay

I'm considering a teaser bull also myself now, have looked seriously into the heat time system, I think it is worth it for an all year around milking 60cow herd, but alot of cash to be tied up in it!

Farfield

Yea, well i am all year around milking alright and prob will get upto 70 ish eventually. It is defo very hard to spot heats when the cows are not out. An owl staggy bullock would be a good idea alright.

Timmaay

Yeh I'm not having much luck with the winter calvers myself at the minute, the vet says they are cycling grand and I'm just missing them! Tighten up the calving block is on of my top priorities over the next year, have one cow due to calf on christmas eve ugh! I've tried tailpaint but not having a major lot of luck with it. Have afew of the scratchcards, going to put one afew of them and see if they work next, alongside coils in afew.

whelan1

i have heat time. put it in in 2009. its great for picking up silent heats. are you feeding good dairy minerals. my cows are having very strong heats. have been aiing for nearly 5 weeks and bull is going in on wednesday..have been speaking to a few guys that their cows are nit coning in heat. could be a lack of energy in the diet. sorry for typos. on phone

st1979

I used to check all the time and still missed them then used tail paint then kamars and then a vacectomised bull which was fairly good. But then i found a real bull done all the work for no pay. Just for the pure enjoyment of it.

stanflt

i use tall paint-

i use green which i spray on at 30 days post calving- if paint not scratched by day 50 she will get a shot of estrumate

all cows noted on wall chart when bulling and served

red paint when served once

purple for 2serves

and then orange, an orange cow wont be ai again but will get a night with the bull- 4strikes and she outta here

all data is recorded on icbf daily and will print off reports every couple of days to see if any cows are open 55+days and not submitted

easy and cheap

whelan1

stanflt wrote: »

i use tall paint-

i use green which i spray on at 30 days post calving- if paint not scratched by day 50 she will get a shot of estrumate

all cows noted on wall chart when bulling and served

red paint when served once

purple for 2serves

and then orange, an orange cow wont be ai again but will get a night with the bull- 4strikes and she outta here

all data is recorded on icbf daily and will print off reports every couple of days to see if any cows are open 55+days and not submitted

easy and cheap

yup, records are most important , have a massive white board at the top of the parlour and everything is written on this , very handy... as i get older i can not remember everything:D very easy to see whats what from the list on the board without having to leave the pit

Timmaay

Stan that sounds like a plan, out of interest are you a spring herd/split or all year around? I'm finding my all year around an utter pain in the hole now, cows doing different things all the time!

Just on the all data recorded on ICBF, I take it you mean just the AI/stock bull, I dont see anywhere to say enter when a cow was tailpainted etc! Actually one improvement to the ICBF website (which is brilliant as is!) would be to have a calender with actions to take for a specific cow, such as it knows the cow calved on such a date, so 30days later it tells you that you need to tailpaint that cow, and then day 50 it tells you to take action if she has not being AI'd.

Or maybe I'm avoiding the bigger issue of just get my calving pattern sorted out ha!

stanflt

Timmaay wrote: »

Stan that sounds like a plan, out of interest are you a spring herd/split or all year around? I'm finding my all year around an utter pain in the hole now, cows doing different things all the time!

Just on the all data recorded on ICBF, I take it you mean just the AI/stock bull, I dont see anywhere to say enter when a cow was tailpainted etc! Actually one improvement to the ICBF website (which is brilliant as is!) would be to have a calender with actions to take for a specific cow, such as it knows the cow calved on such a date, so 30days later it tells you that you need to tailpaint that cow, and then day 50 it tells you to take action if she has not being AI'd.

Or maybe I'm avoiding the bigger issue of just get my calving pattern sorted out ha!

calving 9months of the year:( but i am concentrating on block calving in the future but trying to keep sub 395interval at the same time- the above idea would be fantastic

Timmaay

Sub 400day average is only dreamland for me yet! Having said that, its only about 15 troublemakers who are totally throwing the average. Much more culling needed 2bh!

Several other areas that the ICBF website can still be improved to make our lives easier, lets hope they keep on chipping away at it! I'd happily pay several times the 50quid it costs now if they develop it to its true potential!

Farfield

I keep my bull seperate from the herd and throw the cows into him when i see them looking the bull so that i know with fair accuracy the calving due date. When you guys run a bull with the herd then how do you:

1. Know when some of the cows are actually served - scanning is only best guess work of due date, and more importantly

2. If working off a guestimate due date and you use dry cow tubes, you could get this really wrong - what do you do here?

Any smart ideas with running a bull and using dry cow tubes appreciated, cause i think i am going to have to run mine with the herd.

whelan1

write everything down, if bull is after a cow write it down, then scan... i also use the calender the milk man has in the dairy to write down heats/ bull serves....

mf240

Would ye not be worried about the bull hurting a cow on the slats or passageways.

whelan1

mf240 wrote: »

Would ye not be worried about the bull hurting a cow on the slats or passageways.

no....... have a bull with my heifers on the slats

kennedy138

if possible pen the stock bull near dairy cows the ones bulling are nearly always outside the pen and your man is always upset inside but no oats yet too early sight and smell of bull brings cows in heat faster also

just do it

stanflt wrote: »

i use tall paint-

i use green which i spray on at 30 days post calving- if paint not scratched by day 50 she will get a shot of estrumate

all cows noted on wall chart when bulling and served

red paint when served once

purple for 2serves

and then orange, an orange cow wont be ai again but will get a night with the bull- 4strikes and she outta here

all data is recorded on icbf daily and will print off reports every couple of days to see if any cows are open 55+days and not submitted

easy and cheap

Good plan stan. What do you use to spray it on, just a cheap spray bottle from the hardware store?

I've to look at this option as my vasectomised bull isn't marking them all. I watched him this am and figured out the problem. He's a BB that is short in stature. When he mounts the taller cows he's not tall enough to rest his chin on the cow's back so it hovers over them and only touches off them when he dismounts. He mounted a cow a few times this morning and she's hardly marked!

Lofty0990

Heatime, pre serve scan, kingswood phone app for recording heats ,services etc .