COW FERTILITY

keep going

i was going to aim this thread at just dairy cows but isnt it just as important to suckling(read some where the average lenght between calvings is 422days).cant seem to get my not in calf rate up to less than 10% and think its costing me alot of money.now i do go for a 11 week calving season which puts pressure on but am starting to think i should let them have another month to 6 weeks and sell all the late ones. im just wondering what has worked for people here be it crossbreeding,minerals ,intervention,feeding or what ever

delaval

I presume you are in Spring milk. I do not think that figure is bad for a herd on 11wks breeding, the figures we all read are targets and really hard to achieve. I think that you should Ai for 12wks use stock bulls to clean up and sell cows in calf there is always some one for these late cows. I think that you must sell these and natural selection will ensure the infertile ones are removed.
Regarding xbreeding, this is a big step and I do not think it is necessary to solve this problem. I would recommend to pick bulls with high EBI fertility and high kg/ms. If your land base is small I would hold off on xbred. They really come into their own in large herds with long walks where they will not need be treated invidually. On the plus side calving is a non event therefore less problems later.

keep going

sorry i wasnt clear currently at 14% not in calf

delaval

I would still go with above and it will fix itself in time, I do not think there is any silver bullet. AI and the EBI index is the key, despite what some say EBI does work

blue5000

OP have you investigated mineral def/ lock up. Copper is a problem for me due to high Molybdenum.

Might be worthwhile scanning any cows not seen bulling (and calved at least 42 days) in the first 3 weeks after ai starts. You'd need a decent scanner who can diagnose non-cycling cows and advise you on what method to use to get them on their bikes;)

Blue Holland

Thats a good figure either way, what percent calved in six weeks, I'd be interested in whats got you up to that level, whats your EBI for fertility. I think the cold weather last april-may had an effect on lenght of heats.

This year i'm recording all heats from calving and goin scan any non-cycling pre breeding. Discovering early calvers not cycling when breeding already started is too late. I'd agree to breed longer and sell late calvers.

I'd also look into why cows empty, Early calvers just keep repeating, later calvers just not enough time, Irregular heat intervals?

I done bulk tank screening last year and showed up a lepto and Ibr problem, vaccinating for these now and hoping to see an improvement.

keep going

yeah must look at whats happening rather than the overall figures.would have quiet good 50% calved figures(off the top of my head less than 30 days will double check)agree as regards x breeding at the moment but i wonder do they yeild that much less in solids terms.been using gene ireland straws with a few years and making solid progress in ebi.checked minerals in the blood a couple of years ago and the only thing that showed up was iodine but they were being wintered on turnips at the time.thanks by the way

pms7

Had a big problem over the years with fertility. Up to 30% empty + 40% to first service. Tried the usual. No joy.
Started using Norwegian Red, last 2 years with 30-40% of herd NR, have got these figures 2 years in a row - conception to 1st AI, Fr 40%, NR 80%, approx for empties Fr 12-15% NR 0%. Herd of 50 cows. Have been using high fert Fr bulls for last few years.
Just my experience. Figures in NR trials are not as extreme as mine..
I'm happy, every Fr cow left will be getting NR straw, will go back with hi fert Fr on NRx cows.

just do it

Same as above. Check for underlying problems i.e. bcs, disease or mineral deficiencies. My conception rate has improved since using all sure mineral boluses (suckers). Also x-breeding in dairy.

Breeding seasons should be done in multiples of 3 weeks to match the breeding cycle of the cow. It annoys me to see the journal constantly advocating e.g. a 10 week being season. This gives 33% of your cows 4 attempts to go in calf and 66% only 3 chances to go in calf. Just doesn't make sense!

keep going

been doing a bit of analysis since and see that 3 not in calf were maiden heifers that were actually recorded bulling prebreeding so i reckon they must have lost the calves after bull was taken away as its unlikely they would have missed both ai and bulls.another cow lost a calf last autumn so that leaves me at 10%then.another cow that had twins last year and losing alot of discharge that i thought was not in calf looks in calf now so maybe its not as bad as i think.50% calved after 35 days this year but i think i have alot of cows in calf to the bulls coming in mid to late april.thinking of doing blood screens with the test for minerals, johnes, lepto, just to see would anything show up

49801

Your figures sound quite good really for such a short calving season.
That said lepto sounds worth pursuing. It's a 2 shot program the first year so you prob need to crack on admin the 1st shot ASAP

Do u have many foxes or dog around? Their dung can carry spores and spread a disease but the name escapes me.

There is an advantage to use short calving interval bulls for the second half of your breeding season

I thought that I heard somewhere that NR are nut jobs? Just something to watch out for