Now that we are three weeks into the breeding season, it is important to assess whether you have reached your targets.
The three-week submission rate target is 90% for cows and 100% for heifers, which is crucial in order to achieve a six-week calving rate of 90%.
Achieving a high three-week submission rate is a critical driver of fertility performance in spring-calving systems.
Breeding
If 90% of your herd has been submitted for mating at this point, the reality is, that a number of cows will not hold to first service.
Only 55-60% first-service conception rates are likely to be obtained from the 90% that were submitted for mating, meaning in a 100-cow herd where 90 cows have been submitted, 50-55 of these cows should be in calf.
Although a 90% three-week submission rate is optimal, it still means that 45-50 cows have to go in calf.
In order to get every cow in calf in a short space of time, a farmer must start to identify non-cycling cows, and reduce the number of repeats as much as possible.
If you are using tail paint, switch to a new colour paint after cows have been inseminated to allow for easy identification, and to get an understanding of how your submission rates are progressing.
Non-cycling cows
On every farm, there will be a proportion of cows that are not displaying any behavioural heat at the start of the breeding season.
The return to normal cyclic behaviour usually occurs by 30-35 days after giving birth. The first heat is often silent and the first cycle after that is a short eight to 12 days.
Normally, cows would show behavioural heat 38-47 days after calving.
If it goes beyond 60 days, the cow may have inactive ovaries – also known as true anoestrus.
Suboestrus is when a cow may be cycling normally, but displays weak or silent heats. Identifying these cows over the next number of days is crucial to determine which cows will remain in the herd.
It is also important to monitor any cows that are repeating, so you can make sure they are picked up and served again.
If cows come back into heat, their first service did not hold, and if they did not come back into heat after first service, they are possibly in calf.