Over the last month or so farmers around New Zealand have been busy with the fruits of the best 6-week in-calf rate results in years.
The industry-wide goal is to improve on this result next season, ultimately reaching, or exceeding, a 6-week in-calf rate of 78%.
To do this, farmers need to be focused on maximising the farm’s reproductive performance this season.
Farm Source’s Programme Manager of Environmental Sustainable Dairying, Louise Cook, and General Manager On-Farm Excellence (Animals), Tennielle Ellingham, say there are a range of approaches farmers can focus on including:
- Identifying the farm’s critical partners
- Reviewing the farm’s Fertility Focus Report from last season
- Ensuring individual cows have a body conditioning score (BCS) of 4 or above
- Metrichecking the herd for reproductive health
- Assessing herd health with bloods taken to identify any nutritional or mineral issues
- Training the farm team.
Cycling times
Knowing if and when a cow is cycling is crucial at this time of year.
“If you discover a cow is not cycling it is imperative to find out the cause. If it’s a body condition score related issue, then there is the opportunity to look at once a day milking for cows to support them physiologically getting themselves ready to get in calf. If a cow is a non-cycler and has a BCS, CIDRs and kickstart technologies aren’t particularly effective,” Louise says.
“Keep a track on your herd’s health and pre mating heats. Watch for cows who may have been identified as cycling pre mating and make sure they come up in the first cycle of mating. Keep a fine focus on individual cows in the herd to understand which cow isn’t cycling – she will generally be an exception. Once you identify an issue you can find a cause and a solution.”
Focus on energy intake
Nutrition is essential for improving reproductive performance. Protecting and managing the quality of pasture as consistently as possible for cows through the mating period will pay dividends.
“I heard an old adage, ‘Never feed a cow better today than you can feed her tomorrow’. Farmers need to be focusing on having really consistent quality of feed to our cows throughout the whole mating period, and the bulk of that is in pasture,” Louise says.
Recording systems & training
Mating season can be a complicated time with artificial breeding visits combined with bulls on farm later in the season. Farmers need robust systems and processes so that all farm staff know how and when to record the information needed.
“Have you got the right recording systems in place for people to capture the cows that are cycling? Are there the notepads or pens where they need to be, or the whiteboard markers have all been refreshed so that the team are always able to capture data easily. Have you refreshed all cow tags to make sure that we can actually see what a cow’s number is and you don’t have to wrestle her when she’s in the vet race before she gets mated?” Louise says.
“Ideally more than one staff member on farm should be trained in the AB process, because AB fatigue is a real thing. You know, all of the tails start to look the same by the end of the third week. And so rotating the team or allowing people to have breaks is really important. Not to forget, in addition to AB fatigue, is just fatigue – this is a huge contributing factor in poor decision making and safety risk.”
Staff health and welfare
Preparing for seasonal mating on top of milking, calving, setting up crops, and optimising herd’s health can be exhausting. Fatigue can play a big role in increasing the risk of health and safety incidents – particularly when dealing with 500kg animals. Tennielle recommends farms implement regular catch ups with staff and neighbouring farmers.
“Basic connections are really important – whether you have a large farm team or are a solo farmer. Even if it feels like you don’t have the time, getting together as a team can pay dividends. Hold a daily toolbox-kind of catch up so everyone understands the challenges facing the farm that day and clarify everyone’s role and how they are going to work together. It’s a great opportunity to check in and see if team members need additional support that day and ensuring everyone can balance their work on farm and lives off farm,” she says.
“Diet is also important. Rather than having staff members guzzle down caffeinated, high sugar energy drinks, set yourself and your team up for success by having easy, higher protein healthy snacks and water available in the shed. Managing your own energy intake well will help support you to make good decisions at a time of year it really counts.”