WHAT’S THE SECRET TO SUCCESS?

Success in getting your cows calf starts from the day they are born.

Mating management and fertility improvement is a year-round approach that lasts the lifetime of the cow. Dairy NZ’s ‘InCalf’ programme, undertaken in conjunction with leading consultants and agricultural organisations, including CRV AmBreed, identifies eight factors contributing to fertility in your dairy herd:

1 CALVING PATTERN | Giving you more day’s milk in the vat, and providing cows with the time they need to get back in calf

2 HEIFER MANAGEMENT | Creating herd members that are well-grown and set up to calve easily and early, leading them into reliable calving and milk production in the future

3 BODY CONDITION AND NUTRITION | Monitoring and managing the herd and young stock to ensure that they are at an optimum weight and condition throughout the year to calve, conceive and produce.

4 HEAT DETECTION | Using the best tools and methods to identify and record cows in oestrous before and during the mating period.

5 DEALING WITH NON-CYCLERS | Identifying and treating non-cyclers early to give them the best possible chance of getting in calf in line with the rest of their herdmates.

6 GENETICS AND AB PRACTICES | Choosing sires that will achieve the goals you have set for your herd and farm and using tried and proven methods of artificial insemination.

7 BULL MANAGEMENT | Running and rotating the appropriate number of healthy, active bulls of the right size and breed for your goals to get heifers and tail-end cows in calf.

8 COW HEALTH | Keeping cows in top condition for maximum pregnancy rates.

No matter what sort of season you’re having, you’ll want the certainty of fertile and productive cows.
What seems like a tall order in a volatile season will yield measurable improvement in future seasons, strong and consistent improvements in the herd as culling decisions are made under production, conformation and management objectives rather than fertility and even some immediate production results; a side-effect of more active management practices.

Want more profit in dairying? Let’s get started on improving whole-herd fertility