Farmers speak frequently about the volatility in the dairy industry and how it is affecting their profit margins, especially milk and feed price fluctuations, which have become more marked as we move into a global marketplace.
While farmers cannot control these global fluctuations, the solution is to concentrate on the factors that are within their control and to start with those that will have most effect. Fertility can be a good place to start as pregnancies drive profits, improving milk sales and calf income while potentially helping reduce costs.
According to James Woods, of Genus ABS, many farmers would be well advised to start by considering how they monitor fertility, and whether the measures used allow them to achieve high level performance.
At present many farmers are still relying on calving interval as the main measure of reproductive performance, however this has a number of pitfalls that make it an inappropriate measure of performance. Firstly it is very historic and looks at performance over the past year rather than performance now. How does an extending calving interval help you identify risk factors and take action when the problems will be many months old?
“If you want to improve performance you need to use measures that are timely and active, giving a current position and allowing action to be taken as required. Encouragingly an increasing number of farmers state they are moving to using 21 day pregnancy rate to track and manage fertility. The 21 day pregnancy rate gives a true picture of fertility of eligible animals and encourages prompt management action as required.”
Performance is monitored using 21 day pregnancy rate which is calculated as the number of cows pregnant out of the number of cow days eligible to become pregnant in a 21 day period. In so doing it reflects changes in both heat detection and submission rates. Being time specific it allows proactive decision making to address any fall in performance.
For larger herds RMS has proven invaluable regarding fertility performance. This involves a highly trained technician walking the cows every day, chalking them and inseminating them at the optimum time. Farmers can be sceptical about this service but James Woods points out that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
He quoted an example of herds recently new to RMS which were monitored across the UK, which had a total of 6778 cows. In the six months before starting on RMS the herds were averaging a 13% pregnancy rate but following use of the service for 6 months they increased this to 19%, creating nearly twice as many pregnancies in the process. The average pregnancy rate in Northern Irleand is 13% so there is lots of opportunity for herds to improve profit margins and performance through better fertility.
James went on to outline the advantages of improved fertility performance:
Increased milk sales per cow/year – getting cows in calf more quickly means there is a higher proportion of fresh calved cows in the herd and fewer stale milkers. This has the effect of increasing annual milk production and consequently income.
Better feed efficiency – cows in early lactation use feed more efficiently leading to more cost-effective milk production.
Increased calf crop – more calvings means more calves and on RMS the sires are specifically selected for each individual cow which means better performing animals coming into the herd and the opportunity to sell any extras at a much higher value.
More planned culls – with more cows getting in calf, fewer will be sold barren. This means more cows can be selected for culling for management reasons such as production, with less being culled merely because they fail to get in calf.
Professional service – every day from a trained technician.
Achieving and maintaining high levels of fertility can have a significant impact in reducing the consequences of volatility by ensuring a constant supply of fresh calved cows and more calvings per year. And evidence shows that by taking a planned approach to getting cows back in calf, it is possible to improve high levels of reproductive performance.
Source: Farming Life
