The 2021 breeding season has drawn to a close on the majority of spring-calving dairy herds across the country, with artificial insemination (AI) stopping and bulls removed.
But if recent data is anything to go by, some ‘spring-calving’ herds have continued to breed cows passed the desired breeding end date.
To confine the calving season to April 2022, farms should have wrapped up the breeding season before July 24.
Almost 390,000 dairy cows – more than one-quarter of spring-calving Irish dairy cows – calved later than April 1, in 2019 and 2020.
Having an extended breeding season only increases the workload on farms and reduces the profitability of the farm.
Research has shown that later calving cows cost more to keep and are more likely to fall foul of milk fever and other disease associated with calving.
This is mainly due to these cows being older and in too high of a body condition score (BCS) for calving.
Breeding date Expected calving date July 30 May 11 August 10 May 22 August 30 June 1
Breeding season
Correcting a calving spread issue is difficult and it is nearly impossible to turn a late April-calving cow into a March-calving cow the following year.
Your best option is to increase the number of heifers being introduced into the herd; the level of fertility within the heifers should be much better than the older cows within the herd.
A February-calving heifer is also going to produce more milk than a late April or May-calving cow.
Later-calving cows are often older cows that are retained for sentimental reasons, rather than financial.
It is important to remember that it is a farm business that you are operating, with many farm margins coming under increasing pressure.
Farms are also coming under increased pressure to deal with their carbon emissions, with late-calving cows likely to be less carbon efficient than their earlier calving counterparts.
You should break the cycle of late-calving cows on your farm – there is no time like the present.