The majority of spring-calving herds have now passed week three of the breeding season and are at a good time to assess its success.
The target set by many farms is to have 90% of cows and 100% of heifers submitted for breeding in the first three weeks.
Put simply, if you have a 100-cow herd and 20 replacement heifers, you should have bred 90 cows and 20 heifers by this point.
This is assuming that all the cows are suitable and remaining on the farm for breeding.
Breeding
Although up to 90% of the herd has been – ideally – submitted for breeding at this stage, it is very unlikely that all of these cows will hold to first service.
It is probable that of the 90% submitted for breeding, a 55-60% first-service conception rate has been achieved.
For example, in a 100-cow herd where 90 cows have been submitted for breeding, somewhere in the region of 50-55 cows should now be in calf.
However, this also means that 45-50 cows are not yet in calf, so in essence, the job is only half done.
With that in mind, over the next number of weeks the aim should be to reduce the number of repeats and get as many cows as possible in calf in a short period of time.
‘Problem cows’
Over the next few days the focus should be on the cows that have not been seen in heat in order to determine if there is an issue.
In order for these cows to remain in the herd they need to be cycling and you need to see if they are in heat.
However, is it also important to monitor any cows repeating and ensure that they are picked up and served again.
If you have good records you should be able to keep track of the cows when they are due to come in heat again.
If they don’t, they are possible in calf, if they do – they haven’t held to first service.