The breeding season on most farms is moving into week five. At this point, farmers should be getting a better idea of how their first few weeks have gone.
After week three of breeding is a good time to assess the situation on farms and determine how well the season has gone so far.
Although you will not know how many cows are actually in calf, you should be able to determine how many cows have been served and therefore how many have not.
And, by the start of week five, you should be able to determine how many cows from week one of breeding have repeated.
Breeding
Although it is way too early to stop breeding cows, you need to have a set date for when you are going to stop.
You also need to look at cows that are failing to go in calf. If you have a cow that has been served twice and she comes back in heat again, questions need to be asked.
When should you draw the line?
If there is nothing wrong with her reproductively, such as a cyst or infection, and she is cycling, you need to ask yourself when should you draw the line.
Some farms will turn out the stockbull after a number of weeks of breeding and she may go in calf then. For these farms it is important that the bull is then removed after a few weeks, so the breeding of cows doesn’t continue into calving.
How many straws are you willing to use?
But for farms that aren’t using a stockbull, the question is how many straws are they willing to use or waste on her.
The cows that are failing to go in calf within two services are the cows you should be looking to breed out of the herd.
If you are going to continue to serve them, then you should not be using dairy semen. Instead, a cow like this should be bred to beef.
12 weeks
Many farms continue to breed cows for up to 12 weeks, but most are now trying to reduce this down to ten – with some even trying to get that down to eight.
Based on a 12-week breeding period, a cow could have had as many as five chances to go in calf, so the question really should be asked why this is allowed to happen.
If you have completed pre-breeding checks, there should be no cow not cycling come the start of breeding.
Most farmers talk about achieving a compact calving, but a compact calving will not be achieved if cows are bred for 12 weeks.
There may need to be a slightly higher replacement rate, but high-genetic-merit animals and their increased milk sales should offset this.