A target within many herds will be to have a submission rate of 90% within the first three weeks of the breeding season.
This ultimately means for a 100-cow herd, that within the first three weeks, that 90 cows will be bred.
Not every cow will hold to first service, but it means that you have given them a chance and should hopefully have a good number of cows in calf come week six of breeding.
Breeding season
Achieving a 90% three-week submission rate and a 90% six-week calving rate is important within a pasture-based production system. Doing so facilitates long lactations and high levels of milk production.
This target is only going to be achievable if all cows are cycling at the beginning of breeding.
To achieve the 90% target, you need to be submitting 4.3% of your herd each day for breeding.
For a 100-cow herd, that is between four and five cows/day submitted and served for breeding.
It is important that it is only cows that are actually in heat that are included in this target, as figures can be inflated by cows that are drafted for breeding – but aren’t actually suitable to be served.
Submission rates
Pre-breeding heat detection of cows needs to take place on farms and cows that are not cycling in the three weeks prior to breeding starting, need to be checked by your vet.
Some simple treatments can be used to get cows cycling and hopefully back in calf early in the breeding season.
Waiting until breeding has already start to detect cows that are not cycling means that you will be at least three weeks into breeding before treatment can occur.
Many farms are struggling to get cows to grass and the conditions of some cows is suffering because of this.
Focus on ensuring that the energy requirements of cows are being met and if extra feed needs to be sourced do that early.
A mid-day feed of soya hulls or beet pulp could increase the energy and dry matter intake of cows. They are also simple to add into the diet and simple to take out of the diet.