As the 2022 breeding season begins on spring-calving farms, achieving a compact calving will be a target for many.
However, over a quarter of spring-calving cows still calve in April or later, which contradicts the concept of spring-calving.
A simplified version of spring-calving is having cows calving early in February and March, so they reach peak milk supply in line with grass-growth rates.
This allows spring-calving herds to maximise grass in the diet and have a cheaper cost of production.
But cows calving in April and May do not fit into this bracket; they are more expensive to keep, are dry for longer and therefore, have lower milk sales.
Breeding season targets
As the breeding season begins, farmers should aim for a 90% three-week submission rate.
There can be several reasons as to why this may not be achieved, including poor fertility, poor heat detection, cows not cycling and more.
Achieving this target is not easy, but with the correct management it is achievable for many dairy farms.
Another focus as the breeding season begins should be conception rates to first service; a target of 60% should be your goal.
Once again, this is difficult to achieve, but it can be done. Cow fertility and timing of artificial insemination (AI) are important factors in achieving this.
If you achieve these targets you will have a tighter calving spread, with more cows calving in a short period.
Not only will this compact the workload during the spring, it should also result in higher profitability from these cows.
For some farms, achieving these targets may not be possible this year, but you should aim to get as close to these as possible.
These targets should be your ultimate goal, but for now ensure that continued progression is being achieved.
Pulling the plug
Retaining as many high-quality cows within a herd is important, but also knowing when to pull the plug is also important.
Most herds operate a breeding season that lasts from 11 to 16 weeks; once the end date is reached, it important to stop breeding cows.
Continuing to breed cows that are not in-calf will only result in cows that are calving much later than is ideal.
Cows calving later than the rest of the herd will be problem cows that have a body condition score (BCS) that is too high and have difficulty calving.
They will also be much less profitable compared to the earlier calving cows.