The breeding season on the majority of autumn-calving dairy herds will be starting in early January 2023.
Ahead of the planned start of mating it is important to ensure that all cows are cycling and are therefore able to go in-calf.
If a cow is not cycling at the start of breeding it will delay them going in-calf and may result in a longer breeding season.
Breeding season
Breeding cows during the autumn can be a little more challenging compared to the spring for a number of reasons.
One of the main reasons can actually be the fact that cows are housed, and this often reduces their desire to mount or jump on other cows.
This can make detecting cows in heat a little more challenging compared to a spring-calving herd or a herd that uses some heat detection technology.
Any cows that have not been seen in heat need to be checked ahead of the planned start of mating.
Any cows calved longer than 35 days or more should be showing signs of heat or show have had a heat.
This ensures that all cows are able to go in-calf at the start of breeding and should increase the number of cows going in-calf early in the breeding season.
There could be a number of reasons why a cow has not been seen in heat, i.e. a cyst, infection or more.
If you are aiming for a submission rate of over 90% in the first three-weeks of breeding you need to ensure that all cows are cycling.
It is also important to assess body condition score (BCS) ahead of the start of mating to ensure that all cows are in the correct condition.
Submission rate targets
You should set a target of getting as many cows as possible in-calf in as short a time as possible.
The target should be between 80% and 90% in the first three week of breeding.
This means that you need to be submit between 3.8% and 4.3% of the herd/day in the first three weeks to achieve this.
On a 100-cow herd this means that you need to be serving around four cows/day.
It is unlikely that all these cows will hold to first service, but by getting these cows served you are increasing the changes and hopefully compacting the breeding and calving season.