The breeding season for the majority of dairy farms has come to a close and now it is time to determine how successful it has been.
Determining the success of the breeding season is important for a number of reasons, including determining the number of empty cows and the number of cows that will calve in the first six weeks.
There are a number of opinions to determine if cows are in calf, but only one method will give accurate calving dates.
Breeding season
The most commonly used method for determining how successful the breeding season has been is scanning cows.
Another method that is becoming more and more popular is milk pregnancy testing – but that has its drawbacks compared to scanning.
Scanning helps to identify cows that are carrying twins and determine how many days a cow is in-calf.
Identifying twins is important as more often than not, a cow having twins will need assistance to calve. A breech calving is also not uncommon for a cow having twins.
The cow may not have been visibly in heat and was thus presumed to be in calf, but it may have lost the pregnancy.
This is important to determine because it may have made the cow go from a February-calving cow to an April or May-calving cow.
If she was a February-calving cow she would have been dried off in November, only for her to have a six-month dry period.
Knowing when cows are going to calve is vital to ensure that farmers have a herd of highly efficient cows. If a cow has slipped from this system, moving it on should be considered.
It also helps to identify cows that are not in calf and gives an accurate number of empty cows that are in the herd.
This allows farmers to determine how many heifers are then required and if there will be an excess of them.