Fertility targets

[dinderleat]

A high yielding AYR housed herd and a low yielding blocking grazed herd are very different systems that don’t need the same fertility performance.

Which measures would you use dinderleat? I think its difficult to find measures that work for both systems.

I think one of the things that puts block calvers ahead is they dont persevere with cow 78 becasue shes still giving 30 litres and shes a "good old lass" even though shes 350DIM.

I would disagree with bit about fertility performance surely if it’s achievable both should aim for a high level.

Submission rate is good at measuring the level of heat detection, conception is good at measuring technical ability, overall fertility of the herd and adequate level of feeding.
Preg rate combines the 2 for overall performance for going forward. Calving index is fairly historic but is a good bench mark

@beeffarmer has covered the block calving situation.

 

[dinderleat]

Anything that's pd- at 200 days doesn't another chance, that's one rule we don't bend

Agree I think we were only 2% not in calf 200 days after calving of which that weren’t on the cull list

 

[Stuart1]

Involuntary culls for fertility would work across both systems - how many cows are leaving herds because of poor fertility?

A lot more leaving herds due to poor fertility than people may think.

 

[Beef farmer]

Your simple then as most ayr start serving at day 42

A lot more leaving herds due to poor fertility than people may think.

Or admit too

 

[jimmer]

The only fertility measure I can think of that is across all systems is % pregnant by a fixed dim, I'm suggesting 120 days
Happy to be shot down

 

[Stuart1]

I’ve a cow bulling this morning that was in heat exactly 30 days ago. Do any of you guys ever get that? I don’t get a lot of it but I get the odd one.

 

[I thats it]

Get the occasional one, usually get the bull out to such

 

[dinderleat]

I’ve a cow bulling this morning that was in heat exactly 30 days ago. Do any of you guys ever get that? I don’t get a lot of it but I get the odd one.

Is she a standing heat ? Glove her to check for bullying string, but generally I would serve. She won’t get incalf without semen.

 

[Stuart1]

Is she a standing heat ? Glove her to check for bullying string, but generally I would serve. She won’t get incalf without semen.

Oh yeah she’s standing. I’m with you on serving her, already gloved her. Il serve here when I get finished up

 

[Enry]

Submission rate - the number of cows that have been served out of all the cows that eligible to be served. A decent target would be 50% and above.

Preg rate - the number of cows that have become pregnant out of all the cows that are eligible within a 21 day window. Target 15-20%. 20& plus and i'll give you a gold star.

Submission rate deals with heat detection - preg rate with conception. Calculating these manually is difficult but your milk recorders or your vets should be able to help through Interherd or some other software. It can be quite useful in identifying certain seasonal trends in your herd - do rates suffer at turnout? Improve at housing?

Calving Index has it's place. I wouldn't get too hung up on it as it can be very misleading. It only incorporates pregnant cows - cows that you barren off because off poor fertility slip through the net. You could have a fantastic calving index of 370 days yet only 60% of your herd is getting back incalf. Or you could have made big strides in your fertility got loads of cows back in calf which is great! But you look at your calving index and it's shot up to 450! Thats because you have got your cows pregnant but it's taken longer for them to conceive, thus longer days between each calving.

But I would start with submission rate and preg rate. They will guide to where your potential problems lay if you have any. From there you can then look at conception rates, service intervals etc

When you say the wheels came off - what area are/were you worried about?

Preg Rate Target should be much higher than 15-20% - UK av estimated to be around 14/15%. 20%+ is a good start, 30% is being achieved by the best, admittedly with some syncing involved with most so I'm told by my vet

 

[Enry]

24/6 - 15/7 over that 3 week period I served 12 cows and got 8 of them pd+. Is that any good?

depends how many were eligible - eligible cow is anything past the voluntary wait, not pregnant and not designated as a do not breed. i.e. if VWP is 60d, and there are 110 open cows beyond this, and 10 are designated as culls (DNB) 100 eligible to get pregnant, if you serve 70 in the 21 days and 22 hold, you have a PR of 22% for that window

 

[Rossymons]

Preg Rate Target should be much higher than 15-20% - UK av estimated to be around 14/15%. 20%+ is a good start, 30% is being achieved by the best, admittedly with some syncing involved with most so I'm told by my vet

15-20% is a place for a good start without knowing the OPs current preg rate. It does concern me that

A)current preg rate can't be better estimated using milk records from across the country

B)I wonder how many herds aren't achieving even an average preg rate.

 

[Enry]

15-20% is a place for a good start without knowing the OPs current preg rate. It does concern me that

A)current preg rate can't be better estimated using milk records from across the country

B)I wonder how many herds aren't achieving even an average preg rate.

15-20% is a place for a good start without knowing the OPs current preg rate. It does concern me that

A)current preg rate can't be better estimated using milk records from across the country

B)I wonder how many herds aren't achieving even an average preg rate.

If av UK PR is 15 say - then there a hell of lot of <15's bearing in mind the number of 20-30's!

 

[dinderleat]

If av UK PR is 15 say - then there a hell of lot of QUOTE]

Is a 40% preg rate achievable without a high use of sync

 

[Enry]

In a 21d window yes, repeatedly - much more difficult. If 80% heat det rate and 50% conception rate = 40% PR in one window, would be some going to average that through a year. Remember PR% data gets very bumpy in block calving herds - not such a relevant metric

 

[dinderleat]

In a 21d window yes, repeatedly - much more difficult. If 80% heat det rate and 50% conception rate = 40% PR in one window, would be some going to average that through a year. Remember PR% data gets very bumpy in block calving herds - not such a relevant metric

Something to aim for then