Select Sires

Reproductive Management Goals
(Part Two)
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired Oct. 13, 2005
With Ray Nebel,
Extension Specialist and Professor of Reproductive Management,
Virginia Tech

Ray, this week we continue our discussion of reproductive goals. Let's start by talking about percentage of those pregnant, by 150 days in milk, and the reason we are coming up with 150.

We put a target in of 150 days in milk because we are looking at wanting 60 percent of the herd pregnant at that point. The national average right now is probably about half the herd pregnant at 150 days. So we are shooting for a little bit better than that. It gives you a good bench mark to look at, to look at how many cows are getting pregnant by about half of the lactations.

And then the factors that effect conception rate?

Conception rate is a tough one to correct because there is a semen quality that goes in, and that could be natural service in the summer heat-service stress. We just went through the bulls having been suffering, just like the cows have, so lower semen quality in the bulls during the summer, or A.I. semen quality from the distributors where you buy semen. Then we have the fertility of the cow, which brings in a lot of factors as far as uterine health, her normal nutrition, is she in a positive or negative energy balance. We have A.I. confidence, as far as: Are we catching those cows in heat, and breeding those cows at the right time? Are we putting that insemination rod past the cervix? In semen handling, we have the effects of man at A.I. technique. We have the effects of the cow and cow fertility. And we have the effects of the bull, as far as semen quality. So it’s a very complicated issue, and we have to break it apart to find out what component might need improving when we have a lower conception rate.

How do you prioritize all those factors?

On conception rate, first we want to see where we are. We can actually break down what percent of the services, or natural services versus A.I. And then the easy one to do is to really kind of look at the A.I. techniques, and evaluate A.I. techniques, have an A.I. trainer that can go over the A.I. techniques with the labor on the farm. We can go through semen handling, semen placement and go through that step-by-step. On the semen quality we look at the number of bulls that’s been used and the variance across bulls, or how much cows differ from high to low. In cow quality we really need to get the veterinarian involved. And herd health, as far as what he or she is seeing, as far as cyclicity, the ration. The nutritionist needs to be involved. As we talked about before, in previous interviews, it's really a team approach when we bring in the cow, because we need herd health from the veterinarian, we need the nutritionist, as far as what is being fed, and we need the reproductive specialist as far as trying to pull that all together.

For more information, contact your local Select Sires Reproductive Solutions Specialist™. That’s Ray Nebel, Select Sires Reproductive Solutions Specialist.

™Reproductive Solutions Specialist is a trademark of Select Sires Inc.

Select Sires Inc., 11740 U.S. 42 North, Plain City, Ohio 43064 / Phone: (614) 873-4683 Fax: (614) 873-5751