Select Sires

Reproductive Management Goals
(Part Three)
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired Oct. 20, 2005
With Ray Nebel,
Extension Specialist and Professor of Reproductive Management,
Virginia Tech

Ray, this week we wrap up our series on reproductive goals, and we talk about the factors that affect heat detection rate.

In heat detection we're talking about how often we go out and look at cows, or what methods we are using. Are we primarily using visual heat detection? Or are we using aids such as chalk or paint or KAMAR®? Or are we using timed A.I.? We can now separate those out, in the record system, of why the cows were bred, or breeding code, or we can look at conception rate by codes. So if we say a third of the cows are bred on standing heat, what is the conception rate for those cows, a third of the cows bred on timed heat. What is the conception rate for those? So we can maybe identify whether there's a sign of heat that’s not doing the job for us, or should we go back and work on whether their technique there at the farm needs to be enhanced to make that sign work better.

Who is helping primarily with that? Perhaps a Select Sires Representative?

Yes. At each one of the coops we have identified reproductive specialists, where that’s their primary job to go out there and work with the herdsman to do a record analysis, to try to find the strengths and weaknesses of herds, and come back and do what we just mentioned: go through semen handling, semen A.I. techniques, heat-detection techniques and try to straighten up the overall reproductive programs. So, with each one of the coops -- whether it's All West Select Sires, Cache Valley, COBA, across the ten members -- they have identified reproductive specialists to work in this area.

So, to wrap up this series on reproductive goals, Ray, it sounds like the key word there is goals. And getting that management team together to come up with, prioritize and accomplish those goals.

That’s correct, Bill. You have to have benchmarks. You have to know what you are shooting for. And you have to know where you have been. If you don’t know where you have been, then its kind of hard to know where you are going. So the records are kind of the starting part, and then the team takes those records and says, "Ok, where do we have opportunities for improvement? And what members of the team need to work on it to move forward?"

That’s Select Sires Reproductive Solutions Specialist™, Ray Nebel.

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