In suckler herds that calve from mid-August to October, the breeding period will now be getting under way.

Herd management during the breeding period has a major bearing on the number of cows settled in-calf.

Well managed cows, in terms of winter feeding and health, are much more likely to go back in-calf again.

Cows that are poorly fed, have routine health treatments delayed and are under stress are more likely to scan empty.

Outlined are five tips to managing autumn calving cows during the upcoming breeding period.

1 Steady diet

Cows should be fed a consistent diet during the breeding period. With cows housed, this is much easier to manage compared with breeding cows at grass.

Cows normally come into peak lactation at the same time as breeding, so animals have a growing requirement for energy and protein.

Therefore, autumn cows should be fed good-quality silage of 70% DMD or higher. Supplement silage with 2kg/day of concentrate throughout the breeding period.

If feeding silage at 66% to 69% DMD, feed 2.5kg to 3kg/day of concentrate, with the higher meal levels used for silage at the lower end of outlined feed values.

Once breeding finishes for the whole herd, concentrate levels can be reduced depending on silage quality, availability, cow condition and milk yield.

2 Mineral supplementation

Silage tends to be low in trace minerals. Therefore, make sure cows are properly covered for minerals, especially when home mixing rations or just feeding barley.

Purchased rations from licensed feed mills have minerals automatically included and will provide some level of supplementation.

However, it is still worth providing additional cover, be it in the form of a bolus, powdered mineral or lick bucket.

3 Healthy cows

Make sure cows are free of internal and external parasites before breeding. This means treating fluke, worms and lice now.

Where cows have been recently housed, choose a product that treats fluke at an immature stage if dosing within two to three weeks of housing.

It is worth taking a few faecal samples to determine the level of internal parasites present before choosing the most appropriate product and best time to dose animals.

4 Restrict calves suckling

Restricting calves to suckling the cow during the morning and evening is a great way to bring cows back in heat. It also has no negative effect on calf performance.

Start off around 20 to 25 days post-calving. Lock calves in a creep area after checking animals first thing in the morning.

Keep calves away from cows until late afternoon, or early evening. Allow calves in to suck for around one hour, then lock calves off cows overnight. Calves should have access to fresh silage, concentrate and water in the creep pen.

5 Keep an eye on breeding activity and heat detection

Autumn calving lends itself to using AI. When checking cows for heats, watch animals for 20 minutes at least three times per day. The best times to monitor breeding activity is early morning and late evening.

When watching for heats, allow cows to go about their natural behaviour. Do not start pushing in silage, or feed concentrates, then stand back to watch for signs of breeding activity.

There are many aids to help with heat detection, from tail paint to devices that send alerts to smartphones.

Cows housed on slats can have short heats and show very little sign of mounting. Therefore, it is a good idea to apply tail paint to all cows that will be bred, even when using a stock bull.

Tail paint is a cheap way to monitor breeding activity and makes it easier to see if stock bulls are covering cows.