For the majority of spring-calving herds, the breeding period will be now be reaching the halfway point.

Hopefully, cows will have been displaying strong heats, with stock bulls actively covering breeding females, resulting in a compact calving period next spring.

As the breeding period reaches the halfway point, it is a good time to assess how things are progressing.

Outlined are some steps, which, if followed, can help to improve the chances of a getting cows back in-calf during the second half of the breeding period.

1 Swapping stock bulls

Around 25% of stock bulls are sub-fertile, meaning that they will only serve some of the cows in heat.

If the bull is not covering all cows, then animals will quickly slip in calving date next spring.

To safeguard against a sub-fertile bull in herds with two or more stock bulls, it can be good idea to swap bulls around after six to seven weeks of breeding.

This way, if a bull has fertility issues, the animal is being replaced and there is less of an impact on the calving period next spring.

2 Heat detection and tail painting

Pay attention to the number of cows repeating at present. As the breeding period reaches the halfway point, it is fair to assume the majority of cows will have come into heat and been served at least once.

If there is a high level of repeat breeding, then there may well be an issue with the stock bull.

Late June or early July is a good time to bring spring calves in for a worm drench.

As cows will also be brought into a handling unit along with their calves, applying tail paint to cows is a cheap way to help monitor cows coming back into heat and whether there is a potential problem with a stock bull.

3 Prioritise grazing groups

With late-calving cows, the aim should be to pull animals forward in calving date. To do so, it is important that these animals are on the best possible grazing on farm.

Where paddocks have been taken out for silage, target late-calving cows, thin cows and first-calving heifers to graze the regrowth on these swards to increase dry matter energy intake and bring cows back into heat again.

4 Mineral provision

Ensure cows are adequately covered for minerals to maximise conception rates. Increase the availability of lick buckets or use a mineral bolus.

In addition to either of these options, feeding powdered minerals every week or periodically applying a small quantity of iodine on the cow's flank can help to boost the animal’s fertility.

5 Breeding scan

Cows that did not have any difficulty at calving time, or rearing twins, but have yet to come back into heat may have an internal problem, such as ovarian cysts.

Having a vet scan these cows will determine if the animal is likely to breed or not.

If there are no problems, but cows are still slow to cycle, it may be beneficial to follow a simple synchronisation programme to stimulate the cows to come into heat.

While this comes at a cost, it may be a cost worth incurring to avoid a high barren rate.