The breeding season for dairy farmers has been under way for the past few weeks. Conditions have been good and, from talking to clients, submission rates appear to be high.
However, at this stage, every herd will have some cows that are not showing heat for a variety of reasons. Ultrasound scanning of these cows is a very useful tool to help diagnose the problems that are present.
What cows should be scanned? Any cows calved 42 days or more and not seen bulling, cows that had difficult calvings or that retained the afterbirth. When we scan these cows, we often find:
a) Cows that have cycled; they may have had a silent or very short heat or simply been missed.b) Non-cycling cows; these show very little or no ovarian activity. These will need hormonal treatment to get them cycling.c) Cows with chronic uterine infections, which will need intrauterine antibiotic treatment and/or hormone therapy. In my experience, about 10% to 15% of eligible cows need to be scanned. Anything higher than this indicates deeper problems in the herd. For example, a high number of non-cycling cows may indicate a problem with energy balance or mineral deficiency.
Cows milking heavily and not taking in enough energy in the diet will simply lose body condition and fail to come in heat. Information is key in these circumstances and once you know what is going on, you can make the changes necessary to get things back on track.
Many farmers use prostaglandin treatments to induce heat, especially in maiden heifers. This is very useful and rapidly increases the submission rate.
Conception rates in heifers, in this instance, are usually excellent but not as good in mature cows. Unless you are dealing with high-yielding holstein cows, I think it is best to keep any synchronisation treatments simple and low cost.
On a related topic, we have fertility tested some bulls recently. We found a couple of sub-fertile bulls, which could not be depended upon to get cows in calf.
One was sick during the winter and has poor body condition. When a bull is being left off with cows, he should have a BCS of at least 3 to 3.25. Otherwise, he simply won’t have the strength or stamina to do his job.
When buying a mature bull, try to get some information from the owner with regard to his performance. He should have a track record. Otherwise, have him fertility tested.
*Edwin Murphy works at Adare Veterinary Surgery, Adare, Co Limerick. Adare Veterinary Surgery is part of XLVets. XLVets is a group of progressive practices that are working together to achieve a better future for agriculture and veterinary in Ireland. For further information, see www.xlvets.ie
The breeding season for dairy farmers has been under way for the past few weeks. Conditions have been good and, from talking to clients, submission rates appear to be high.
However, at this stage, every herd will have some cows that are not showing heat for a variety of reasons. Ultrasound scanning of these cows is a very useful tool to help diagnose the problems that are present.
What cows should be scanned? Any cows calved 42 days or more and not seen bulling, cows that had difficult calvings or that retained the afterbirth. When we scan these cows, we often find:
a) Cows that have cycled; they may have had a silent or very short heat or simply been missed.b) Non-cycling cows; these show very little or no ovarian activity. These will need hormonal treatment to get them cycling.c) Cows with chronic uterine infections, which will need intrauterine antibiotic treatment and/or hormone therapy. In my experience, about 10% to 15% of eligible cows need to be scanned. Anything higher than this indicates deeper problems in the herd. For example, a high number of non-cycling cows may indicate a problem with energy balance or mineral deficiency.
Cows milking heavily and not taking in enough energy in the diet will simply lose body condition and fail to come in heat. Information is key in these circumstances and once you know what is going on, you can make the changes necessary to get things back on track.
Many farmers use prostaglandin treatments to induce heat, especially in maiden heifers. This is very useful and rapidly increases the submission rate.
Conception rates in heifers, in this instance, are usually excellent but not as good in mature cows. Unless you are dealing with high-yielding holstein cows, I think it is best to keep any synchronisation treatments simple and low cost.
On a related topic, we have fertility tested some bulls recently. We found a couple of sub-fertile bulls, which could not be depended upon to get cows in calf.
One was sick during the winter and has poor body condition. When a bull is being left off with cows, he should have a BCS of at least 3 to 3.25. Otherwise, he simply won’t have the strength or stamina to do his job.
When buying a mature bull, try to get some information from the owner with regard to his performance. He should have a track record. Otherwise, have him fertility tested.
*Edwin Murphy works at Adare Veterinary Surgery, Adare, Co Limerick. Adare Veterinary Surgery is part of XLVets. XLVets is a group of progressive practices that are working together to achieve a better future for agriculture and veterinary in Ireland. For further information, see www.xlvets.ie
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