Farmer Focus: Mixed bag for fertility performance this year
© Cathal Noonan The annual calendar of spring block calving is very straightforward: calve, graze, breed, silage, dry, house and repeat. Everything has its time and September marks a critical checkpoint – benchmarking fertility performance.
The result reflects a huge array of decisions that cover a six-month period: dry off nutrition, transition cow management, energy balance during first and second rotation grazing, heat detection, insemination technique and bull selection.
All of it is summed up in the ultrasound scan. This gauges how well we’ve navigated the year to date and gives an opportunity to reflect on the results that are, quite literally, written in the plus or minus that goes on the breeding chart beside each cow.
See also: Tips on motivating staff during block calving
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Replacement heifers were turned out on 9 April, a little over two weeks before breeding began, in less than ideal conditions.
Transitioning from a housed diet to full-time grazing in Noah’s ark conditions while trying to conceive was a tall order.
Using sexed semen, we only got 43% that held to first service; we used conventional semen for second service followed by the sweeper bull and had 8% empty after 10 weeks. Pretty poor.
On the other hand, cow fertility performance is one for the record books. An astounding 80% held to service with sexed semen. We had used sexed on one-third of the herd and conventional beef straws on the rest.
With 8% empty after 11 weeks’ breeding in the cows, it certainly felt like a win.
About 95% of the herd calved by mid-March, helping cows to be ready for the start of mating.
As we have been using Sensehub collars for the past three seasons, the pre-breeding information on how well cows were cycling was invaluable.
The collar information has taken a level of stress and labour out of the entire breeding season.
They’re reliable and accurate and give a great sense of reassurance when breeding quietens down and we move towards taking the bulls out.
Finally, everything has its time and mine has come to a close with Farmers Weekly. It has been a true pleasure sharing our farm journey over the past five years.
Meeting those who have followed our story has been one of the highlights of this experience. We appreciate your support and engagement. Go raibh maith agat agus slán (thank you and goodbye).