But, with this year’s season just finished, now is a good time to reassess what worked and what needs improvement. In Ireland, 68% of cows calved in the first 6 weeks of the calving season in 2024 [1]. The target nationally should be 90%, to get the maximum lactation length and increase milk production. The difference is estimated to cost farms €206 per cow [2]. Fertility management is crucial to help hit targets and save money. As everyone knows, managing the breeding season to stay on target can be a challenge, especially when outside factors, like the weather and grass growth, start to have an impact. That’s why it’s critical to have the factors you can control, under control.

What do you need to control, and why?
Sourcing, and interacting with breeding data from your herd will help you keep on top of your targets for the breeding season. Activity monitoring systems such as Nedap’s cow monitoring technology, provides essential data in an easy-to-use way. It also allows you to compare data year on year and pick out areas to improve.

Submission rates need to be high early in the season to ensure that there are enough cows bred to dairy sires, and to keep next year’s calving season compact. With many farms now only using dairy semen for the first round of breeding, everything needs to be right to ensure good submission and conception rates. Having a continual track of the herd’s submission rate give you the advantage, and changes can be made during breeding if required.

Nedap’s advanced activity monitoring system allows you to see the number of cows served at a glance in the Insemination Results Widget. This tool provides the farmer with a running total of the number of cows served, alongside a percentage of the total herd as breeding progresses. The aim is to get to 100% as soon as possible, as lower rates may indicate wider fertility issues in the herd.

Non-return rates give farmers an early indication of how breeding is progressing, and what conception rates may be. Normally, non-return rates are calculated as the percentage of cows that did not return with a heat within 21 days of being served.

Nedap’s non return rate highlights the number of cows and percentage of the herd that have not had a heat 25 days after insemination. Knowing this information can help you react to any problems earlier in the season and correct any issues there may be.

Reproductive Issues
The bigger picture can sometimes be difficult to see. Knowing that a cow hasn’t had a heat is one factor; finding out why is another matter entirely. Maybe she had a hard calving? Has she historically been a hard breeder? Is she under metabolic stress? Being able to view a cow’s reproductive and health history gives you all the data you need to take suitable action.

Nedap helps bring your breeding season management up a level with the development of Custom Worklists. These can be used to show all the relevant information in one place, allowing you oversight to make informed decisions. A list can be generated showing which cows haven’t been served yet, but other information adds more detail. The lactation number, days in milk, and days since last heat can all be included too. The cow’s health information can be accessed too, giving a total oversight of her status. This provides a powerful report with the crucial information needed all in one place.

With Nedap, all the data you need to manage your breeding targets and stay on top of your herd’s fertility is available at the touch of a button. If you feel like this level of control could help for next year, contact our partners here.

References
1: ICBF National Calving Statisitics: https://webapp.icbf.com/v2/app/dairy-stats
2: Teagasc, Setting the Targets for Spring Breeding: https://teagasc.ie/publications/setting-the-targets-for-spring-breeding-php/