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Farm Animal Final Year > Principles of Monitoring Fertility > Flashcards

Principles of Monitoring Fertility Flashcards

1
Q

Fertility is often a major driver of profitability in livestock businesses

Monitoring fertility at population level is a key part of managing this because?

A
  • Detect problems early
  • Minimises losses
  • More time to put right
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2
Q

What are the fertility outcomes for dairy?

A

Dairy: calve each cow as close to once a year as possible with minimum culling

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3
Q

What are the fertility targets for sheep and beef?

A

Beef/sheep: target calves/lambs per dam per year in tight breeding season with minimum culling

  • Beef – one calf per cow
  • Sheep – depends whether upland or lowland
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4
Q

What are the fertility targets for pigs?

A

•Pigs: maximise piglets weaned per sow per year with min culling

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5
Q

Fertility outcomes may not be the best way to monitor fertility why?

A
  • May be slow to change
  • Lag time such as 9 months in cows before we realise something is wrong!!
  • Often don’t show where the problem is

Will show something is starting to go wrong – but wont show exactly where the problem is

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6
Q

Discuss the pig production cycle?

A
  • Pig cycle starts with farrowing and has piglets with them until weaning (around 28days).
  • When weaning happens they get into oestrus within a few days
  • Then have gestation period – and piglets
  • Interval farrowing to weaning – depends of farm
  • If it takes more than 1 insemination to get pregnant – 21 days to cycle!
  • 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days
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7
Q

Look at this?

A
  • For sow that conceives at first service… What we hope will happen
  • Farrowing to weaning
  • Can measure weaning to oestrus but pigs are good
  • Gestation period
  • Add the above up = cycle
  • Just because they have multiple gestations in a year – they think how many production cycles can we get in a year rather than how long is the cycle
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8
Q

What are the objectives for pig breeding units?

A
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9
Q

If we are acheieving our number of piglets per sow per year we don’t need to look into it otherwise have to look:

A

How many litters per year?

How well back into oestrus?

How well detection of oestrus?

How many services?

How many abortions before full term?

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10
Q

Look at this diagram which shows:

If you’ve got ___(black), then it will show up as ___ (red)

A
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11
Q

Discuss monitoring sheep fertility?

A
  • Extremely seasonal
  • Expectations are high - should get pregnant within first 2 cycles of mating! Don’t really know its gone wrong until it really has
  • Don’t make the same mistake as last year
  • Relatively restricted opportunity to monitor “this season”
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12
Q

Things to assess in sheeps last season performance?

A

Last season’s performance

Lambing %age

  • (lambs born alive / ewes put to ram) x 100
  • Target 120-200% (lowland>upland>hill)
  • Lowland 2 lambs per ewe put to the lamb
  • Others will be 100% as you only want them to have 1.

Weaning %age

•(lambs weaned / ewes put to ram) x 100

Length of lambing period

  • 95% should be within 2 cycles (ie 35 day period). 1 cycle – 17 days.
  • Poor fertility – but leave lamb in for ages. They will probably get pregnant eventually. But will cause yourselves problems – grass growth problems, infection risk long lambing period.

Barren ewes

  • (1-(ewes lambing / ewes put to ram)) x 100
  • Target <2-3% (sheep are good at getting pregnant)
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13
Q

How can the current seasons performance be monitored with regards to sheep?

A

This season’s performance

  • Use of raddle
  • Identifies ewes returning to serve
  • Identifies ewes not served
  • Change the crayon colour at cycle times so you know which cycle conceived/also identify those still at the end of the season mating
  • Use of scanning
  • Identifies empty ewes at end breeding season
  • Estimates lambing %age
  • Common problems are nutrition (energy/ micronutrient) and ram factors – especially those just on grass.
  • Ram factors are important too
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14
Q

Discuss fertility monitoring in beef cattle?

A
  • Almost all herds seasonal calving
  • Major objectives…
  • One calf per cow per year

•90% herd should calve within 9wk period
with 65% in first 3wks

  • <5% barren/empty cows
  • Twins are generally trouble in cows
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15
Q

How can you analyse beef cattle breeding?

A
  • Easy to analyse last breeding season – use centrally devised database
  • Calving distribution
  • Can get data from CTS online (cattle tracing scheme) – telling the government where all the cattle are in the UK. The vet can get permission from farmer to view records.
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16
Q

Discuss beef cattle fertility monitoring?

A
  • Can be difficult to work out what’s going on this season!
  • Vast majority of herds run bull(s) with cows
  • No need for stockpeople to detect oestrus
  • Usually no recording of serves/heats or use of AI
  • Often have PD session after end of breeding season (+/- at/during)
  • Leave bull in for 12 weeks and wait 6 weeks to PD – then vet says how far gone
17
Q
A
18
Q

What often goes wrong with beef cattle fertility?

A

What often goes wrong?

  • Post-partum anoestrus – whilst the calf is suckling hard to get back into oestrus
  • Low pregnancy/conception rate
  • These can be distinguished at PD – examine ovaries of negative cows
  • Unexpectedly high empty – ovaries are all cycling and normal with evidence of CL – problem is conception rate!
  • If you scan all ovaries are tiny with no CL or follicles – more likely to be post partum anoestrus. Hard with this though as the cow may have resumed cyclicity since being in post partum anoestrus
  • Nutrition (energy/ micronutrient), dystocia and bull factors are common causes of poor performance
19
Q

Although calves are a potential for profit Milk is the biggest – the shape of the curve is very pointy. Massive gap between calvings – they wont be in the highest lactation area and will not be justifying the cost of keeping and feeding them

A
20
Q

Dairy production cycle – cows aren’t as good as pigs and sheep to get pregnant. Takes more serves – probably as they are making milk too. Discuss?

Outline when cows are served, how often and what we can measure to look at efficiency and productivity?

A

Served every 22 days until pregnant

Voluntary wait period – gap before we consider getting cow pregnant. Stops short lactation. 35 – 50 days is typical for wait period in UK – depends on farm

Measure – calving to 1st service, calving to conception and gestation period

Calvin interval – number of days between 2 successive calvings. Calving index – calving interval averaged across the herd.

Cows will milk throughout all of this (cf pigs) Then dried out for a set period before due (decided by farm)

21
Q

Interpret this dairy cow data?

A

Red – successful

Then have gestation

65 days calving to 1st service

Calving interval – 387

22
Q

Calculate calving index mean?

A

– 380 days. Aim for 360-375days

23
Q
  • Farm culling policy can affect or “manipulate” calving index…
  • This is often seen in seasonal calving herds:
A
  • Cows not pregnant at the end of a set “breeding season” each year are culled
  • E.g. They will breed for 12 weeks and then those not in calf – culled. This therefore will make your index lower as they don’t have the chance to take ages
  • Imagine if our herd decided to cull all cows that weren’t pregnant by 100 days after calving
24
Q

Discuss calf index and culling?

A
  • Culling if empty at 100 days after calving
  • Calving index = 353 days, cull rate = 50% as cant get pregnant in the time
25
Q

Why not just monitor calving index and culling then?

A

Very slow to respond to changes

•Don’t show where the problem is

Alternatives?

•Consider what needs to happen to have a good CI/low culling… (good fertility performance)

26
Q

What makes good fertility?

What makes godo fertility performance in dairy cattle?

A
27
Q

Discuss measuring heat detection?

Define first service submission rate

A

First service submission rate

  • Measure of: are cows getting their first serve “on time”?
  • % of cows getting first serve within 24 days of VWP ending
  • Target 80%
  • All cows cycling at end of VWP - she should have a heat within 25 days. So what % does this happen to? – that is the first service submission rate
28
Q

What does this show us?

A
  • Voluntary wait period = 50 days
  • First serve sub rate = 3/4 = 75%
  • 24 days interested In is the yellow box. Top cow – success. 2 – fail (not until outside). 3 and 4 – success.
  • This measure doesn’t care if they get pregnant – just if they are served in the first 24 days
  • Roughly saying – farm can detect 75% of oestrus
29
Q

Discuss Inter-service intervals?

A

Need to identify those who need to serving again

Look at the days between successive serves

2 intervals at 21 days

Cow 2 – 2 intervals at a gap of 42 days (she probably had a heat in the middle that was missed)

Cow 3 – pregnant fist time so no inter service intervals

Collect all the intervals across the herd! Look at how they compare to what we expect. Normal cycle is 18-24 days so hope the intervals fall into this

30
Q

Look at this Inter-service intervals graph?

A
31
Q

What goes wrong with heat detection?

A
32
Q

Discuss measuring pregnancy rate in dairy cattle?

A

Proportion of serves leading to a pregnancy

  • Outcome ideally via PD
  • Can also use non-return to serve or next calving
  • Tells us whether the serves worked or not
  • Also commonly known as “conception rate”
  • Technically not as they may conceive and loose it – but will not be recorded in this rate
  • Target >35-40%
  • Associated with milk yield

•Lower targets for
higher yielding herds?

•It is the pregnancy rate – but will hear it called conception rate

33
Q

What goes wrong with rates of pregnancy?

A

What goes wrong?

  • Many factors
  • Most common – nutrition and within that – energy balance

Farm Animal Final Year (131 decks)

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