Reproduction: Suckler Cow Fertility Management Flashcards
What drives suckler herd production?
- Cow fertility
- Calf managment
- Restricted breeding season
- Best calving season
- Bull fertility/evaluation
- Good herd health
- Breeding/record evaluation
- Replacement managment
What are the targets for the following?
1. Calves weaned/cows to bull
2. Mating period
3. Preg rate
4. Abortion rate
5. Calving rate
6. 21 day calving date
7. Perinatal mortality
8. Calf death 1 month- weaning
9. Weaned calf weight/ cow weight
- 88 calves to 100 cows
- 9-12 weeks
- > 95%
- < 2%
- > 93 %
- > 65%
- < 5%
- < 2%
- 50%
How can performance be monitored compared to previous records?
% pregnant 21 days
% pregnant in 63 days
Median calving date
Over all PR
Calving rate
Weaning rate
What are the benefits of a compact calving rate?
- Cow reproductive fitness
- Favourable environment
- Heifer selection
- Managment procedures
- Disease control
- Calving supervision/work efficiency
- Strategic nutrition
- Homogenous group at sale
Tight calving = lower culling
What aspects affect fertility after calving?
- Post partum uterine involution
- Lactational oestrus- 30 days
- Post partum oestrus- 20% conception 60-80% conception 3rd pp oestrus
How long is cows gestation?
Therefore how long is allowed for cow to get pregnant?
283 days gestation
therefore 82 days to get pregnant
Why does tight early calving give higher efficiency?
- Allows more rest time
- Conceive to first oestrus
- If not over years conceive later and later
- When should replacements be selected?
- What is the target age of 1st calving
- When should heifers be calved compared to rest of herd?
- Why should heifers be weaned early?
- What should heifers breeding period be restricted to?
- Early born calves- max age and growth
- 2 yo- limit rearing costs
- 3-4 weeks before- extra time before next breeding
- Heifer still growing
- 6 weeks
How does being born later affect calf mortality?
Increases mortality risk
Pathogen exposure
* Pathogen multiplier
* Older calves risk to younger
Dystocia risk may increase
* Supervision exhaustion
* Calving area hygiene
* overconditioning of late
How can spread be stopped?
- Spring and autumn
- Cull late calvers, replace with early heifers
- Restrict suckling and use hormones in late calvers
- Manage BCS
- Limit peri-parturient problems
What are the pros and cons of spring vs autumn calving
What are alternatives to bull?
- Triple oestrus synchrony and AI
- Single synchrony and sweeper
- Serve to detected oestrus
What are the advantages to AI?
Genetics
* wider choice
* targeted selectoin
* known traits- EBV
Avoid keeping bull
* H & S
* Logisitics
* Biosecurity
* Bull breaking down
What are the main issues of beef cow nutrition?
- Not maintaining BCS
- Absolute deifiency
- Not allowing for gorwth in 1st calver
What are the effect of the following mineral deficiencies?
1. Copper
2. Cobalt
3. Selenium
4. Iodine
5. Manganese
- Delayed puberty, anoestrus, poor PregR
- Silent heat, poor CR
- RFM
- Embryonic death, still birth, weak calves
- Anoestrus, silent heat, delayed ovulation
