Any profitable, sustainably dairy farming operation has strong reproductive performance. Behind this success is optimal nutrition, cow health, heat detection, and timely breeding.
A cow's lifetime fertility or fertility cycle performance is shaped by every stage of her life—from calf and heifer rearing through first mating, pregnancy and calving, and subsequent reproductive cycles. Achieving great reproductive results requires attention to detail at every stage. Craft farm-specific reproductive plans to align with the cow's fertility cycle to maximise pregnancy rates and achieve calving and production goals.
Dairy cow reproduction basics:
- If you are not measuring, you are guessing.
- Good reproductive records provide a benchmark for improvement and a way to measure progress.
- Set realistic fertility targets over time and use herd records to track performance.
- Grow good young stock (i.e. replacement heifers)
- Heifers reaching their target weights are more likely to conceive, calve on time, milk well, and get back in calf quickly.
- Target heifer liveweight of 60 percent of mature bodyweight at first mating, and 90 percent of mature bodyweight at first calving.
- Healthy animals are more likely to get in calf.
- Starts with good transition cow management and nutrition.
- Target:
- Less than three percent milk fever cases within 14 days of calving
- Less than one percent clinical ketosis.
- Less than five percent clinical mastitis within 14 days of calving.
- Less than four percent lameness.
- Target:
- Starts with good transition cow management and nutrition.
- Body Condition Score (BCS) matters. Cows that are too fat or too thin have lower fertility and are less likely to cycle which reduces breeding opportunities, and lowers conceptions rates.
- Target BCS between 4.5 and 5.5 at calving. This takes planning in late lactation and the dry period to achieve these goals.
- Good nutrition reduces the risk of deficiencies compromising reproductive success.
- High herd fertility requires cows to achieve body condition targets through balanced nutrition.
- Manage transition diets to minimise energy, protein, and mineral deficits around calving.
- Support glucose and insulin levels in early lactation to improve fertility and cow health.
- Optimise Dry Matter Intake (DMI).
- Consider strategic use of starch, grains, or energy supplements appropriate to the farm system.
- Use bypass fats to increase dietary energy, improve energy balance, and reduce metabolic disease risk.
Understanding the basics of cow fertility, and building them into your system, makes for better reproductive planning. With this knowledge in hand, you can target your investments and efforts into the area improvement is needed to find greater success.
