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AUTUMN 2016 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
8
DAIRY FERT I L I TY
Anna comments: ‘After the blood sampling
had taken place, we noticed several of the
cows had clinical copper deficiency:
‘spectacles’ around the eyes, through hair
loss. The soil in this area is high in
molybdenum and hence so is the forage.
This binds copper up so it’s not available to
the cow.‘
Six months later, in early June, it was time to
consider whether another bolus treatment was
needed. Wary of creating a problem of
copper toxicity, Anna arranged for one of her
colleagues to take liver biopsies. Copper
levels were found to be normal.
However, iodine levels were still low. ‘We
put this down to the late lactation cows not
having as much cake, and so not getting their
iodine requirements from that,‘ explains Anna.
‘So, for the dry cow group, I prescribed an
off-licence treatment of the water with
potassium iodide, to make up the deficiency
before they calved.‘
Better heat detection
Steve says: ‘We are now spending more time
observing for heats. Someone will now check
the cows after lunch which we never used to
do before. And there’s a whiteboard in the
dairy where people can record cows seen
bulling.
Anna adds: ‘Although everyone is being more
vigilant, and Simon and Steve take turns
making night time checks on the herd, high
yielding cows are often only on heat for a
few hours, or may have silent heats.
‘So it’s not enough to just look for cows
standing or mounting. Other signs to watch
for are sniffing, a drop in milk yield because
the cow is holding milk back, or waiting to
see which cows go and stand down the end
of the shed where they can see the bull! In
fact, having a bull around is a good way of
getting cows to show when they’re on heat.‘
Scratch cards had been used in the past as
an aid to heat detection, and following the
joint meeting, it was decided that tailpaint
would now be used. It can be applied very
liberally and is easier to see! This has helped
identify animals on heat but not seen bulling.
AI technique improved
If using frozen semen then AI technique will
also have an influence on a herd’s fertility
statistics, as will how the semen is handled
before it goes into the cow.
At Manor Farm, inseminations are carried
out by Steve, except once a fortnight on his
weekend off, when cover is provided by a
specialist third party company.
Steve had learnt how to AI on a course
back in 1999, and had done one
refresher course since then, inseminating
live cows with straws of coloured dye,
and then looking at the results using an
ultrasound scanner.
Anna explains: ‘More cows were now
being served through better heat detection,
but this disappointingly wasn’t resulting in
that many more pregnancies. So I
tentatively suggested to Steve that he might
like to have a refresher AI session. And was
relieved he didn’t take offence, and agreed
to once!‘
In June this year, Anna gave Steve a one
hour one-to-one training session: she
watched his methodology using some
actual cows’ uteruses so he could ‘see’
what he was doing.
Anna says: ‘Over time, the recommended
techniques for AI have changed. Steve was
really careful not to put the gun in too far.
But he’d been taught to release the semen
as he withdrew the gun. This meant less
semen was deposited in the ideal place.
So I’ve shown Steve a better technique and
advised him take more time to warm
the gun.
‘Also, the temperature of warm water
can fall, even on a warm day. So I
recommended the purchase of a
thermostatic water bath to ensure semen
quality doesn’t suffer.
‘Another small improvement, still to be
made, is to improve the lighting above the
liquid nitrogen container, so that straws
don’t have to be lifted so far out of the
freezing zone.‘
Next steps
Anna would like to see the farm invest in
activity collars, as a next step in improving
the spotting of heats. But Steve says he
and Simon want to make sure everything
else is right before making that move.
It will take time for the full impact of all the
changes to be reflected in the herd’s fertility
statistics. However there have already
been improvements in heat expression and
target-setting has helped focus effort.
Measurable improvements that have been
seen so far include: the 3-month rolling
conception rate is currently 35%, up from
29% a year ago; the pregnancy rate (% of
cows eligible for service that conceived) is
currently 18%, up from 12% last year. At
the last milk recording, half of the herd
was recorded as in-calf, a figure that has
been running at around 40% for years.
Anna adds: ‘These are high yielding cows
and changes to their routine like TB testing
or dietary changes can upset them. I’m
now seeing around four pregnancies most
weeks, but I’d like to see this target being
met more consistently.‘
Tailpaint
Thermostatic water bath
Steve keeping figures up to date