5 Reproductive Records To Watch
By Shannon Linderoth | 3/15/2002
Reprinted from Dairy Herd Management Online
Dairy offices are awash with data. Whether you've got papers overflowing from filing cabinet drawers or details neatly digitized on computer disks, you're inundated with facts and figures. And thanks to technology, you can pull reports for virtually any of the records that you keep. Even if you are numbers-inclined, all of this information can be difficult to translate into necessary action.
However, monitoring your herd's reproductive performance from this fountain of facts doesn't have to be complicated, or time-consuming. Focus on a few key areas to determine whether your program is going according to plan.
This means dropping some measurement tools from your repertoire and adding others. By using five key areas to measure current herd performance, you can decide whether current performance meets your goals, and determine what management changes, if any, are needed to improve performance.
Avoid Averages
Traditionally, producers have used measures like average calving interval, average days open, annual heat detection rates and annual first service conception rate to judge their reproductive programs. But experts are skeptical as to the relevance of these parameters in making timely management decisions.
With average days open, for example, you immediately have an accuracy dilemma since you must decide which animals to even include in the equation. Do you include all cows in the herd for the time frame beginning with the most recent calving through the latest insemination? Do you include culled cows? Or cows you've elected not to breed? Or cows that have never been serviced?
There is no standard industry calculation, so accurate comparisons between herds, or even within herds if definitions change, become difficult.
The measurement also reflects significant lag time between current performance and past activity. And, it doesn't reflect individual cows with extremely high ... Read More...