What Can We Learn From Over 500,000 Cattle Pregnancy Tests?
As a producer, understanding cattle fertility is crucial to ensuring the productivity and profitability of your business. Cattle fertility refers to the ability of your cattle to reproduce, and it is influenced by several factors, including genetics, nutrition, and management practices. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of understanding cattle fertility and how it may stack up against industry averages. We looked at over 500,000 pregnancy tests to identify what the fertility trends were over time and how they rank in 2023.
Heifer performance
Heifer performance relates to the weight and age that a heifer is able to first conceive. This varies throughout geographies and across breeds. Whilst heifer age is not always recorded many producers either choose to join heifers at approximately 12 months or 24 months old. This management practice influences the data on heifer performance however a number of studies have identified that in Northern Australia most heifers reach puberty at around 325kg live weight. Our data and “weight at conception” insight corroborates this however there is a large deviation with some heifers able to conceive at 250kg whilst others need to surpass 400kg live weight before conceiving.
Wet rebreed
Wet rebreed refers to the percentage of animals that were successfully able to conceive whilst lactating. This measure takes into account the cases of early weaning and considers factors such as foetal age, lactation tests and date. Of over 500,000 pregnancy tests only 29% were found to have conceived whilst lactating. This indicates that most breeders require weaning to happen before successfully conceiving again. This has been found in a variety of studies and is referred to as a lactational anaoestrus. This finding is also backed up by the “calf to calf period” insight. This insight indicates the number of months between successful calving. The average across the dataset is 18.6 months between calves. Which roughly equates to two calves in three years. This can be linked to lactational anoestrous and weaning generally occurs at 6-9 months post calving. There is significant variation across locations.
Calf or foetal loss
Calf or foetal loss takes into account the difference between confirmed pregnancies and the number of weaners produced. This means the loss could have occurred with foetal loss - post pregnancy testing, calving loss - still burns, or calf loss - to weaning. Our data showed that in 2021 there was an average of 5.3% confirmed cases of calf or foetal loss. Further investigation would beauties into the reason and timing of the loss.
So why is this important to understand?
1. Cattle fertility directly impacts your profitability
Breeders that have low conception rates or delayed conception will require more time and resources to manage, resulting in higher production costs. Those cattle that are not culled due to poor performance will continue to contribute too poor herd genetics, increased cost and lower revenue.
2. Understanding cattle fertility can help you optimise breeding programs
Optimising your breeding program is critical to maintaining and improving your herd's genetic traits. By understanding cattle fertility such as weight at conception you can identify which cows are more likely to conceive and produce healthy calves. This knowledge allows you to focus your breeding efforts on the most fertile cows, improving the overall productivity and genetic quality of your herd.
3. Proper nutrition and management practices can improve cattle fertility
Proper nutrition and management practices can significantly improve cattle fertility. Providing your breeders with supplements that meets their nutritional needs can improve their reproductive performance. Similarly, proper management practices such as timely vaccinations, parasite control, and regular monitoring can help prevent and treat reproductive diseases and conditions that can negatively impact fertility.
In conclusion, understanding cattle fertility is vital for any producer who wants to maximize their farm's productivity and profitability. By focusing on optimizing your breeding program, providing proper nutrition, and implementing good management practices, you can improve the fertility of your cattle, resulting in healthier calves and a more profitable business. Take the time to learn about the factors that influence cattle fertility and implement practices that can help you measure and improve it.
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