The answer to poor reproductive performance

For empty rates the average is 10 per cent whereas the top quarter of farmers achieve 5 per cent.
InCalf is the New Zealand dairy industry answer to the unfavourable trend in herd reproductive performance observed during the past 20 or so years.
During this time the emphasis has been on growing grass and breeding cows capable of turning this grass into large quantities of milk.
With improved genetics, new grass varieties and better grass management New Zealand dairy farmers have succeeded in increasing farm production and in particular the per hectare production.
The unfortunate downside of more cows to the hectare and more intensive farming in general is cows at critical times are not always being fed to capacity and are not always in ideal condition to get in calf.
Getting in calf is particularly an issue in New Zealand because cows need to calve at the same time each year so that their peak milk production coincides with the peak grass growth of spring.
To improve their reproductive performance some farmers have come to rely on artificial means of getting cows in calf.
Although these methods work to a degree they are not sustainable, hence the advent of InCalf.
InCalf is a learning package of tools, resources and training for both dairy farmers and their advisers.
It was developed for Australian dairy farmers, but has undergone extensive revision to adapt it to New Zealand conditions.
In the average New Zealand herd, two-thirds of cows are pregnant in six weeks.
In the top performers over three-quarters are pregnant in the same period.
For empty rates the average is 10 per cent whereas the top quarter of farmers achieve 5 per cent.
The first thing InCalf does therefore is provide farmers a means of assessing their herd's reproductive performance through the InCalf Fertility Focus report.
Another fundamental thing that the InCalf project provides is trained advisers who can help farmers identify the key fertility management areas that can be improved, and also show the benefits of those improvements to farm profitability.
The InCalf advisers also have various tools that they can use to help establish a plan and help make sure the plan is implemented. Farmers will get the most out of InCalf through an integrated approach of combining their own knowledge with the support from an InCalf trained adviser.
In many ways InCalf is "back to the future" in that it concentrates on basic principles of good husbandry such as growing good young stock and having milking cows well fed and in good condition. The reason that the InCalf programme is so successful is that it adapts those principles to modern farming and provides the tools and advisers to devise and implement a plan specific to a particular farm.
Te Puke Veterinary Centre has two fully trained InCalf advisers.
Any farmer wanting to make a real sustainable improvement to their herd's reproductive performance should be using InCalf. Contact us for further information.