Waikato DairyNZ Farmwatch for week ending October 6

Photo / DairyNZ

Waikato farm data for the week ending Friday, October 6.

COMMENT

By DairyNZ

How many cows should you be submitting for AB per day or per week to achieve at least a 90 per cent three-week submission rate?

You need to be putting up 30 per cent of the herd for AB for each of the first three weeks or averaging between 4 and 4.5 per cent of the herd a day.

For every 100 cows this is 30 cows a week or an average of 4 to 4.5 cows a day.

Farmwatch graphic / DairyNZ

If you are using CIDRs this will skew the number of cows you should submit to reach 90 per cent.

If you CIDR 20 per cent of the herd, the number of non-CIDRed cows you need each week is 100 x (90 per cent - 20 per cent) ÷3 or 70 ÷ 3 = 23 cows per week, plus the CIDRed cows.

So, if the CIDRed cows are mated in week one, you should submit 43 cows in week one, and 23 cows a week for weeks two and three.

Don’t forget to let your AI tech, and/or your supplier know if you have unusually high numbers due, so they can plan their run and supplies.

By having an expectation of weekly SR targets, you can potentially take action if you are not on target, such as looking at heat detection technique or reassessing the number of bulls you may need.