Back up to the Orchard country of Armagh. Dairy herds up here are still indoors with no opportunity of getting out to grass. Farmers are at the stage of breeding programs that they wish to introduce bulls for AI as part of the bredding program. Many of these individuals want to get an assessment of reproductive status to tidy up the breeding program. They need to make an assessment of cows that have not yet been diagnosed pregnant and to synchronize these cows before they go out to grass. Many farmers make the claim that the pregnancy rate after turn out to grass decreases and that they cannot get cows settled in calf. From a research prospective it is very difficult to draw conslusions on this hypothesis with fertility management program incorporating cows that are primarly an autumn calving herd.Many of these cows will have failed to go in calf during the winter. They are repeat breeders and for various reasons have reproductive problems resulting in low pregnancy rates to services. At this stage of the season, farmers want to turn cows out to grass, put a stock bull with them and focus on other management issues on the farm. Temperatures have dropped back down to freezing point at the beginning of this week and it is expected to get very cold with a northern air flow for the remainder of the week. This has set back grass growth and the delay in turnign cows out to grass. Many farmers are feeding the second cut silages which are of poor quality, resulting in poor reproductive performance and this accerbates the apparent poor fertility among repeat breeders and late calving cows.
www.cows365.com