There are several obvious reasons why focusing on reproduction is always a good idea. The approaching summer heat, and the current low milk prices are immediate reminders that producers need to zero in on every opportunity to get cows pregnant and capture more on-farm dollars with intense management of reproductive programs.

Though it may sound like a matter of semantics, I’ve always felt that, from a management perspective, that dairy producers are less in the business of making milk but rather in the business of making babies. High production, quality beef sales, and heifer sales can be viewed as a by-product of doing a good job of making lots of babies. This perhaps is an oversimplification, but it can help keep the herd management team focused on the more controllable and inclusive concept of managing the herd for reproduction, from calves to cows. Focusing on keeping more cows in the most profitable portion of their lactation curves can help replace the loss of “nutrition” milk, as feed supplements are taken out of diets to reduce ration costs, with “management” milk.

While the importance of cow comfort, milk quality, transition cow management, and nutrition and rumen health cannot be overstated as they relate to reproductive success, let’s focus on the analysis, management and application of reproductive programs to get cows bred.

Listed below are 10 recommendations to help get your head into the “reproductive state of mind”. Work (cited below) by Dr. Paul Fricke of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Bill Stone of Diamond V, Dr. Klibs Galvao of Cornell University (contact me for exact reference articles and studies, which were omitted in the interest of space) were used for this article.

1. Be aggressive with visual heat detection, even with the use of OVSYNCH, especially when your OVSYCNH results are sub-par. Also, heat detection should be everybody’s responsibility.

2. Focus less on conception rate (CR) and services per conception (SPC), and more on pregnancy palpation rate (PPR- the % of eligible cows checked pregnant at herd check), 1st service PPR, total number of pregnancies and % of cows checked pregnant to 1st and 2nd service.

3. Abandon CO-Synch. Work by Dr. Fricke has determined that, though a convenient program, it does not optimize the timing of insemination with the timing of ovulation.

4. Tweak OVSYNCH (see illustration for OVSYNCH protocol). A 56 hour interval between the PGF injection and the GnRH injection has been demonstrated to be more effective than a 48 hour interval (Fricke).

5. Tweak Pre-Synch (see illustration). Although a 14 day interval between the second PGF injection and the initiation of OVSYNCH is convenient, a 12 day interval has been demonstrated to be more effective (Galvao).

6. Use Re-Synch to shorten the breeding interval found open at herd check. For example, cows checked at 40 days bred should receive a GnRH injection at 33 days. If found open, the cows are already half way through OVSYNCH. Administer PGF and finish the protocol. Pregnant cows will not be affected by the GnRH.

7. Enforce strict compliance with the above protocols!!

8. Cull difficult breeding heifers; they are most likely going to mature into difficult breeding cows and have difficult breeding offspring. View poor reproductive performance as you do poor leg or udder conformation, or poor milk performance. Why perpetuate the problem?

9. Set and comply with strict semen handling standards. Also, just because you have ten cows locked up doesn’t mean you should load 10 guns. The best programs I’ve been part of bred cows one at a time.

10. Regularly re-check cows for pregnancy, especially if the first pregnancy exam occurs less than 40 days after breeding.
Finally, as in every area of management, it is of extreme importance to keep sound records, correlate them with other areas of management, review them regularly, and keep an open mind to change. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice either!
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