A.I. & BREEDING

“Pregnant.”

Hearing that word during herd check is music to every dairy farmer’s ears. And it should be.

Some dairy producers who are breeding for beef crossbreds are only looking at two things: the price of semen and getting an animal that is as black as possible.

As an industry, we talk a lot about certain cows or groups of cows being “hard breeders.” Yet rarely do we talk about the fact that, often, human decisions are the reason cows aren’t able to become pregnant efficiently, not necessarily the A.I. program.

When we look at farm profitability, we know that reproduction is a critical component. If cows get pregnant on time, they produce more milk, have shorter calving intervals and give birth to more replacements.

Creating a pregnancy requires your keen attention to animal health and welfare through a cow’s entire lactation. The road to creating a pregnancy begins long before you actually inseminate the cow.

The journey a unit of semen takes from arrival at the farm until placement in a cow is very important. Maintaining maximum fertility weighs heavily on the care and handling it receives from all members of the management team.