20. Mating of dairy cows: Part One. Effects of nutrition on 3-week submission rate

The Rumen Room Podcasts

For seasonally mated dairy cows, 3-week submission rate is an important driver of a herds reproductive efficiency. There’re a huge number of factors that influence 3-week submission rate including but not limited to the nutrition of dairy cows. In part one of this two-part podcast series about dairy nutrition and submission rates, we’ll first explore how submission rate contributes to reproductive efficiency, through the role of submission rate influencing our 6-week in calf rates. We’ll then move onto the challenge of anoestrus (“non-cycler”) cows and how these non-cycler cows will, if not treated by your vet, reduce your 3-week submission rate. Risk factors for anoestrus cows are explored and we'll discuss how you can examine what might have happened through calving and during lactation to cause more anoestrus cows that you normally have to deal with.

In part two of this two-part podcast series (episode 21), we’ll cover the challenge of the “slow calving rate-slow submission rate-slow calving rate cycle” that farms sometimes get trapped in, and some things to think about around how to start to break out of this cycle of reproductive inefficiency. The topic of why cycling cows sometimes stop cycling again through peak lactation is discussed. The challenge of “silent heats” or cows that ovulate but don’t show signs of heat is covered, as well as a brief discussion around heat detection efficiency.