Remember the good old days of 4% empty rates?

Over the last few years, weather notwithstanding, these empty rates have risen so that 10% empties is considered a pretty good result; and last year 15% was average.

There have been quite a few herds with 20%+ empties this last season; if you typically keep 25% replacements, you have little room for culling and your herd deteriorates. The herd’s profile quickly ages if you try to maintain numbers from inside the herd.  There can only be limited culling for production or faults, and the herd’s productive improvement and BW/PW will remain static at best. This will have serious short and long term effects on farm profitability.

Apart from all the usual suspects and reasons for high empty rates, these possibilities for empty cows can also be added to the list:

• Facial eczema, theileria, BVD, etc
• Foetal re-absorption or the egg not implanting successfully, where cows are vetted in-calf in February but turn up empty later on
• Is excessive N limiting oxygen transfer to the foetus through the amniotic fluid?
• Sub-clinical stress: are our cows now producing so well that they have no more energy left to buffer a new pregnancy? 
• When you have a few extra empties than the previous season, these are the go-to things most farmers use to try to minimise them in the coming year.
• Look after the cows especially well, don’t push them too hard (use the topper to clean paddocks out) and continually offer high ME feed. 
• Feed the cows well, with a rising plane of nutrition; even add in some high energy feed – and you had a CS 5.0+ at calving as well.
• Get enough bulls.
• Put any poor breeders to beef bulls, and use high fertility bull genetics.
• Staff are well trained, and use top husbandry and animal health practices.
• Get the cows macro and micro-mineral requirements just right.
• Metri-check/cure all the at-risk cows.
• Use heat detection aids, e.g. patches or other technology.
• Put extra effort into allocating pasture properly including feed budgets.

But what do you do when you’ve done all that and things are still not improving? 

More and more I believe the cows are ‘maxing out’. We have bred such superb lactating athletes on our pastoral system that they often have nothing left to give.  Any extra stress or challenge will simply encourage anoestrus.

There has been a groundswell of change over recent seasons.  Farmers are doing all those things above, but are adding back something that has been given insufficient credence over the years – good old-fashioned stockmanship. Far too much has been done to the cows, and not nearly enough has been done for the cows.

For the last 15+ years, I ask most of my farmers to identify their non-cycling and at risk cows (e.g. skinny/late calving/young) before the start of mating.  These cows are separated from the main herd, and are put onto once-a-day milking at the start of mating.  These cows were either run with the bull, artificially inseminated or a mixture of both.  

Most of this mob is kept on OAD until the end of the main herd’s AI programme, and then go back into the herd on twice-a-day (2AD) at the end of AI.  If a cow is in good condition and mated, then she can re-join the 2AD herd when mated.  If she is still light, she stays on OAD until the end of AI so that she stays in-calf.

Every single farmer has recorded a reduction in empty rates from this OAD group compared to previous seasons – every single one.  Those who ran them with the bull achieved the best results.  Often this group of animals – the ‘worst of the worst’, had better mating results than the main herd – typically getting from 2-10% empties in this group.

I have some farmers putting their at-risk cows onto OAD before the PSM, whilst others are waiting until two-three weeks into mating to do this.  The important point is that something is being done.  For a light cow, or a cow that has been sick or lame or that had a tough calving, the best thing a farmer can do is give that cow time on OAD.

Some observations from the farmers concerned:

These at-risk cows held their condition, they went back onto 2AD well, and lasted to the end of the season.

These cows had numerous quick returns – every 5-10 days, and they often got AI’d.

The bull was having a strong teaser effect.

The main herd also appeared to cycle better when they saw the bull with this herd of OAD cows.

These are strictly farmer observations, and have no scientific data to back them up, just a lot of farmers realising they are onto something.  All these farmers told me emphatically that they will do the same again this coming year -- and they do.

It is far too important for our profitability to go quietly into the night on this empty cow issue.  

But if you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got; be prepared to do something about the problem.