OCTOBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Timed


insemination can boost conception


by DAVID SCHMIDT ABBOTSFORD –


Reproduction and milk production are intimately linked for mammals. But has the dairy industry focused on productivity at the expense of reproduction? Dr. Matt Lucy of the


University of Missouri told BC dairymen as much during the BC Dairy Expo in Abbotsford last January.


Hormones critical for


producing high volumes of milk in early lactation are “out of sync” with those needed to produce gametes for reproduction, Lucy said. High production also reduces the signs and duration of estrus, making it more difficult to detect heats and effectively time insemination. “There is an antagonism


between growth hormones (which create glucose for milk production) and insulin (which drives glucose back into the liver),” Lucy said, noting a healthy liver is critical for good reproduction. “Cows have low glucose in their liver early in lactation because they use it to produce milk.” To ensure a healthy liver, farmers need to get a cow’s body condition score (BCS) right during the dry period and at freshening. Cows should have a BCS of 3.25 at dry-off and not have an excessive BCS at calving. “Too fat is worse than too


thin,” Lucy says. He says conception rates in


dairy cattle “reached a crisis point” in 2000, dropping to less than 20% at first service. As first steps to increasing those rates, he urges the use of activity monitors to improve heat detection and high-fertility sires to improve conception. If that still doesn’t bring first service conception rates to over 40%, he recommends timed AI. “Over 72% of upper


Midwest herds are now using synched reproduction,” he reported, saying timed AI programs are constantly improving and now have a success rate of well over 50%. He admits timed AI is a


controversial practice but insists, “this is where we’re at right now.” Lucy expects genetic


selection for high-producing healthy cows will eventually reverse current trends. Until then, timed AI programs may be the only option for many farmers.


YEE HAW! With teeth and hands clenched, driver Mike Kiemele of Vulcan, AB navigates his chuckwagon ponies around the end of the pen at the Salmon Arm Fair, September 10. Ten teams raced at Salmon Arm this year, much to the delight of fairgoers. LINDSAY BARTKO PHOTO


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