By Dr. John Yost
In my part of the world the breeding season ended about a month ago. Bulls were pulled, and attention shifted to calf weaning and cow pregnancy diagnosis. When the time comes, you will have the opportunity to collect valuable production data, that when added to your birth records, can allow for an evaluation of your herd performance and management style. Purebred seedstock producers will be collecting this information to report to their respective breed associations, but commercial producers may be filing this data away without giving it a thorough look. Although the bulls may be in a distant pasture, don’t forget about using this data, and other information you could collect, to evaluate their contribution to your success.
How did he handle the breeding season?
A bull’s fertility can fluctuate during the breeding season. He may have passed a spring breeding soundness exam with flying colors but was he able to maintain his fertility throughout the breeding season? I imagine your goal is that everyone gets bred. More realistically, most would be happy with a 90 to 95% conception rate, and as an industry we are closer to 85% in a 60 day breeding season. When palpating cows, determine the percentage of your cows that were successfully bred during the first 21 days of the breeding season verse those that caught towards the end or were found open.
The goal should be for about 65% of your cows to have conceived during this period with the remaining 20 to 30% catching over the next 40 days. If you had early success, but your late season results were less than expected you will want to make sure you can rule the bull out as a source of your problems.
Source : osu.edu