PUT TIME ON YOUR SIDE
THEY ONLY WISH THEY HAD INSTALLED SEMEX AI24™ SOONER Jake Kempel, Semex Partner Development Manager
A walk through Fertile Ridge Dairy makes a lot of dairymen jealous. The cows are comfortable and relaxed. They’re all well-conditioned, are a medium size and are lying in sand-bedded free stalls that are well-equipped with lots of fans and sprinklers, leaving no doubt that cow care is a priority for the fourth generation of Sutters at the heart of this family-owned operation. Located in the scenic hills west of Madison, Wisconsin near Mt. Horeb, Fertile Ridge Dairy has gone through a series of expansions since 1903, including the most recent in 2010 which brought them up to 600 head of Holsteins. This same year they also built a brand new calf barn, making calf care easier and allowing them to utilize pasteurized milk. Gary Sutter and his son Joel maintain a 90 lb/cow/day average with a 4.0% Fat, 3.0% protein and 150 SCC. Gary is the dairy’s overall manager and is in charge of their 1400 acres of alfalfa, corn, soybeans and wheat and the dairy’s manure management. Joel specializes in animal care, devoting the majority of his time to breeding, reproduction, health, herd management and overseeing the next generation of Fertile Ridge ladies. The challenges of visual heat detection and cow health grew with the herd.
“I was spending too much time every day trying to catch all the cows in heat and looking over the cows that I thought were not feeling 100%,” says Joel. “I was looking for a way to devote more of my time to just cows that needed my attention. I was also relying more on timed AI, and was trying to catch sick cows earlier in order to prevent drastic treatments and drops in milk production.”
“We thought they were prime candidates for ai24,” says McCullough. “We’d had other customers with similar concerns. Everyone wants to dedicate time to the cows that need it most and ai24 helps them do just that.” ai24’s unique rumination monitoring and its ability to identify early signs of illness was extremely appealing to the Sutters. Joel also liked the fact that milk weights will be incorporated into the system in the future, and that it interfaces with PC DART and can be monitored on his smart phone, making it a true ‘whole herd management’ system. Fertile Ridge installed the ai24 Data Flow 2 System in late April 2012. Joel caught on to the system very quickly and things were clicking for him by early June. He noticed very quickly that he was finding more cows in heat.
“I am catching more cows in heat and spending roughly two hours less per day to do it!” says Joel. “I was
utilizing the pre-sych/ov-sych protocol with a cherry pick before. I am now cherry picking twice before enrolling cows into ov-sych to take advantage of the heat detection ai24 gives me. This allows me to get more cows bred sooner with fewer shots.” Sutter was quick to add that they have seen a two-third reduction in hormone costs while cutting the synchronization rate from 40% to 10%. The ai24 system was being fully utilized with the new protocol at the beginning of July with most of the following results from the summer months: • From July to October 2011: 46% Heat Detection Rate, and 640 animals bred Continued on next page
Semex’s District Sales Representative Kurt McCullough and I listened closely to Joel and the Sutter family.
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• From July to October 2012: 56% Heat Detection Rate, and 804 animals bred • September and October of 2011: Heat Detection Rate was 40-50% • September and October of 2012: Heat Detection Rate ranged from 60-70% Benefits from the rumination collar are mounting at Fertile Ridge. Joel gets collars on cows three weeks prior to calving so he can monitor them even prior to their critical calving times. He uses the system to quickly identify sick cows and fresh cows off to a sluggish start in their lactation. He is also able to monitor each pen and the whole herd rumination levels to monitor ration changes, pen changes, weather effects, sorting, slug feeding, and many other key influences to the dairy’s bottom line. “I no longer look at large groups of fresh cows,” says Joel. “ai24 identifies the problem cows for me and I can focus my time on these animals instead of those in the group that will take care of themselves. It is also letting me know if a cow has health issues pre or post calving and I can monitor the treatments I give to them to see if it worked or I need to re-treat. If the rumination is lower than normal, I know something is going on. If it’s consistent I don’t worry about her.”
“We keep getting better as we go. We’re now working with Semex to perfect the insemination timing on our dairy to maximize our conception rates on every breeding.”
L to R: Semex’s Kurt McCullough & Bryan Marcoot and Fertile Ridge’s Joel Sutter
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“The only thing I wish I would have done differently is I would have put the system in sooner,” says Joel. The Sutters have been extremely happy to see a quick payback on the ai24 system. “On a month-to-month basis, we’re paying for the technology with our drug cost savings,” Joel says. Factoring in all aspects of the system, Sutter feels ai24 will easily pay for itself in a year to year and a half. “I enjoy working with Kurt and Jake on bull selection and tweaking my reproduction program and protocols. We look at what’s going well, what needs to be improved and discuss options on how to improve. It’s a good system that I would recommend to anyone out there.”
Don’t just take our word for it Sarah Johnsen & Amanda Buschor, Majestic View Dairy LLC, Lancaster, Wisconsin
“The rumination monitoring is a cuttingedge tool. The activity monitoring combined with rumination monitoring gives us a very skilled set of eyes watching the herd at all times. .”
Ethan Heinzmann, Herdsman, Golden Oaks Dairy, Wauconda, Illinois with Nate Janssen, Dairy Operations Manager GOLDEN OAKS DAIRY 700 COWS WAUCONDA, ILLINOIS AI24™ CUSTOMER SINCE 2011
MAJESTIC VIEW DAIRY LLC 900 COWS LANCASTER, WISCONSIN AI24™ CUSTOMER SINCE 2010
“ai24™ gives us the best possible reproductive strategy,” says Pete Dueppengiesser. “The heats that ai24™ gives us are 100% accurate. It’s there every minute of every day, and it’s 100% reliable. The support we’ve gotten from Semex is outstanding.”
“During a six month time frame we increased our pregnancy rate by 4%,” says Sarah. “We’re getting more cows pregnant. We’ve been at 62% pregnant and 12% open after 150 days – the number of pregnancies has gone up. Once this system is paid off, it’s paid off. You don’t have to keep buying it – it will save us $17,000 or more every year.” “People ask us about getting rid of shots and debate other systems out there,” says Amanda. “We were convinced that this is the better system and the support we get from Semex is hard to beat, and we know the battery life is 7-10 years. I wouldn’t want to try anything else.”
Ron Ikeler, Herdsman, and Pete Dueppengiesser, Owner, of Dueppengiesser Dairy Company and Ransom Rail Holsteins, Perry, New York DUEPPENGIESSER DAIRY 1100 COWS PERRY, NEW YORK AI24™ CUSTOMER SINCE 2010
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focus on the first lactation
Mark Carson, MSc., BSc. Agr., EastGen, Reproductive Strategy Manager
A Case For Measurement
Milk Yields
Sometimes overlooked, first lactation cows have different needs than the rest of the lactating herd. They are still growing and maturing, making their nutritional needs much different than their older herd mates. Also, they are often smaller cows and exist lower on the herd’s pecking order, making them more vulnerable to competition for both bunk and stall space. When their unique needs are not met, their performance declines, leading to lower milk production, lower conception rates and increased health issues. These reasons alone build a strong case for measuring their performance separate from the rest of the herd. Reproduction From a reproductive standpoint, first lactation cows must have better reproductive performance than the rest of their herd mates. This includes better overall pregnancy and conception rates, with pregnancy rates being 5% higher than their second, third and greater lactation contemporaries. Most of this advantage in pregnancy rate is due to better conception rates. You can expect conception rates in your first lactation cows to be about 10% higher than third lactation and older cows. If their pregnancy and conception rates are the same, or even below the average of the older cows, you need to assess why these younger cows are underperforming.
Another way to measure your first lactation cows’ performance is by taking a look at 305 milk yields by age at first calving. This will show you any trends in performance, with your best average 305 milk yields coming from your targeted average age of first calving. For example, say your targeted calving age is 24 months. Then, your highest yielding group of first lactation cows should be animals calving in at about 24 months. If they’re not amongst the best performing first lactation cows, then a management or nutrition adjustment is needed. Let’s take a look at the example herd from the Northeast United States in Figure 1. In this particular herd, calving begins at approximately 21 months of age, with the bulk of the calving concluded by 24 months. Although the projected 305 milk yield is trending slightly downward with age of first calving, the overall performance of this group of cows is quite good, with no major declines in milk yield. Also, when you look at the average conception rates, this group looks like they are performing well. But, looking at averages can sometimes lead to missed opportunities to improve and become more profitable. When you look at the conception by age at first calving, you can see that it would be worth investigating why the 21 month old first calving heifers are not performing up to par. In this situation, we would recommend checking the criteria used to select when heifers start to be bred, as well as the body condition score of this group to see how they’re doing in the barn.
Figure 1: Projected 305 Milk Yields & Conception Rates By Age At First Calving At A Northeast United States Dairy
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AGE AT FIRST CALVING
% OF CALVES
PROJECTED 305 DAY MILK YIELD
CONCEPTION (%)
21 22 23 24 Total
19 43 34 8 100
24,861 lb 24,497 lb 24,228 lb 23,842 lb 24,358 lb
31% 46% 44% 46% 42%
You can expect conception rates in your first lactation cows to be about
10
%
Why Do They Retire? Another important part of performance monitoring is analyzing the reasons that some cows’ lactating careers end during first lactation. Two important numbers need to be measured when looking at culling data: 1) Reason for cull; 2) Days in milk in which the cull took place.
higher than third lactation & older cows
Take a look at some first lactation cull data from this same example herd in Figure 2. When you look at this data, some management priorities immediately jump out. At the top of the list, is the percentage of culls related to feet & legs. This shows that the farm needs to assess hoof and genetic management of feet & legs. Environment and management factors such as time spent standing in the free stall barn, exposure to diseases and nutrition should all be considered.
7%
Mastitis
22
26%
Feet & Legs
%
Died
Culling Reason
As well, looking at this report should lead to a good discussion on which sires should be selected as corrective matings in the future. The other culling reason that sticks out for this herd is ‘died’. When looking at cows categorized as ‘died’, the biggest question that needs to be answered is when in the lactation did these cows die? If they are leaving early in lactation (before 90 days in milk), then you should take a deeper look at how your first lactation cows are doing through their transition periods. One item to look at in particular is calving ease. Monitoring the calving ease performance should be a critical part of your transition cow management program. Investigating milk yields, conception rates and health by calving ease can give you useful insight into calving management.
6%
Dairy
7
%
Injury
17
%
15%
Low Production
Reproduction Figure 2: Stated Reasons for First Lactation Cows Leaving The Herd For A Northeast United States Dairy
If you’re having too many hard calvings, then sire and body condition scores need to be examined. If you notice that your unassisted calvings are doing poorer than calvings that were assisted, you need to examine the surveillance of your calving pen and timing of intervention.
Semex ai24™ newsletter winter 2013 pg 5
Semex ai24™: Widely Accepted The trial also measured the estrous duration UW-Madison Trial 1 Widely accepted by dairymen in this group of cows. The average estrous The first trial looked at activity monitoring of an effective tool to increase duration was 16.1 hours, with a range of 4-28 technology performance and the pregnancy rate, activity hours. The number of lactations and the daily characteristics of the cows it identifies as in monitoring systems such as milk yield at the time of the heat did not impact heat. To do this, 112 cows in early lactation Semex ai24™ are now becoming were enrolled into a synch program where they the estrous length for this trial. were given a shot of GnRH, followed by a shot the focus of many university But, interestingly, there was a slight trend of PGF2α seven days later. Cows were screened research projects worldwide. between peak estrous intensity when compared with an ultrasound during the second shot of to the weekly daily production average. The In a recent publication of the PGF2α to see if a follicle was present, leaving data showed a tendency for cows that are 89 cows to watch for estrous. Journal of Dairy Science some producing higher milk yield to show less interesting activity monitoring From the 89 cows that were identified as having intense heats. However, a small cow population work produced by the University follicles: was used for this trial, making more research needed in order for better understanding. of Wisconsin-Madison was • 63 were identified as having an estrous by the published. UW-Madison Trial 2 system within seven days of the final PGF2α
The research was conducted on a 1,000 Holstein cow Wisconsin freestall dairy that was averaging approximately 90 lbs of milk/day. Two trials were conducted in an attempt to answer some interesting questions on how to improve reproductive performance using activity monitoring technology.
• Of these 63 identified by the system, 95% of the cows ovulated. This matches up with other studies that show that 3-7% of cows do not ovulate after showing an estrous • For the 26 cows that were not detected by the system, 17 of those cows did not ovulate during the observation period • The nine cows that did ovulate, but did not show signs of estrous also match previous research conducted into early lactation cows and silent heats Overall, the activity monitoring detected 71% of the cows in estrus over the study period.
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The second trial conducted by the UW-Madison group looked at giving a shot of GnRH to cows at the time of breeding, to see if it increases the fertility of the treated cows. The trial enrolled 461 cows from June 2010 to January 2011, and a total of 961 AI breedings were conducted. Half the cows were given GnRH at breeding, while the other half were left as a control group. The trial concluded that there was no difference in fertility between cows treated and not treated with GnRH. Also, GnRH did not have an effect on reducing pregnancy loss between days 35–60 days after breeding.
Trials like these help us to better integrate monitoring systems into herds’ reproductive and health programs, improving pregnancy rates and health rates while reducing labor and drug costs for dairymen worldwide.
University of Guelph Study
German & Italian Studies:
Another published study conducted in North America by the University of Guelph looked at the performance of activity monitoring in three commercial herds over the course of a year. The study, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, divided herds in half, with half wearing activity collars and the other half being managed primarily by timed AI protocols. A total of 1060 cows were used in this study, averaging approximately 25,200 lbs of 305-d mature-equivalent milk.
The next two studies were conducted at universities in Germany and Italy. Both of these studies looked at the benefits of rumination monitoring for activity monitoring systems.
Overall, when looking at the three herds together, the trial found that systems that used activity monitoring for their primary part of their reproductive protocol performed equal to the timed AI group. When the data was broken down by herd, two of the three herds showed a trend of reduced in days to pregnancy when cows wore an activity monitoring collar. In these two herds, the average days to pregnancy was reduced by 26 days, in comparison to the timed AI system. Days to first breeding was found to be the same for both systems, while there was a tendency for second breedings to occur a little faster when activity collars were used. Overall, the University of Guelph study showed a reproductive protocol based primarily on activity monitoring to provide the same performance as timed AI systems for commercial dairy herds.
The German study, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, looked at how the time spent ruminating collated with estrous behavior and timing of breeding. For the trial 224 cows from four herds were monitored for signs of estrous. The baseline for minutes spent ruminating on these herds was 385 to 480 minutes. On average, the study found that cows spent 17% less time ruminating when they were in heat. Depending on the herd, these cows spent on average 60-94 fewer minutes ruminating. The Italian study looked at the effectiveness of using rumination in the transition period. Published in the Journal of Animal Science, the study measured rumination minutes before and after calving to see how it related to disease and performance. For this study, 32 cows were followed in a freestall barn. The study found that cows that had a lower rumination just minutes prior to calving were at higher risk of developing diseases after calving. Also, cows that ruminated for more than 520 min/day for the first 10 days of lactation had fewer health issues than those who ruminated for less than 460 min/day during this period. The results of this trial suggest that rumination monitoring can be a useful part in transition cow protocols.
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WITH BOTH RUMINATION MONITORING AND HEAT DETECTION CAPABILITIES WE CAN’T PUT MORE HOURS IN YOUR DAY, BUT WE CAN PUT MORE TIME ON YOUR SIDE! Working with Semex and ai24™ you can trust that your herd is getting the most out of its reproductive program. Your Semex team offers genetic consulting, reproductive analysis and valuable, real life, on-farm experience that helps you put time on your side. Ask about the ai24™ whole herd management solution with both rumination monitoring and heat detection capabilities today!
(877) 545-ai24 | www.semex.com
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