Focus on Fertility

Key factors in addressing

reproductive problems
The Chittick family of Alnewarra Holsteins on the NSW South Coast presented a paper at the recent
Dairy Research Foundations conference at Camden. Here they outline how they have tackled herd
fertility problems in their dairy operation. Joe and B en Chittick were listed as the authors,but they
would like to emphasise that all at G E Chittick & Sons Pty Ltd contributed.

Where are we?

Located in the Southern Illawarra of
NSW, the farm covers a total area of 176
hectares (435 ac) and fronts the Princes
Highway at Rose Valley, south of Kiama.
The property consists of alluvial creek
flats which run into heavy, well drained
swampy soil, then rises to steeper clay/
basalt hills.
Our family will have been on the
original portion of the farm for 100 years
in October 2012.
We have no irrigation on the farm, but
two bores supply our drinking water and
some water to the dairy. We also use town
water in the dairy and expect an average
rainfall of 1250 to 1500mm a year (50 to
60 inches. The family are all involved in
running the farm and we have four fulltime staff, including casuals, working for
us.
All feed and fodder is grown within
our own business at Gerringong or on
a dryland cropping farm located in the
Central West, where our heifers are also
run. We do not rely on contractors for any
part of our operation.

Production: 7600 L/cow.

2.5 million litres annually.
25,000 L/ha
Pastures: summer kikuyu/clover
perennial ryegrass /chicory/clover
Winter: annual ryegrass/clover
oats, leafy turnips
The milking areas on the farm are sown
annually or re-sown with perennials or
oats to lead into summer silage.

A d d res s in g rep ro d u c tiv e p ro b lem s

We started to change the herd over from
Illawarras to Holsteins in the early 1990s
with the purchase of some registered
cows and had all matings over Illawarras
to Holstein bulls. By the mid 90s we had
entered a herd health program with a local
veterinarian practice.
These started as monthly visits, but as we
progressed the visits became weekly with
herd health sessions every Tuesday. It was
at this time that herd health, particularly
fertility, become a specific focus.
Noticeable improvements were made
with the introduction of heat detection

Milking herd: 325 year round calving

Milking area: 100 hectares
Total farm area: 176 ha
Dryland cropping area: 1210ha
Our herd is 100 per cent registered
Holsteins. We have no crossbreds
remaining in the herd and we now use
100 per cent artificial insemination.

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The Australian Holstein Journal | D ec em b er-January 2 0 1 0 -2 0 1 1

aids, hormone treatments and controlled

intravaginal drug release devices (CID Rs).
Information was collected and entered
into computer software, but we had
problems getting information on what
improvements and advances we were
making within the herd. We tried the
InCalf program, but found the results were
skewed because it seemed to be more
appropriate for seasonal calving herds.
As the herd health program developed
we were able to reduce the number of
days to pregnancy testing from 56 to 42
post insemination and we now have it at
35 days, enabling us to determine the nonpregnant cows much earlier. All pregnancy
testing is done by ultrasound and this
picks up pregnant cows, non -viable
pregnancies, twins, irregular heart beats
in the foetus and can make visible a host
of other issues not able to be diagnosed
manually.
We started using Sydney U niversitys
Faculty of Veterinary Science research
unit in early 2008 and were able to link
the information we had on the Easy D airy
cow program to the program the Sydney

Focus on Fertility
U ni vets had developed for collating herd
information.
Following the first visit we were given
graphs and other information that gave us
an idea of the direction of the herd during
the previous nine months. The insight
we gained from the information showed
us that in November 2007, days to first
breeding was 85, and in July 2010 it is
down to 67 days. Our aim is to be close to
65 days.
Average days to conception of the
herd has also declined from 140 days in
November 2007, to 100 days in July 2010.
This has been reflected in our average
days in milk being reduced from 205 days
in November 2007 to 170 days in July 2010.
The drop in days in milk means that we are
consistently milking a fresher herd which
utilises feed more effi ciently.
Other important drivers of reproductive
performance are heat detection efficiency
and pregnancy rate. Heat detection
effi ciency is the number of cows detected
on heat out of the number of cows eligible
to be bred. Pregnancy rate is the number
of cows confirmed pregnant out of the
number of cows eligible to be bred. Our
aim is to have greater than >50% Heat
D etection and >20% pregnancy rate every
three weeks.
The first report in M arch 2008 included:
lactating and dry cow numbers, milking
herd structure, average days in milk,
average days to first breeding and
conception, and percentage of the
lactating herd pregnant.
The July 2010 report included a number
of graphs and tables, including adult cow
numbers, lactating and dry cow numbers,
milking herd structure, average days in
milk, 80-day submission and 100-day in
calf rates, average days to first breeding
and conception, percentage of lactating
herd pregnant, percentage of cows >150
D IM that are not pregnant or D NB, heat
detection effi ciency and pregnancy rate,
conception rates by technician, conception
rate x times bred, conception rate by days
in milk, conception rate by sire and, finally,
PGF breeding outcomes.

C u rren t M atin g P ro g ram

!Calving to 45 days, make sure cow is
clean, prostaglandin and metricure is
given if needed.

From day 45, fortnightly prostaglandin

injections are given until insemination
takes place.
If no heat is detected by 80 days in
milk, the cow is presented to our vet for
ultrasound evaluation.
Cows are given three matings to proven
bulls and then Progeny Test semen is
used.
Cows are usually culled after five
matings as a general rule but some
are also treated on an individual basis
with the cows history and days in milk
deciding what action might be taken.

O V S Y N C H p ro to c o l
Inactive or anoestrous cows are enrolled
in an OVSYNCH program which consists of
the following:
!D ay 0 (Tuesday AM vet visit) Give
1ml of GnRH (Fertagyl, Gonabreed) into
muscle.

KAM AR.
7 (following Tuesday AM ) Give 2ml
of prostaglandin into muscle.
!D ay 9 (following Thursday AM ) Give
1ml of GnRH into muscle.
!D ay 9 (Thursday PM ) inseminate all
cows that have not had a heat.
We were very sceptical of the OVSYNCH
program when we first began using it and
mating cows that were not on standing
heat, but the results spoke for themselves
achieving up to a 50 per cent conception
rate at times.
Herd fertility has been an evolving
process for a long time for us but in the
past few years we feel we have taken big
steps with the introduction of such concise
reports. We have the ability to quickly
recognise where there is a problem or a
deficiency starting to occur in our system
and we can and do work on it sooner
rather than later.
!

The Australian Holstein Journal |

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D ec em b er-January 2 0 1 0 -2 0 1 1

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