How One Farm Nearly Doubled Their Pregnancy Rate
Getting cows pregnant is vital to literally keeping the pipeline full on a dairy. According to Jeremey Natzke of Wayside Dairy LLC near Green Bay, Wis., a 35% or better pregnancy rate equates to an outstanding repro program and a number his dairy worked hard to achieve.
Wayside shares that in order to reduce days on feed for heifers, a producer must have a maximum number of times that they breed an animal.
“At some point, you just need to pull the pin if they are not getting pregnant,” he says. “If those DNB (do not breed) cows are milking well, leave them alone and let them milk.”
Alongside Natzke, Wayside Dairy LLC is managed and owned by his father, Dan, his sister Jenna Nonemacher, new partner, Jesse Dvorchek, and himself. Milking around 2,000 cows with 1,850 replacements, the herd has a rolling herd average of 32,171 lbs. of milk and has a 4.3% butterfat with a 3.3% protein.
Natzke serves as the farm’s herd manager, overseeing the farm’s team that works with the cows from reproduction to maternity to milking, and does a lot of the scheduling for the team. About five years ago, they implemented a double lutalyse shot program which improved their conception rates.
Other changes that Wayside Dairy made that boosted their herd’s reproduction include:
- Implementing a 4 mL dose of GnRH 10 days before the first breeding
- Purchasing and utilizing Cow Manager monitoring system, installing tags in all their cows.
“Our heat detection rate has gone up,” Natzke shares. “The percent of cows being pregnant on herd check day has gone up. The repeat breeders show up on the system earlier so we can breed them before finding them open on herd check day. The Cow Manager tags have also helped improve our cow health. We find sick cows quicker now that we can visibly see them being sick. They get back on their feet so much faster.”
A 35% preg rate seemed nearly impossible 17 years ago for Wayside Dairy. Their preg rate hovered around 18%.
“We kept asking consultants how we can improve,” Natzke states.
Wayside brought in another set of eyes with a new veterinarian and changed nutritionists, which improved the whole team around them.
“They both challenged us and got us out of our comfort zone at times,” Natzke shares. “Double ovsynch has really improved our reproduction. There is a lot of management that takes place to get these programs in place and keep them running smoothly.”
