Routine Fertility Visits

AYR calving herds have routine visits weekly of fortnightly, at a pre-arranged time of day and day of the week. This is timed to fit easily around the daily working of the farm, and is usually soon after morning milking. One vet is designated as the vet primarily responsible for the routine, and another as back-up. There is no visit fee for routine fertility visits and time is charged at our hourly rate. We use portable scanners so we can examine the cows in locking yolks, AI stalls, in the crush or through the parlour.

Benefits of routine fertility visits:

• Increased preg-rate (worth around £100/cow/year for a 5% lift)

• Diagnose cystic and non-cycling cows

• Diagnose and treat uterine infection early to get cows back in calf sooner

• Synchronise groups of heifers or cows

Routines also provide an opportunity to discuss herd health on farm. This enables monitoring of production targets and prevention of potential problems, for example:

• Routine screening for infectious disease

• Blood sampling for disease control and/or nutritional profiling

• Mastitis/cell count monitoring and investigation

• Youngstock performance monitoring

Which animals should be seen by the vet on a routine?

• Post calving checks, cows 2 to 4 weeks calved. Check for uterine infection as only 36% of cows with a uterine infection show “whites”. Early detection and treatment gives the best chance of cows returning to fertility.

• Pregnancy diagnosis – all cows that have been served >30 days. Early identification of empty cows allows them to be re-bred in a timely manner, reducing production losses and the morbidity and mortality risks associated with extended lactations.

• NSB – Not seen bulling – all cows that have not been seen bulling by the end of your “voluntary waiting period”. It is important to examine these cows to treat them if necessary to make sure they come bulling and get in calf.

Download ‘routine fertility work sheets’ here.

Please contact the practice to book your series of routine fertility visits.