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Reflection On Calving 2020

22 May 2020

With most farms now coming to the end of Spring calving 2020, now is a good time to reflect on calving.  What has gone well?  And where is there room for improvement?  The main thing to focus on is where did losses occur?   

The table below should help you with this process.  This simple task won’t take long to complete and will allow you and your team to have a meaningful discussion about future strategy for the business.  The most important person to benchmark against is yourself, so having done the 2020 analysis, set some targets for calving 2021.   

Number% (divide the number of cows to the bull)Target % for 2021
Cows put to the bull100%100%
Number of cows scanned in-calf
Cow deaths
Abortions
Still births
Calf births
Assisted calvings
Caesareans

Having real data, like this, is an excellent lead into a health and fertility planning discussion with your vet.  Their input to the discussion will be invaluable and could ultimately lead to significant savings for your suckler enterprise.  

Robert Ramsay, robert.ramsay@sac.co.uk

Young calf nesting in straw

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