From reducing unnecessary culling to enhancing milk production, there are numerous opportunities to improve the efficiency and profitability of dairy farming. Here are five tips to improve reproduction on the dairy.

Every cow you create might not be right for your market. To withstand market ebbs and flows, you need to create cows that meet the needs of your operation.

Not only do these producers gain a higher-value calf that commands a premium from buyers versus beef-on-dairy crossbred calves or full-blood dairy bull calves, but they’re also able to improve conception rates during the hottest months of the year.

“Change is easy. Transition is hard. Are you open to surrounding yourself with people who have the best knowledge and listening to them?” Nancy Charlton of DeLaval asked listeners of the “Capitalizing on robotics to enhance animal health and reproduction” panel at the 2023 Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council annual meeting.

A productive cow isn’t always a profitable cow. A profitable cow performs in milk volume and quality, breeds back quickly and experiences few health events.

Beef embryos are becoming a part of many dairies' targeted reproductive programs, use of these embryos results in a higher value calf and can help improve reproductive performance during the heat of summer. In today’s episode, we will visit with Skylar Gericke of Triple G Dairy in Buckeye, Arizona, about his experience using HerdFlex beef embryos.

“I used to raise a lot of heifers just because it was cheap to raise them and if one didn’t work out, there were others to replace her,” Souza says. “That doesn’t work anymore. You have to be very intentional with the heifers you choose to raise.”

Reproduction management plays a critical role in any dairy. The ability to monitor, detect and act quickly when heat is detected significantly impacts herd performance. 

It is often said that there is never just one diet that is fed to a group of dairy cows. There is the formulated diet on paper, the mixed diet in the bunk and the diet the cows eat.