Scanning cows reveals problems pre calving

22 Feb 2013

On a number of farm visits we had to scan cows as part of a larger project. This project involves scanning cows that are freshly calved between 14 and 22 days. Many of the farms visited would not scan their cows at this stage of calving. The number of problematic cows encountered was far greater than expected. The body condition scores of the cows examined was unacceptably low in a number of cases. Locomotion score was not a significant issue on most farms. Scanning cows at this stage identifies herd stressors associated with transition management of the dairy herd.

Testimonials

I took over this farm a long time ago. I have only ever used Reprodoc because of the following:

reprodoc.ie provides reproductive management services for all of our dairy and beef stock. Pre-breed scanning is an essential part of our business whereby all cows are assessed prior to breeding and prior to embryo transfer programmes involving superovulation of donors and synchronisation of recipients for embryo transfer.

reprodoc.ie provides us with accurate ageing of pregnancy between 25 and 110 days of gestation and sexing of the same pregnancies between 55 and 110 days of gestation.

reprodoc.ie enables the information collected from the scanning of cows to identify potential herd health problems. This is an invaluable tool for the overall management of our herds. Reprodoc provide us with an excellent reporting system following each visit which enables us to focus more on the discussion of cows presented for scanning.

Kieran Harty
Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry