By now the bulls are out on many farms and people are able to relax a little bit more- apart from cutting more silage! This is a good time to look ahead and book in herd pregnancy testing.

Performing an early PD at 12-14 weeks after the start of mating (with a follow up 6 weeks after the end of mating) has several advantages:

• Able to age pregnancies and determine more accurate calving dates

• You know which mating a cow held to

• Able to calculate a 6 week in calf rate

• You can confirm they are in calf to AB rather than the bull

• Enable earlier decision making - for example culling, how long to leave the bull out, buying more bulls.

• Better decision making around drying off - later calving cows can be milked for longer

• Know when cows need to return to the home farm and be allocated to a springer mob

• Pick up any foetal losses/abortion issues

We're all about efficiency and accurate results and analysis - remember that there is the option to record results electronically via MINDA. Give us a call if you would like to discuss if early scanning and electronic recording is an option for your farm.