These cows can be placed into three categories:
- Anoestrus – not cycling because she has not been seen on heat.
- True Anoestrus – not cycling because she has inactive ovaries.
- Suboestrus – cycling normally, but show weak or inadequate oestrus behaviour.
Resumption of cyclic activity after calving is influenced by nutrition, body condition, difficulty calving, lactation, breed, age, season, uterine health and concurrent disease. In most well managed dairy herds, fewer than 10% of cows fail to cycle by day 40 following calving.
Early identification and treatment of non-cycling cows is essential to ensure good reproductive performance in your herd. In many cases, farms join for 21 days and identify non-cycling cows at this point. The vet is called a few days later and following a ten day treatment program, cows are joined, 5 weeks into AI. This leaves very little room for these cows to conceive to AI.
Traditional premating heat detection can identify non-cycling cows at the beginning of mating, giving these cows a much better chance of conceiving to AI.
Non-cycling cows cost the dairy farm in many ways including reduced milk production, increasing time empty, reduced AI calves and increased veterinary costs. Prevention is focused on maintaining body condition throughout lactation, and implementing a good transition management plan around the time of calving.
Treatment:
This involves the use of an OvSynch program combined with a CIDR or CUE MATE. The benefits of this particular program include treatment of both inactive ovaries AND cystic ovaries. It also enables cows to be joined within 10 days, rather than 21 days like older treatments.
Typical Non-Cycling Cow Treatment Program
