With the increasing usage of beef bulls in the dairy herd, ICBF HerdPlus have now added a new beef AI usage table to the Weekly Fertility report.

This new table includes details of beef bulls used in the dairy herd since mating start date (MSD) entered when generating the Weekly Fertility report.  It outlines the number of serves of each beef AI bull used since mating start date. The table also displays the total number of Beef AI serves and the % of total serves of each bull since MSD. For example, this herd below, the total Beef AI serves is 51 and there are 7 serves for AA7095: 7/51*100 =14% of serves.

The list of bulls is ordered in accordance with the number of serves highest to lowest. It also includes the weighted average figures of the bull used.  The report allows up to 25 bulls on this list. If the bulls used exceeds this figure, the bulls weighed average figure is still based on all the bulls, not just the ones listed.

Table 1. An example of Beef AI Usage on a Weekly Fertility Report
Figure 1:  Weekly fertility Report trends (2016 to 2023)

Week Fertility report 2024

The weekly fertility report allows farmers to check out how your cows are performing on a weekly basis compared to the national average. The report helps you to track 21 and 42 day submission rates along with the % of cows calved greater than 30 days at MSD and not yet submitted within 21 days of MSD.

To increase the accuracy of the report, please ensure that all serves are recorded and up todate, especially in DIY herds.  If you’re on a technician service, technician handheld or apps are linked to up the database, so serves will which automatically come onto the ICBF system. In addition, mark any females that you won’t be breeding for culling.  This will remove them from the fertility reports.

The two key things that you will need before calculating the weekly fertility report are the Calving start date and Mating start date. Please note: Some of the KPI’s will also only display after a certain number of days into the breeding season, E.g.  the 42-day submission rate will not populate for own herd if the report is generated before 42 days.

 Dairy Bull Usage

This section in the weekly fertility report will help farmers ensure that a team of dairy bulls are being used equally during the breading season, so appropriate action can be taken if individual bulls are being overused before dairy AI finishes on the farm. This section outlines the main breeding guidelines on the minimum number of bulls to be used in your herd and the maximum bull usage recommended for individual bulls during the breading season.

Click Here to view how you can generate your weekly HerdPlus Fertility report online and increasing the accuracy of the report. If you have any questions, or if you are having difficulty running or accessing your report, please call the HerdPlus Team on 023-8820452 or email [email protected].