We had an amazing time celebrating the end of the season with over 350 of our dairy farmers at our Repro Round-Up dinners in Gore, Balclutha and Winton last month.
The highlight of these events was sharing the strong reproductive results achieved by our farms this season.
The average 3-week in-calf rate across all VetSouth farms was 50%, against an industry target of 53% (which is what the best herds in New Zealand are expected to achieve).
3-week in-calf results from all VetSouth farms - each bar represents one farm.
The average 6-week in-calf rate across our farms was 71% (the industry target is 78%), with some individual farms achieving an outstanding rate of over 80%!
6-week in-calf results from all VetSouth farms - each bar represents one farm.
Breaking it down further, our West farms averaged 49% for 3-week in-calf rates and 71% for 6-week in-calf rates, East farms averaged 51% and 72.4% respectively, while South Otago farms achieved a fantastic 51.2% and 73.4%. Excitingly, these averages were improvements on the previous season – some by as much as 4%.
The average not in-calf rate across all farms was 13.4% (with an average mating length of 78 days). West farms averaged 13.5%, East farms 13.3%, and South Otago farms 11.8%. These results were all at least a 1% reduction on last season.
Not in-calf results from all VetSouth farms - each dot represents one farm.
Congratulations to everyone for the great repro results, reflecting the hard work that you’ve put in throughout the whole season. We enjoyed hosting you all for a night off-farm to celebrate at our Repro Round-Up evenings.
Our West Hub Manager, Laura, summed up the Winton event: “It was wonderful to get our clients together and commend their repro results, with some who saw top results walking away with fabulous prizes.”
Once vet Jannie had presented the data, everyone also enjoyed an interactive farmer’s panel discussion hosted by vet Briar. “We know how much you value hearing what your peers are doing and getting the opportunity to ask fellow local farmers questions,” Laura said.
Kerryn, our East Hub Manager, was also stoked with the events in both Gore and Balclutha, where the data was presented by Gore’s senior vet Claire and Balclutha’s senior vet Dan.
“These nights are such a great way for clients to connect with our teams – from catching up with the vets and techs who get the work done on your farm, to putting faces to the names of our farm services ladies and meeting support staff who are normally tucked away behind the scenes,” Kerryn said.
If you’d like to delve further into your farm’s reproductive performance, get in touch with your KeyVet who will be able to help you review your recent numbers and find areas that could be focused on for improvement next season.
