Beef cattle reproductive management

摘要

Ireland's suckler herd is worth approximately €3bn annually to the economy and accounts for the equivalent of 52,000 full-time jobs, both directly and indirectly. In contrast to the aims of successive government strategy documents (Food Harvest 2020,Food Wise 2025) to significantly increase dairy and beef output, a recent EU report on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions suggests that Ireland should reduce its beef and dairy herds by 33% and 5%, respectively, in order to meet emissions targets for 2030. This would see the Irish beef herd contract to levels last seen in the 1980s leading to a 19% reduction in our beef production output. Therefore, strategies are required to increase reproductive/production system efficiency. Herd fertility, or reproductive efficiency, is acknowledged worldwide as a key driver of the productive, economic and environmental sustainability of beef cow herds. However, industry statistics clearly show that, nationally, we are failing to meet key management targets consistent with economically and environmentally sustainable beef cow herds. For example, age at first calving, calving interval, annual calf output, low usage of elite genetics through artificial insemination (Al) and overall genetic progress are all well below parwith implications for both the economic and environmental sustainability of the sector.In beef cow herds, pregnancy has a four-times greater economic impact than any other production trait, yet how many producers select for pregnancy first? This conclusion comes from a series of studies conducted in the United States by the Beef Reproduction Task Force, but very similar conclusions could be drawn from an analysis of the European beef industry. To further emphasise this notion, it is worth remembering that, in contrast to the dairy industry where milk is the major output, the only economic output of a suckled beef cow, apart from her cull cow value, is a weaned calf.