Practice Tips for the "Normal" Repeat Breeder

Abstract

In dairy practice many of my most frustrating cases used to be cows that cycle regularly (every 20-22 days), palpate normal on rectal exam, show dramatic and appropriate length heats, but fail to conceive after repeated inseminations. Many times dairymen will ask me about these cows when I am at the farm for another reason and the problem cow has just "returned" again that day for the sixth time. For a few years I would palpate the cow and mumble "she feels good, breed her again and give her GnRH this time." It was after dairymen began saying "But Doc, you said the same thing two heats ago," that I began to develop a somewhat more sophisticated approach to these cows. I no longer fear these cows, but view them as an opportunity. Getting a dairyman's best cow pregnant can be quite a practice builder.