� Appreciating the value of records in fertility monitoring and improvement

� Defining the requirements of a recording system

� Choosing the most appropriate tools and means of presentation

� Linking the records with performance measures and the fertility team.

Objective: To identify the most appropriate fertility recording tools to meet current and future needs.

Challenge: Make the most use of your current records rather than just producing more data.

Streamline and integrate your fertility record-keeping to minimise duplication and maximise usability.

The Essential Ingredient

Ta r g e t

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Regardless of how basic or sophisticated, records are recognised by everyone involved in fertility improvement as the single most essential ingredient in any programme.

Without good information on actual fertility performance it is impossible to pinpoint fertility problems with any degree of accuracy, let alone address them.

Whatever form they are in, fertility records are of limited value unless they are relevant, reliable and up-to-date. Theymust also be understandable and appropriate to the needs of all those involved in the improvement effort – includingmanager, farm staff, veterinary surgeon and any other advisers.

� Effective Record Use Page 3-1

� Key Recording Tools Page 3-3

Choose three recording tools to meet your particular needs

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Action Plan

To choose three recording tools to meet your particular needs.

Plan Your Record-Keeping BasisEstablish the main roles for your fertility records, how they are bestkept and what data you need to record

1

Page 3-1

Evaluate Your Core Recording Tools Assess the value and limitations of breeding diaries, record cards and lists to establish a core of essential recording tools for your herd

2

Page 3-3

Evaluate Breeding Charts Examine the value and limitations of wall-mounted breeding chartsfor your particular circumstances

3

Page 3-5

Evaluate CuSum Graphs Consider the value of plotting CuSum graphs to monitor Heat Detectionand Pregnancy Rates in particular

4

Page 3-6

Evaluate Computer Programs Appreciate the value and limitations of computer recording programsso you choose and use them effectively

5

Page 3-7

Select Your Toolkit Select the three fertility recording tools most suitable for your needsand record-keeping system.

6

Page 3-8

Fertility performance records have a number of distinct roles,most notably:

� Meeting business objectives

� Providing activity reminders

� Increasing herd profitability

� Focusing improvement efforts

� Pinpointing specific problems

� Evaluating cost implications

� Sharing information

� Reviewing progress.

Business Objectives

Effective Record Use

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� Establishing and agreeing key business objectives – taking into account finances, lifestyle and personal needs – at the outset willdetermine the extent to which it is really worth maintaining and using fertility records.

� The secret to ensuring timely and appropriate fertility improvement action in many herds is to make key tasks easier with devices like action lists and breeding charts.

Component Target Good Problem SevereProblem

UK Average

Failure to Conceive Culling Rate (%)

Cumulative Cost (£/cow in herd)

Cumulative Cost (pence per litre)

Table 3.1: The Costs of Various Failure to Conceive Culling Rates

Source: The Costs of Poor Fertility and Disease in UK Dairy Herds, Esslemont and Kossaibati.

< 6 6 - 10 11 - 14 > 14 12 - 18

24 50 > 62

0.40 0.83 > 1.00

38 - 76

0.63 - 1.26

Activity Reminders

� Putting the financial losses attributable to fertility problems into clear perspective and establishing the economic benefits ofimprovement ensure the right degree ofcommercial focus (Section 5).

� Breaking fertility performance down into its components allows improvement efforts to be focused on the areas which merit most attention, improving effectiveness while minimising costs.

Herd Profitability

Focused Improvement

Cutting the Failure to Conceive Culling Rate from the nationalaverage to the target would, for instance, lead to an increasedprofit of up to 1p/litre in the average UK herd (Table 3.1).

To effectively address a long Calving Index, for example, it is essential to have information on Heat Detection Rate,Interval to First Service and Pregnancy Rate (Figure 3.1).

Long CalvingIndex

Problem Symptom Cause Identification

Long Calvingto FirstServiceInterval

Low OverallPregnancy

Rate

LongVoluntaryWaitingPeriod

Poor HeatExpression

or Detection

Poor FirstService

PregnancyRate

HeatDetectionRate via

SubmissionRate

First ServicePregnancy

Rate

MonthlyCuSum

Assessments

Figure 3.1: Analysing a Problem Calving Index

�

��

��

TargetVoluntaryWaitingPeriod

�

�

SeasonalChallenges

�

�

�

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Presenting Fertility Records

Identifying the Key Data

If performance is already good, significant extra investment inimprovement may not be justified, whereas a performancearound the UK average will make the same level of investmenthighly attractive.

The best fertility records are developed and presented to:

� Make recording easy – for the majority of people who find it unrewarding to do, and who appreciate clarity and simplicity

� Avoid duplication – which invariably means wasted time, a greater risk of errors and fewer opportunities for analysis and interpretation

� Aid interpretation – through easy-to-understand visual charts, graphs and action lists that highlight the most important points

� Be meaningful – involving only measures that are appropriate to the circumstances of the herd and the people involved(Section 2)

� Be timely – rather than only historic, so improvement decisions can be made when they can most immediately influence performance

� Ensure accessibility – allowing farm staff, the vet and other advisers to obtain the up-to-date information they require when they need it (Section 4)

� Enable upgrading – particularly with computerised systems, so that future requirements can be catered for without excessive extra complication or cost.

� Analysing the fertility position thoroughly and objectively is the best way of identifying the likely causes of poor performance (Figure 3.1 and Section 5).

Specific Problems

� Making the right fertility information availableto the vet, farm staff and advisers separately and in team meetings will enable them to co-ordinate the improvement efforts to far greater effect (Section 4).

Information Sharing

� Regular progress reviews are essential to evaluate the actual results of improvement actions, rather than merely assuming they will be successful.

Progress Review

� Only relatively few pieces of information need to be recorded to provide the basis for even themost sophisticated of fertility improvement programmes.

� The cost implications of a particular level offertility performance will determine the extent to which it is worth investing time, effort and money in improvement.

Cost Implications

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Matching System to ResourcesEvaluating Diaries

� Diaries are essential components in almost every recording system, no matter how sophisticated.

� The Three-Week Breeding Diary is a well-established tool, providing a structured way ofrecording service and heat dates and allowing future heats or returns-to-service to be flagged-up from the three-weekly oestrus cycle (Figure 3.2).

In deciding which records to keep, there are a number of issueswhich go beyond simple technical requirements. Most notably:

� Individual lifestyle – including interest and attitude to recordsand computer systems

� Family support available – for recording, analysing and interpreting records

� Staff needs and capabilities – including the extent to which good information and records make the work more rewarding and interesting

� Access to off-farm support – in the form of veterinary or bureau services, or the time and commitment of paid or unpaid advisers

� Other recording systems – including milk, AI, pedigree and farm assurance records provided on their own or with the option of increasingly high levels of integration with farm performance records

� Other record-keeping needs and resources – particularly biosecurity, animal movements, accounts and farm assurance.

The daily diary has been the fundamental building block of farmand fertility recording for many years.

A robust, pocket-sized notebook carried around constantly, it isinvaluable in recording all key fertility information as it arises,together with exceptional events such as difficult calvings,retained foetal membranes and lameness that may help completethe fertility picture.

A daily dairy is an essential record-keeping tool in its own rightand equally valuable as the ‘front-end’ to a more comprehensiverecording system, with information transferred daily to the main records.

Key Recording ToolsA huge range of different techniques and systems are in useacross the country for recording fertility information andanalysing performance.

Foremost amongst these are:

� Diaries

� Individual cow record cards

� Breeding lists

� Breeding charts

� CuSum graphs

� Computer programs.

The most important data required for each animal are:

� Identification� Birth date� Calving date� Recorded heat dates� Service date(s)� Pregnancy diagnosis� Drying-off date� Culling date and reason for culling.

Also valuable are:

� Calving problems – twins, retained foetal membrane, etc� Other health problems� Lameness� Body Condition Score.

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Evaluating Individual Cow Record Cards

Evaluating Breeding Lists

� Individual cow record cards with spaces to record all the key data and events are central to most modern record-keeping systems.

� Breeding lists allow cow identity, calving date, service dates, bull information, PD information and next calving date for all cows in the herd to be recorded and presented in a variety ofdifferent formats.

Indeed, computerised systems effectively all revolve around electronic versions of individual cow record cards.

Individual cow record cards are valuable for:

� Being simple and ease to use

� Being portable

� Acting as permanent records

� Providing a comprehensive veterinary record.

Important limitations of individual cow record cards include:

� Lack of daily diary-level portability or flexibility

� Ineffectiveness in predicting heats or returns to service

� Inability to show the overall herd fertility picture or trends.

The lists are most commonly presented in order of cow identity,calving date or service date depending on individual circumstances.

Cow identity order is most useful in seasonally-calving herds.

Calving date order lists present an opportunity to pick out delayedservices and begin to show patterns.

Service date order lists do not allow for pre-service heat dates to berecorded.

Figure 3.2: Typical Three-Week Breeding Diary

Column 1 dates in black represent the current day.

Column 2 dates in red represent 280 days later (the potential calving date following a successful service).

Column 3 dates in black reflect the position 3 weeks later (the likely next heat dates or return dates).

Column 4 dates in red represent 280 days later from the Column three date(the potential calving date following a successful service in three weeks’ time).

Recording the first heat for each cow number (1), allows the next heatthree weeks later to be predicted to aid heat detection.

Subsequent heats can then be confirmed as seen (2 and 3) and marked(S) when a service has been given. In the same way, returns to service canbe predicted and confirmed or not.

Following positive pregnancy diagnosis the successful service can then beflagged as a record if required and the calving date prediction transferred tothe relevant diary page as a reminder and the basis for scheduling drying-off.

Diaries are valuable for:

� Being simple and easy to use – so they are likely to be used

� Allowing fertility performance to be related to other events – such as changes in feeding

� Being portable – so events are recorded accurately as they happen.

Important limitations of diaries include:

� Inability to show the overall herd fertility picture

� Difficulty of tracking individual cows

� Need to extract data for veterinary use and analysis

� General lack of permanence as historic records.

Three-week breeding diaries further enable calving dates to bepredicted from successful service dates; their arrangement in 21-day blocks and presentation in a concertina-like folding formatmaximises usability.

Evaluating Breeding Charts

Breeding lists are valuable for:

� Being easy to understand

� Presenting individual cow details in a whole-herd context

� Having permanence as a record

� Allowing first-stage analyses of herd performance.

Important limitations of breeding lists include:

� Need for further inputs to conduct useful analyses

� Inability to provide action lists without extra work.

Rectangular Charts

Cows listed in identity or calving date order commonly have calving, bulling-not-served, service, drying-off and future calvingdates represented by different coloured pins or markers.

Cursors moved along the board to highlight ‘today’s date’ and‘three weeks ago’ may also be included for additional clarity.

Permanent records can be made of Calving to First Service andCalving to Conception Intervals.

Rectangular breeding charts are valuable for:

� Displaying herd performance pictorially

� Allowing key indices to be calculated with relative ease

� Providing clear information to vets and other advisers.

Important limitations of rectangular breeding charts include:

� Difficulties with large herds and large amounts of data

� Inability to present data as pictorially as circular charts.

Circular Charts

Each cow is represented by a single symbol, either a pin or a magnetic cube with up to six different coloured faces representingits current fertility status (Figure 3.3).

Cursors highlighting key events move around a centre spindle,while key sectors allow first, second and third repeat services to be identified to point out individual cow, calving group or herd problems.

Circular breeding charts are valuable for:

� Being simple to use

� Giving excellent visual impact

� Allowing veterinary action lists to be easily extracted

� Being understood by farm staff, vets and advisers.

Important limitations of circular breeding boards include:

� Lack of an in-built permanent record

� Need for further records for herd analyses

� Difficulty of locating individual cows in large (150+ cow) herds

� Susceptibility of pins or markers to loss or disturbance.

� As either rectangular or circular boards, breeding charts are a highly flexible and visual way of presenting key breeding information forday-to-day management use.

� Circular breeding charts have become a familiar and much-valued feature of fertility recording and management information systems.

Figure 3.3: Typical Circular Breeding Board

3:10/07 3-5

Both calving date and service date order lists indicate trends in servicesuccess which may be useful in analysing problems and causes.

Evaluating CuSum Graphs

CuSum graphs can be used to plot the progress of various eventswithin a fertility recording system.

The simple principle of plotting either success or failure for eachservice event has been found to be of particular value in monitoringSubmission and Pregnancy Rates (Figure 3.4).

CuSum graphs are valuable for:

� Providing an excellent visual picture of herd performance

Figure 3.4: CuSum of Pregnancy Rate Trends

3:10/073-6

� Giving a continuous performance assessment and early warning of problems

� Highlighting variations in groups of cows otherwise hidden by averages

� Allowing any disturbance in trends to be related to feeding and management changes

� Being flexible enough to accommodate any herd size.

Important limitations of CuSum graphs include:

� Inability to provide a comprehensive record on their own

� Need for back-up with additional recording tools.

� Animals are plotted on the graph in their order of service

� Each success (positive PD) is marked with a crossone line below and one column to the right

� Each failure (negative PD or return to service) is marked one line below.

In this way, the graph provides a continuous assessment of the level of success of PregnancyRate over the breeding season.

Denotes Pregnancy Rate achievement

Worksheet 2 provides a CuSum pro-forma for assessing herd Submission

and Pregnancy Rates

� Many herds find clear advantages in linking-in with a bureau service so they have back-up, support and guidance in using and interpretingcomputerised fertility records from an experienced vet or other adviser.

� Training courses are a very good investment for anyone wishing to take computerisation further; especially as there are many other aspects of the farm business that can benefit from a computer.

In particular, computer programs may:

� Present a bewildering display of data rather than usable management information

� Be off-putting for people less familiar with computer technology

� Make it easy to miss simple, logical interpretations

� Simply not get used.

Key considerations in evaluating computer systems for herdrecording are:

� Who will be responsible for data entry and support?

� How easy is it to enter back data for each animal?

� Can data be entered in any order for any cow?

� Can milk records be entered by day of recording?

� Can data such as PD information be entered in batches?

� Can data be corrected quickly?

� Does the system validate the records?

� Does it accommodate all records currently required?

� Is it flexible and robust enough to accommodate potential future requirements?

3:10/07 3-7

Evaluating Computer Programs

Computer programs open up a whole range of additional benefitsand opportunities for fertility recording, monitoring and analysis.

They can provide the total package of material required in anyfertility-recording and management programme, including:

� Individual cow detail

� Herd or calving-group analysis

� Retrospective reviews

� Predictions and action lists

� CuSums and breeding charts

� Performance trends

� Linkage with all other performance and financial details.

Coming in many difference shapes and sizes, computerisedrecording programs:

� Suit any size of herd

� Reduce manual work and duplication

� Allow the whole range of recording tools to be used

� Enable individual cow, management group or whole herd analyses

� Generate action lists appropriate to individual circumstances

� Enable easier and time-saving data entry through direct milking parlour links

� Facilitate communication to, and feedback from, advisers

� Integrate with other herd management records, such as feeding, breeding, production, healthcare and farm assurance.

� Because computer programs can be too comprehensive and complicated to be easily usable, simpler manual systems can be far more effective in achieving fertility improvements in many circumstances.

3:10/073-8

Figure 3.5: Comparing Fertility Recording Tools (the more stars the better)

Diaries Cow Cards Herd Lists RectangularCharts

CircularCharts

CuSums ComputerSystems

Ease of data entry **** *** *** *** *** ** ***

Completeness of record ** *** *** ** ** * ****

Availability to herdspeople **** **** **** **** **** *** **

Availability to the vet or adviser * * *** *** *** *** ***

Ease of finding * **** ** ** *** ** **** individual cow details

Ease of producing action lists * * * *** *** ** ****

Visual appreciation * * ** *** *** **** ***of herd performance

Ease of calculating key indices * ** ** *** * *** ****

Ease of use for herd planning * ** ** *** ** ** ****

Comparing the Tools

The relative strengths of various recording tools available can bestbe assessed by rating them against a number of key usability criteria (Figure 3.5).

Selecting the Toolkit

Just like fertility measures, the most suitable recording tools for aparticular herd depend upon the type of record-keeping systememployed (Section 2).

Basic Record HerdsEssential recording tools for herds with ad hoc manual systemsand no milk recording are:

� A daily diary

� Individual cow record cards

� Some form of breeding chart.

� For herds of fewer than 80 cows looking to capture Calving to First Service and Calving Interval information, rectangular breeding charts are perfectly sufficient

� Herds of 80 -150 cows are likely to find circular breeding charts more practical

� For the largest herds, two circular breeding charts, split by calving date or cow age, may be required.

Worksheet 1 provides a pro-forma for

preliminary assessments of herd fertility in basic record herds

� Especially when starting to use a computerised system, it is essential to be selective in the information recorded and analyses undertaken to maximise its practical value.

� For herds of fewer than 80 cows looking to capture Calving to First Service and Calving Interval information, rectangular breeding charts are perfectly sufficient

� Herds of 80 - 150 cows are likely to find circularbreeding charts more practical

� For the largest herds, two circular breeding charts, split by calving date or cow age, may be required.

Standard Record HerdsEssential recording tools for milk-recorded herds withoutaccess to computerised recording are:

� A daily diary

� A three-week breeding diary

� Some form of breeding chart.

For greatest value, these essential records should be complemented with:

� CuSum facilities provided by the milk recording service.

� Hand-prepared CuSum graphs of Pregnancy Rates (if not using the milk records facilities)

� Pregnancy diagnoses

� Manual records of cows culled barren against those intended to be culled.

For greatest value, these essential records should be complemented by the use of:

� Hand-prepared CuSum graphs of Pregnancy Rates

� A three-week breeding diary

� Some form of pregnancy diagnosis.

CuSum graphs for Submission and Pregnancy Rates are particularly valuable.

A daily diary is essential too, allowing events to be noted down asthey occur and used to up-date the electronic records every day.

Worksheet 2 provides a CuSum pro-forma for assessing herd Submission

and Pregnancy Rates

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Comprehensive Record HerdsHerds using computerised recording systems have all the requiredtools available to them within the computer package.

� Good records are essential to any fertility performance and improvement programme

� Records should be prepared and actively used to answer key fertility performance questions

� Records must be available to, and understood by farm staff, the vet, nutritionist and any other advisers involved

� CuSum graphs are an excellent way of bringingfertility records to life to highlight both overall performance and performance trends

� Herds with basic, manual record-keeping systems should concentrate on recording the essentials through a daily diary, individual cowrecord cards and a breeding chart

� Standard record herds with access to milk recording should maintain a daily diary, breeding chart and actively utilise more of the information available through their milk records

� Herds with comprehensive, computerised recording systems need to be selective and focused in their use, making sure to keep-up the daily diary.

Section 2: Defining Your Terms

Section 4: Planning Your Approach

Section 5: Establishing Your Starting Point

Summary

See also

Section 12: Worksheet 1: Initial Fertility Analysis for Basic Record Herds

Worksheet 2: CuSum Graphs for Submission & Pregnancy Rates

3:10/073-10