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BWCalving 2026 is a go at Bwlch Stabilisers 🙌🏻
A healthy and sharp heifer calf from 309 with a 358 day calving interval.
Calving interval describes the number of days between successive calvings. The target calving interval for a suckler cow is 365 days; where the calving interval is greater than 365 days this means that it takes longer than one year for a cow to produce successive calves.
The overall effect of longer calving intervals is to reduce profitability for suckler beef farms for the following reasons:
⭐️For spring calving cows, which represent the vast majority of our suckler herd, the length of the indoor winter feeding period is longer since cows are normally not turned out to grass until after calving. Thus, longer calving intervals increase total feed costs.
⭐️Where weaning occurs on a fixed date, weaning weights of the later-born calves are lower.
⭐️The likelihood of a cow with a longer calving interval becoming pregnant and remaining in the herd is reduced. This is because later calving cows have a shorter duration prior to breeding or indeed may be calving when the breeding season has already commenced.
⭐️The overall effect of this is lower pregnancy rates and higher cow replacement costs, a considerable cost in suckler beef systems. (Agriland 2015)
#fertilityiskey#calvingintervals#365profitablesucklercowproductionwelshbeefproductionfarmassuredwelshlivestockstabilisercattlecompany
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