Please click here for the latest information on how to access our services.

  • Fertility Improvements from Shires Vets in Staffordshire

One unique thing about Shires is how we carry out our routine fertility visits (RFV’s). Shires Vets offer an Interherd bureau service (all included in the price of the visits) where the lay-staff input all the service and calving data since the last visit to allow us to produce up to date sheets for which animals need to be seen.

The criteria for which animals we see are personalised to each farm but are usually in three groups;

  • PNC’s (Post-natal checks) to check that there is no uterine infection post calving
  • NVO’s (Non-visible oestrus) to check animals that have gone over their voluntary waiting period but have not yet been served
  • PD’s (pregnancy diagnosis) to check animals that are over 35 days served to check if they are pregnant

Visits are carried out on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis (again farm dependent) and are (as far as possible!) with the same vet and lay-staff combination. We are unique in that we do bring a member of lay-staff with us on all RFVs. This allows for much improved accuracy as one person is dedicated to the paperwork side and also increased speed (so reducing your bill!)

We provide regular fertility reports and quarterly KPI (Key Performance Indicator) comparisons between all our farms on RFVS. These allow us to monitor your progress and also to identify and treat any problems quickly. Some examples of interesting graphs that we have seen along the way are shown below.

This first graph identifies the improvement in submission rate (cows eligible for service that were served) since a farm installed heat detecting pedometers. The pedometers were installed in October 2013 and you can see a dramatic improvement in the 3 (blue line) and 12 (black line) month rolling averages ever since then. This shows how useful these heat-detecting devices can be as an aid to AI service.

graph1

The second graph shows us the percentage of services within the desired 18-24 day interval between services. Again this has improved dramatically since the introduction of the pedometers, allowing increased accuracy of service.

graph2

These improving trends are lovely to see but usually we want to quickly notice when things are starting to decline.

If you would like more information about this service please call us on 01785 850218.