Programme to improve sector's in-calf rates
DairyNZ has redeveloped and updated a reproduction knowledge course known as the InCalf training programme.
InCalf is not a ‘quick fix’ or ‘silver bullet’. To get the most from InCalf you’ll need to be proactive and committed to solving the underlying cause of reproductive problems, not just the symptoms.
What’s been missing is Step 1: Assess current herd reproductive performance. Without good measures and achieveable targets, farmers and their advisers struggle to know where they are starting from.
Without Step 1 the farmer cannot do Step 2: Identify scope for improvement and the associated benefits, which indicates improvements possible and whether these are profitable to pursue.
By ignoring Step 1 and Step 2 the farmer, with his/her advisers, jumps straight to Step 3: Consider options for change and select the best options; these may or may not be the best options for this herd.
Choosing options leads to Step 4: Implement selected options. However, the exercise is pointless if we do not learn from the review step, and return to Step 1 to assess herd reproductive performance after implementing selected options.
The philosophy of InCalf is embodied in this ‘continuous improvement process’, which is farmer initiated and controlled, with the support of InCalf trained advisers and InCalf tools and resources.
