Genomics offers new opportunities for female selection. Breed associations, some A.I. companies and other organizations involved in genetic testing now offer programs for the genotyping of females based on the collection of tissue samples such as hair, nasal swabs or blood.

The nation’s two largest breed organizations are reporting steady increases in animal registrations, with numbers in 2011 taking an exceptional jump up from 2010. Once again the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA) has broken a number of records, while Holstein Association USA says its all-time registration record set during its centennial celebration in 1981 is within reach.

Dairy producers continue to face a risky financial environment. Expensive feed and stagnant-to-dipping milk prices mandate caution when deciding how money is to be spent. It’s important to focus attention on getting the most return from every investment, including your reproductive program. Reproduction is the driving force behind the profitability of any dairy.

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a two-part series about how to monitor and, if necessary, change a herd’s reproductive management. Click here to read the second and final part in this two-part series. As the U.S. dairy industry continues to consolidate into fewer but larger farms, the demands for effective management and leadership skills have increased. Owners have historically run their dairies via a hands-on approach, providing much of the labor necessary, but with increases in herd size and efforts to maximize the return on their milking parlor by milking around the clock, owners have had to make the transition to more of a role as administrator and supervisor.

Today’s computer records programs have the ability to create many different graphs and figures. Unfortunately, many people settle for the pre-formed graphs or canned reports and try to determine what these reports are telling them.

The sex sorting of semen is a relatively new technology that has been commercially available to U.S. dairy producers since early 2006. The process of sorting semen by gender was developed in the late 1980s and has improved significantly over time. Today, most sexed semen is sorted so that 85 to 90 percent of the offspring are of the desired gender.

Identifying and working to resolve bottlenecks is key to a dairy’s reproductive program. The Reproductive Drill-Down Tool, created by Penn State Extension educators, was recently released to address this concern. Rebecca White of the Penn State Extension Dairy Team explains how this tool works and what it can do for dairy producers. Q: What is the web address? www.das.psu.edu/research-extension/dairy/pa-tool/identifying-bottlenecks-to-higher-dairy/

Reproductive performance on dairy farms has improved in recent years. And that’s important, because poor reproductive programs carry a serious financial cost. According to data from the University of Missouri, an increase in days open can be valued from $0.50 to $4.50 per day – a pregnant cow is worth $250 to $600 more than an open cow, and each percentage point increase in pregnancy rate (PR) is equal to roughly $35 per cow.