At Jerseyland Dairy LLC, dairy manager Tanner Schmidt knows a solid reproduction program depends on more than just shots and semen; it comes down to having the right people in place, doing the right things at the right time.

Would you invest in something that causes metritis, ketosis or mastitis? You probably already have. The unit of semen you purchased last week and thawed this morning could actually cost hundreds of dollars in transition cow treatments about three years down the road.

Can you believe up to 60 percent of embryos don’t “make it” in the lactating dairy cow? That’s right. In addition to poor estrus expression and low conception rate, embryonic loss is another significant contributor to poor reproductive efficiency, with combined pre- and post-fertilization losses exceeding 70 percent.

Dr. Don Niles, partner on Dairy Dreams in Casco, Wisconsin, said there is no single miracle for a good breeding program and transition of heifers into the dairy herd; rather, there are several very important factors.

How are genomics working on your farm? That was the topic of a panel discussion at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference held in February in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

As automated milking gains traction across the country, dairy producers are learning that some cows are just better suited than their herdmates to thrive in these systems. By breeding for specific robot-friendly traits, you can genetically build cows that are set up to succeed.

Activity monitoring systems are becoming increasingly popular tools to help dairy farmers manage their herds and detect changes in cow behavior. One of the first applications of activity monitoring systems was for heat detection and breeding.

Until recently, assisted reproductive technologies such as multiple ovulation embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization (IVF) have seen limited use in the commercial dairy sector.

Reproductive technologies like embryo transfer (ET) and in vitro fertilization can help advance the genetic level of heifers entering the milking herd, offering enhanced profits for producers. With the advent of genomic data, there is an even better story to tell.

In the current economic state of the industry, there is an understandable need to hunker down and tread water until milk prices and margins start trending in a positive direction.