A cow that never conceives: cull or correct?
Ganga is a 5-year-old crossbred cow in her third lactation, calved 150 days ago, and giving 14 litres a day on paddy straw, rice bran and 3 kg of concentrate. She has had no green fodder for two months. Her body condition score is 2.25 on a 1–5 scale and she has visibly lost weight since calving. She has been inseminated four times, each time at a different stage of heat. The owner notices heat at the 6 a.m. milking, telephones the technician, and insemination is usually done by 9 a.m. the same morning; twice the technician came only the next day. Returns to heat are regular at 19–22 days. She shows clear, stringy mucus and no discharge between heats. The owner is tired of spending ₹300 per insemination and wants to sell her. A local trader offers ₹28,000; a freshly calved crossbred of similar type costs about ₹50,000.
1. Rank the likely causes of her failure to conceive and state the cheap checks you would do this week.
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1. Wrong timing of insemination - most likely. Heat starts around 6 a.m. and AI is done at 9 a.m., only about 3 hours into standing heat. Ovulation follows roughly 24–30 hours after the onset of standing heat, so the sperm arrive far too early and are gone before the egg is released. The correct rule is AI about 12 hours after the first standing heat: morning heat, evening AI; evening heat, next morning AI. The two next-day inseminations were also outside the window.
2. Negative energy balance. BCS 2.25 with continuing weight loss and no green fodder means low energy intake, weak heats and delayed ovulation. Target BCS at insemination is 3.0–3.25.
3. Subclinical endometritis - less likely here. At 150 days calved it must be considered, but the clear stringy mucus with no discharge between heats argues against a significant uterine infection.
Checks this week: three-times-daily heat observation with a teaser or heat-mount detector and the time of onset written down; body condition scoring; a faecal examination for parasites; and a written breeding card for the next heat.
2. Design a 60-day corrective plan with specific actions and timings.
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Weeks 1–2: Raise concentrate to 4 kg in three feeds; give 20–25 kg of green fodder (maize, berseem or azolla) daily; add 100 g mineral mixture; free-choice clean water. Deworm if the faecal check indicates it.
Heat detection: Observe at 6 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Record the onset of standing heat, not the time you happened to see it. Then:
- Onset in the morning → inseminate 12 hours later, the same evening.
- Onset in the evening → inseminate the next morning.
Weeks 3–6: Continue the ration. Score body condition monthly; aim to gain about 0.5 of a point over two months without overfeeding, since fat cows also conceive poorly.
If she returns at 21 days: repeat with careful timing. On the second return, ask the veterinarian to examine the uterus and ovaries and take a uterine swab.
Breeding card: date of heat onset, time of AI, semen code and bull, technician's name, expected return date, and result of pregnancy diagnosis at 45–60 days. Without this card the next decision will again be made on memory.
3. Should the owner sell her? Give the reasoning and the criteria under which you would change the decision.
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Keep her for now. She earns about 14 L × ₹30 = ₹420 a day; feed and other costs are roughly ₹160, leaving about ₹260 a day, or about ₹7,800 a month. Two more correctly timed inseminations cost ₹600 plus a little extra feed - small against the ₹22,000 gap between the trader's ₹28,000 and the ₹50,000 replacement, and the replacement may bring her own fertility or mastitis problems.
Change the decision - cull - if any of these hold: she fails to conceive after two correctly timed inseminations plus veterinary treatment; chronic endometritis is confirmed; her body condition will not recover on a good ration; or her yield falls so far that her daily margin no longer covers her feed. A cow that is dry, thin and barren is a cost, not an asset.
The judgement is not about the ₹300 spent per insemination but about the daily margin compared with the cost of replacement and the probability that the fault is management, not the cow. Here the fault is clearly management.