Mating will be over by the time most of you read this newsletter, and of course all focus now is on how did you go? Was it better than last year? Did you out perform your neighbour? Was your 6-week in-calf rate high enough to be a contender for the Anexa Vet Services Reproduction Award? Did all that effort over the last 12 months lead to a reduction in the number of empty cows? 
 
The key message is that sitting down with your vet or InCalf advisor and looking at the numbers in detail is the only way you’ll really know. There have been some updates in the national InCalf targets for calving pattern and not-in-calf rate, which you will see in the new green (2nd edition) InCalf book. These new targets will also be reflected in the new version of the Fertility Focus Report. The new targets have been generated from the 4000+ herds nationally that have detailed reproductive data in MINDA, and are based on the performance of the herds that are in the top 25% for 6-week in-calf rate. In the table to the right, the tick is the what the average of the top 25% are achieving and the alarm clock is to alert you to the middle performers i.e. seek help if you are in the bottom 50%. 
 
So, if in the past you haven’t sat down with your vet post-scanning to understand the numbers, this is the season to do it!