Quantifying neonatal mortality and reproductive performance in southern beef herds

Summary

Neonatal calf mortality has been recognised as having significant economic and welfare costs to the Australian beef industry, but there is a lack of data that quantifies the extent of calf mortality and the reproductive management practices that may contribute to it, particularly in southern Australia. 

This project utilised two producer focus groups to help develop a survey (online and hard copy) to distribute to beef producers in southern NSW, Vic, SA, Tas, and southern WA. 

Most producers surveyed did not believe that they had a significant problem although there was considerable variation between herds, particularly with small to medium herds. There appeared to be a lack of robust records used to monitor the performance of their herds in these aspects.    

Objectives

The main objectives of this project were to:

• explore the perceptions of southern beef producers of current reproductive performance and their opinions on the main factors that contribute to suboptimal productivity
• quantify neonatal calf losses in southern Australian beef herds and the relative importance of maternal, calf and management factors that affect the risk of perinatal and neonatal calf death
• investigate relationships between management practices and calf mortality to provide appropriate benchmarks for the southern beef industry
• suggest pathways for the industry to reduce the productivity inefficiencies associated with calf losses.

Key findings

• Most producers in southern Australia do not think reproductive performance and calf mortality is a problem in their herds.
• There is considerable variation between herds, particularly in small (less than 50 cows) and medium (50-250 cows) herds.
• Many producers do not appear to use robust records to monitor these aspects of their herds.
• It would be beneficial to develop tools to help producers collect reliable, relevant data without increasing their workloads. This would allow them to benchmark against comparable businesses.

Benefits to industry

There are considerable economic and animal welfare benefits to be gained if those herds which have the highest rates of calf morbidity and mortality could achieve the performance of even the average performing herds in these areas.

A focus on management efforts to decrease dystocia, especially in heifers, would increase the number of calves that survive and that go on to be productive units within the herd. 

Benefits are readily available without the need for increased expense or resources, such as more emphasis on selection of bulls for calving ease, better monitoring of calving heifers and attention to the nutrition of calving cow and heifers.

MLA action

The results of this project have helped lead to the development of the southern beef terms of reference for 2020, which focused on reproductive performance and calf loss. The focus is for successful projects to deliver adoption products focusing on on-farm impact.

Future research

• There may be substantial benefits from more closely exploring the reasons for poor record keeping in many herds. 
• Consideration should be given to the development of simple, easy, robust and relatively standardised methods of recording loses and the major factors that contribute to allow producers to monitor the performance of their own herds and to compare themselves against appropriate benchmarks. 
• Better understanding of the preventable causes of calf loss will allow producers to focus their resources and management on the most beneficial actions.