Teagasc research targets pregnancy test for herds

A reliable early pregnancy test based on milk samples within 21 days of AI would mark a major advance in reproductive management of dairy herds.

Devising such a test is one of two Teagasc research projects announced last week which have been awarded Science Foundation Ireland/ Teagasc funding.

Poor fertility is a continuing problem in dairy herds and it is estimated that for each day the calving interval exceeds the well-established optimum 365 day interval for pasture-based systems, it costs an additional €7 per day per cow in the herd.