A STUDY in the Northern Territory has found many properties have returned to calving rates in their first-calf cows below 20 per cent.
In the same study it was estimated an increase of 30pc back in calf in this group of cows could be worth $11 million in improved gross margins across the territory.
This is big news for many graziers who had little idea of the number of first-calf cows failing to return in calf.
"It has really opened people's eyes to the extent of the problem," says beef research officer for the Northern Territory Department of Regional Development Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources, Tim Schatz.
Now at the completion of its five year duration, the project, jointly funded by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and the department, began after extensive performance recording on commercial properties throughout the territory highlighted a poor return-to-in-calf result for first-calf cows.
Mr Schatz said his team discovered how big the problem of low fertility in first-calf cows was when they began to document the performance of heifers and first-calf cows.
While the seasons have a large effect, there was room for improvement.
The research was conducted on 14 private cattle stations located from border to border to get a good representation of the territory, as well as at the department's research farms, Victoria River Research Station to the south west of Katherine, and at Douglas Daly Research Farm to the north west of Katherine.
"The properties do things on such a large scale, so there was a lot of guess work (previous to the research) and most people didn't really know the actual performance of their heifers," Mr Schatz said.
"When you've got 20,000 cows spread over thousands of square kilometres it's hard to know whats going on.
"Nobody actually knew what it (the return in calf rate) was until we actually went out there and measured."
While this research has opened a few eyes to the problem, it is also the beginning of the solution, he said.
A large part of the problem is poor nutrition as the pasture during the dry season (winter months) is low quality, making it difficult to maintain body condition in the cows, he said.
"We've been looking at ways of improving the condition of the first-calf cows so they can get back in calf and not miss a year," he said.
They have also looked at the prevalence of diseases such as vibrio and pestivirus and have also searched for vitamin A deficiency.
Vibrio was a big problem on some stations, with an increase of 11pc more pregnancies once a vaccination program was introduced.
Pestivirus was also widespread, but due to the existing level of immune response from previous exposure, it made it hard to test the impact of a vaccine in this study.
The reason behind testing for vitamin A deficiency (tested in the Victoria River District) was existing problems with calf loss which had been diagnosed in the territory's Barkly region, and Queensland's Julia Creek region, but this was not the case in the Victoria River District, despite long dry seasons.
The biggest problem, however, was maintaining body weight.
Mr Schatz said management strategies needed to be aimed at getting heifers to higher joining weights for their maiden joining and maintaining body condition through their first calving and lactation.
Early weaning of calves from first calf cows is also important in minimising weight loss and allowing the young females to recover.
The best time to accumulate body weight began before their first calf, with a target joining weight for maiden heifers of 280 kilograms.
To get more than 50pc of first-calf cows back in calf, Mr Schatz said they needed to be maintained in condition so they weighed about 390kg at the time when their calves were weaned.
Supplements such as dry licks and blocks, moderate stocking rates and using better paddocks were useful for this.
While up to a 40pc increase in in-calf cows had been achieved with feeding copra meal before calving, the cost of supplement and transport often outweighed the benefits.
"That’s why we say it's probably more cost effective to use your better paddocks for heifers," he said.
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