BACKGROUND Argyle Dairy in Southbrook, Queensland, Australia was founded by Peter Garratt’s great grandparents in 1926. The farm has been managed by Peter since around 2000, with the help of his parents. The herd stands at about 250 milking cows, up from 140-150 ten years ago, with an additional 220 heifers, mostly from natural growth. CHALLENGES In the past, there has been a high turnover of cows in the Argyle Dairy herd. “We do all AI breeding, and I knew that our reproductive performance was not as good as it could be,” says Peter. “The target is to keep a flat line in our milk production. But we’ve always struggled to have a fresh enough herd because we were carrying too many stale cows. Plus, a lot of cows didn’t go into calf, probably because of poor timing and lack of d

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