Efforts to improve reproductive efficiency in dairy heifers experiencing delayed puberty using heatsynch protocol

The aim of this study was to find out the application of Heatsynch protocol in overcome the delayed puberty of dairy heifers that suffered from infertility. This study was conducted at small dairy farms in Sub-district of Cendana, Enrekang Regency, Indonesia. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, a total of 50 dairy heifers were used to determine the percentage of heifers that experienced delay in puberty. In the second stage, 20 dairy heifers with delayed puberty were divided into two groups. The first group, 10 dairy heifers were treated with Heatsynch and the other 10 dairy heifers were used as negative control (without Heatsynch). For control positive, 10 dairy heifers that did not suffered from delayed puberty were used. In Heatsynch treated dairy heifers, GnRH were injected on day-0, followed by PGF2α, estradiol injections on day-7 and day-8, respectively, and inseminated artificially on day-9. The results of this study showed that the percentage of dairy heifers that experienced in delayed puberty was 44%. The mean age at first pregnant after treated with Heatsynch was 545 days, shorter than those heifers in control negative (644 days). The percentage of dairy heifers become pregnant after treating with Heatsynch was 80%, higher than those untreated delayed puberty heifers (50%). It can be concluded that the incidence of delayed puberty in dairy heifers was still high. Heatsynch protocol can be one way that can be used to overcome the problem of delayed puberty in dairy heifers and to improve reproductive efficiency.