Five questions about fertility for veterinarian Eline Willems

'To me, a herd of cows is more than a collection of ovaries and wombs to be inseminated and scanned. Good fertility is an important condition for farmers who want to get a good return from their herd. To me, thinking along with farmers in this regard is important. This means that I also take the numbers into consideration and try to identify points for improvement.'

'CRV offers farmers a complete package: from semen and nitrogen to fertility services. What's more, we work with a team of people who are motivated to achieve the best results for farmers. This complete package clearly distinguishes us from our competitors.'

'Fertility counselling goes beyond just scanning for pregnancy. I also like to check in on cows one month after calving, on cows that are not yet in heat after two months, for example, cows that are in heat irregularly, cows with a purulent discharge and cows that fail to fall pregnant after four inseminations.'

'I always advise farmers to work according to a fixed system. If you don't, there's a real risk that problem cows will disappear from the radar. And if you only find out 150 days into lactation that a cow has never been in heat because of PVD or cysts, you will find yourself overtaken by events. However, if you keep a finger on the pulse and stay on the ball, you can keep ahead of problems and really make a difference in the fertility results. Not every farmer adopts my working methods. That is ultimately up to them, of course. But I'm convinced these farmers are missing out on money.'

'Over the years, I have increasingly discovered how complex fertility is and how fertility affects farmers' business results. 'Everything affects fertility, and fertility affects everything'

'Successful farms are farms where the farmer himself is fanatical about fertility. You can achieve amazing results with good cooperation at these types of farms. But it is also motivating to help a farmer if things are not going so well. As an example, one of the herd advisers in Flanders struck up a conversation with a farmer who occasionally sourced semen from CRV. The farmer was willing to give us a try and we took the opportunity. We have been working with a motivated colleague for two years now, and the numbers have improved considerably. The farmer is very happy, but I'm sure we can do even better.'