Conception Rate in Horizon: Benchmarking, Settings, and How to Keep Your Data Accurate

You can now view your conception rate directly in Horizon through the Pregnancy Rate Report. It’s a great opportunity to revisit how to properly benchmark your herd and ensure that your reproduction metrics are truly reflecting what happens on the farm.

Reproduction indicators—conception rate, insemination rate, and pregnancy rate—are heavily influenced by your Horizon settings. If the system’s configuration doesn’t align with your actual breeding strategy, the metrics won’t be accurate. Below are the key settings to verify regularly.

1. Voluntary Waiting Period (VWP)

Make sure your VWP settings match your on-farm breeding decisions for:

• Age at first insemination

• Lactation 1

• Lactation 2+

Example:

If Horizon is set to a VWP of 50 DIM, but your farm policy is to breed at 80 DIM, Horizon will consider cows “eligible” during that extra 30-day window. That artificially changes insemination rates, conception rate, and pregnancy rate.

👉 Adjust VWP settings so they mirror your actual strategy.

Important note:

• The Heat & Insemination task will not show cows in heat below the VWP.

• However, in Report 19, you can view cows inside the VWP by changing the report settings.

2. Marking “Keep Open” Cows

If a cow will not be bred again (e.g., late-lactation, hoof issues, selective breeding decision), you must mark her as Keep Open using the Pregnancy Check action.

When cows are not properly marked:

• Horizon counts them as eligible

• Your PR, CR, and insemination rate all drop inaccurately

When they are properly marked:

• They are excluded from the reproduction calculations

• Your repro KPIs reflect your true program

Real Case Example

A local farm appeared to be below average for both pregnancy and conception rate. After reviewing their Horizon setup, we found:

• No cows were marked as Keep Open

• Their VWP did not match their real-world breeding strategy

Once we corrected both issues, the next month’s report showed that the herd was in line with industry averages, allowing the farm to confidently set new repro goals.

**How Does Your Farm Compare?

2023 Canadian Reproduction Benchmarks (ON & Western Canada)**

Percentile Pregnancy Rate (21-day, VWP 50 DIM) Conception Rate (All Services)

25th 14% 37%

50th (median) 18% 45%

75th 21% 52%

90th 25% 58%

What this means:

A “typical” herd in ON/West achieves:

• ~18% pregnancy rate, and

• ~45% conception rate

Top-performing herds push toward:

• 21–25% PR, and

• 50–58% CR

These are excellent targets when evaluating your herd’s repro performance in Horizon.

Setting Goals Moving Forward

Reproductive efficiency is one of the biggest drivers of herd profitability. Before setting goals, make sure your data inputs are correct—especially VWP and Keep-Open cows—so your reproductive KPIs are meaningful and comparable.

Once your starting point is accurate:

• Review benchmarks

• Set realistic but ambitious goals

• Work with your on-farm advising team (FMS, herd advisor, vet)

• Build a strategy to move toward top-quartile performance

Accurate data + consistent monitoring = stronger reproductive outcomes.