DC305 breeding result codes
Definition
Section titled “Definition”Each BRED event in DC305 carries a one-letter result code that records what happened to that breeding. The code is not entered with the breeding. DC305 fills it in or changes it later, when a pregnancy check, a rebreeding, an abortion or a calving is entered. A breeding with no outcome yet is pending.
Result codes found in DC305 data:
| Code | Meaning | Counts as conception? |
|---|---|---|
| P | Pregnant: confirmed pregnant from this breeding | Yes |
| O | Open: checked open after this breeding | No (failure) |
| A | Aborted: pregnancy from this breeding was later lost | Yes, if the pregnancy was confirmed first (see below) |
| R | Rebred (or recheck; see below): most often a breeding followed by another breeding with no check in between, so inferred open | No (failure) |
| C | Set-up / version dependent | Check before using |
| E | Set-up / version dependent | Check before using |
| blank | Pending: no outcome yet | Leave out |
Which codes count as a conception
Section titled “Which codes count as a conception”- P is always a conception.
- A is a conception when the pregnancy was confirmed before it was lost: the cow conceived, then aborted. An abortion recorded with no confirmed pregnancy is an “other” outcome and is left out of both numerator and denominator (see conception rate).
- R is not a conception. Read as “rebred”, it is an inferred open: the cow came back in heat and was rebred. It belongs in the denominator as a failure.
- O is a failure.
How to pull it in DC305
Section titled “How to pull it in DC305”- BREDSUM reads the result codes for you and reports pregnant, open, other and total services per row. See BREDSUM.
- EVENTS lists the breedings themselves, including the result, sire, technician and breeding type:
EVENTS BRED ID LACT FOR EDAY>-180 breedings in the last 180 days- In exported event files, the breeding row may be relabelled by its outcome (for example, a breeding later confirmed shows as a PREG-type row). Count breedings from the BRED events and their result code, not from the event name on an export.
Typical range
Section titled “Typical range”Herd context: any DC305 herd; codes and items vary by herd setup.
- In lactating cows, P is usually about a third of known outcomes and O + R the rest, in line with a 30–40% conception rate.
- A is usually a small share of P.
- R is common in herds that breed on detected heats and rarer in herds that check every breeding before rebreeding.
- The newest one to two months always have many blank (pending) results.
- Pregnancy loss can only be measured from A results. Without dated pregnancy checks in the data, early loss (e.g. between a day-30 and a day-60 check) can’t be separated out, and losses never recorded as an abortion are invisible.
Common mistakes
Section titled “Common mistakes”- Counting R as a conception. R means the cow was rebred, so she was open.
- Counting every A as a conception. Only an abortion after a confirmed pregnancy is one.
- Counting pending (blank) breedings as open. This drags recent conception rates down.
- Confusing the result column with the breeding type column. Both hold single letters; O can mean “open” in the result column and a synch protocol in the type column. See breeding type codes.
- Counting raw breeding rows. Exports can repeat a breeding or rename it by its outcome. De-duplicate first.
- Using different rules for different reports. Conception rate and monthly pregnancies should agree on whether A counts.