Homeopathy can be a very effective tool for preparing your dairy cows and farm animals for mating season. It is good to start at least seven weeks before mating begins to give the remedies time to assist in cleansing the reproductive system and bring the hormones back into balance.

Count down to mating.

Week Seven - giving Pyrogenium every 1-2 days for the week will help clean the uterus and clear any infections. 

Weeks Six to One: Move on to Sepia 2-3 times weekly for six weeks before mating begins. If you have skinny cows that won't put on weight and are not cycling, look at Iodum.

Once mating has started - Continue to use Sepia over the mating period. After two cycles (6 weeks), those not mated can be put on to Non-Cycling.  

The Remedies to Use.

Pyrogenium is a remedy for uterus infections, good to flush and cleanse the uterus before mating.

Sepia is a huge remedy based on the female reproductive organs, used before and during mating to encourage cows to cycle.

A trial done on Sepia for fertility.  They used 200c but 30c is just as effective.  Williamson AV, Mackie WL, Crawford WJ, Rennie B. A Trial of Sepia 200. British Homeopathic Journal, 84, 1, January 1995, 14-20. Using a randomised placebo control method, Sepia 200C was assessed for its ability to increase reproductive performance in a herd of Fresian cross dairy cows. Sepia increased all parameters measured.

Non-cycling is a remedy for cows that are not cycling. It balances the hormones to encourage the body to start cycling again naturally. A great time to use it is at preheat. For those cows that have not cycled, use at this time will help to align them with the herd.

Iodum for those cows that just won't put on weight and aren't cycling.

Other remedies that are useful around this time are:

Ignatia for any emotional upset from the mating process to help keep your animals calm.

Multi V & M helps your animals assimilate the vitamins and minerals they get in their feed and can be used all year round.

Viburnum is an excellent remedy for cows at risk of miscarriage. It supports the body to hold on to the pregnancy. 

Below is an example of how Paulette used the above remedies on the farm.

Mating is well underway on both farms. We used Sepia to help to encourage the cows to cycle well. Give Sepia three times weekly, six weeks before we start mating and continue for the entire course of mating for AI and when the bulls are put in the herd. 

We do AI for the first six weeks / two cycles at the home farm and then put the bulls in with the herd. On the small farm, we used natural mating, so we had at least three bulls in the herd at any time. 

On the small farm, we had finished our first two complete cycles, so about six weeks into mating, we had about six cows that still needed to have their tail paint rubbed, so they had yet to cycle. So, for each milking, I sprayed each of them with our Non-cycling remedy, which assists in bringing their hormones back into balance so they can cycle. By the end of the first week, 3 out of the six cows had cycled, and by the three-week mark, all had cycled and been mated, which was a fantastic result. 

All of the remedies named above can be found under the Mating category.