Nominations are open for the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council's (DCRC) 2018 Reproduction Awards program.

This program encourages dairy industry professionals — including veterinarians, extension agents, artificial insemination and pharmaceutical company representatives, dairy processor and co-op field staff and consultants — to nominate herds with reproductive excellence. It recognizes outstanding dairy operations for reproductive efficiency and well-implemented procedures.

To nominate a herd, go to www.dcrcouncil.org/awards/nominate-a-herd, and complete the required information. Nominations are due April 30.

Judges will evaluate reproductive performance criteria and whittle the nominee pool to a couple-dozen finalists. The finalists then submit herd management data, and the judges rank the finalists as platinum, gold, silver or bronze.

Herds earning platinum, gold, silver or bronze are invited to attend the DCRC Annual Meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 14-16 at the Westin in Indianapolis, Ind.

Information about past winners is available at www.dcrcouncil.org/awards/past-reproduction-award-winners.

DCRC is focused on bringing together all sectors of the dairy industry — producers, consultants, academia and allied industry professionals — for improved reproductive performance of dairy cattle.