Friday, March 29, 2024

Cows ‘struggling’ with intensification

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Genetic gain in New Zealand has focused on breeding cows to suit low-input systems and they are struggling to stand up to the rapid move to intensive farming, breeding consultant Don Shaw says.
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After working for 40 years as a sales consultant for CRV Ambreed, he believes today’s cows in high-input systems are pumping out the milk, but their udders are not lasting the distance.

“These cows are producing really well, but their udders can’t handle the increase in milk volume.”

In some System 4 and 5 operations, cow udders were starting to sag at four and five years old, reducing their longevity in the herd and ultimately reducing farmer profits.

“Longevity is how you make your money. A cow peaks between four and nine years of age.”

NZ Dairy Statistics 2012-13 show cow survivability dropped to less than 80% for cows more than six years old. The average survivability of cows aged 6-7 years was 77.9%, but dropped quickly to 71.6% for cows aged 7-8 years and 66.1% for cows aged 8-9 years.

The average cost of bringing a new animal into the herd was about $1400, Shaw said.

With all other costs associated with farming, it took about two years to repay that cost and farmers should be aiming for more than two or three years’ profit from a cow.

“It would be fair to conclude that keeping your replacements at 20% or less should mean more money in a farmer’s pocket.”

“For a System 4 or 5, some overseas genetics used alongside NZ genetics might suit your system better.”

During a recent trip to the NRM All Holland Trade Dairy Show, Shaw visited a farm where cows were producing more than 100,000 litres in their lifetime. The cows were averaging 14,000 litres a year and their udders were maintaining good shape and suspensory ligaments.

‘Get somebody to walk through the herd so they can advise where your weaknesses and strengths are.’

He warned that when selecting overseas genetics for milk production and improved udders, farmers should look carefully for animals that would still suit the NZ pasture-based system.

“They’ve still got to have the same characteristics as NZ cows; NZ cows are not living in barns full-time, for example, so the cows still need to stand up to our conditions.”

A retired Waikato dairy farmer, Shaw works as a breeding consultant for some of his long-standing clients.

Farmers sought advice from vets, accountants, and farm advisers, but not specifically for breeding, he said. Choosing the best genetics to suit the herd was one of the most important decisions a farmer could make and it had to be a priority.

He believed that using random bull selection was not the most efficient way to improve a herd’s genetic gain.

Plenty of information existed to help farmers make educated decisions and they needed to take time to research different bulls from across semen companies and get independent advice.

“Get somebody to walk through the herd so they can advise where your weaknesses and strengths are.”

Being able to read and understand bull catalogue information was the first step on the path to making informed decisions about the bulls farmers used.

“Not any one bull has 100% top traits, so farmers need to sort through them to suit their herd. They should be selecting a team of bulls to complement the genetics of the cows in their herd.”

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