Friday, March 29, 2024

No room for hunger

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“Young stock should never have a hungry day,” Dean Alexander says.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Winton dairy farmer, who was a sheep and beef farmer in the Waikato before moving to Southland and going dairying four years ago talked at a workshop at SIDE on growing good quality replacements.

He said his calves and yearlings were shifted every second day onto quality grass.

“We give them quality feed and we make sure they have the quantity as well.”

And he sees the results once they are milking.

“Our heifers last year produced 420kg milksolids (MS)/cow on a grass/silage based system with no in-dairy feeding. They all reached their target live weight before going into the herd.”

The 193ha farm produces 1500kg MS/ha and 480 to 500kg MS/cow.

Alexander uses Minda Weights reports which show the live weight individual animals, according to their genetic potential, should be achieving through their first 24 months.

“As a tool it’s fantastic as we can see each individual animal is meeting or exceeding its target.”

The young stock are run on a neighbouring 50ha lease block which can also be milked off by the herd of 570.

“There is a lot of personal satisfaction seeing well grown animals entering the herd,” he said.

“There’s nothing worse than having young stock you are not happy with. You will see that line of cows for years to come in your herd and grumble about it.”

He said growing good young stock began the day of insemination.

“Use good quality bulls, achieve pre-determined targets such as in-calf rates, growth rates, death rates and culling rates and also have a regular drench and vaccination programme.

“If you are using a grazier make sure your definition of what good young stock are is the same as theirs.”

DairyNZ development team leader Rob Brazendale, of Palmerston North, said nationally heifers were on average 11% below target weights.

“Undergrown heifers will produce less milk and will not get in calf or get in calf later. The cost is estimated to be $105/animal which means the dairy industry is missing out on approximately $120 million a year because of it,” he said.

Underweight heifers entering the herd were still trying to catch up, plus recover from calving and produce milk and then get back into calf, he said.

“Some just don’t make it and dry themselves off after a couple of months or don’t cycle.  We are losing too many cows in our national herd as three year olds.”

He said industry partners would be working during the next two to three years with dairy farmers and graziers to increase knowledge and awareness of the problem and find tools to address it.

“We are gaining industry agreement on targets for heifers and what good heifer rearing looks like.”

A new commercial grazing pricing system that supported rearing of heifers to the agreed industry targets would also be introduced.

“At the moment the price is simply on supply and demand and that is not helpful to either the dairy farmer or the grazier.

“As well we also want to develop and deliver resources that facilitate and formalise the commercial relationships between heifer graziers and dairy herd owners.”

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