Cows, calves and veterinary

Drought management and fun figures

MAF: learning from previous dry spells pdf file (I try to mark those because they take a lo-ong time to load on dial-up, just in case anyone wondered)

Managing animal welfare risks this summer

Note: I've also received information of cow deaths following the feeding of tapioca or molasses 'inappropriately' (in a situation where hungry cows can gorge, resulting in severe acidosis). Some of these cases occured on farms almost wholly reliant on supplementary feed - there are parts of the country far worse off than here.

More tips If you're a NZ farmer and read the papers, you've already seen that article half a dozen times.

Dairy farmers have been off-loading culls for a week or two now. The works are busy and reports are starting to come through of delays in some areas (Fed Farmers, Feb 5 Rural News).
I was so tempted the other day to phone my works agent and see if he could squeeze in a second cow along with the one I was already sending with the bull (late calver, poor temperament). My only known (older) empty cow had just begun a mild flare-up of mastitis. It was only the day before the truck was due, and I decided against - she's milking well and SCC isn't a great issue in my herd.
This morning she turned up at the shed fidgeting and holding milk. Eczema. Now I *really* wish I'd checked out the possibility of her going the other day.

Being an early dry, and with the bull just come out, I've already scuppered the plans I made last year to quit stock around this time because apparently eveything is in calf. A total of *three* cows have been seen cycling since Jan 10th, two of them in the herd that wasn't running with a bull.
There are no obvious poor performers to pick out of the herd (though I have a short list in mind if culling of capital stock does become necessary; since there's some rain due over the next few days, hopefully that can be avoided) and I've already been contacted by someone interested in buying empty young cows - at this stage, a total of one.
As always, I'm wondering whether the change in feed composition and quantity has affected the cycling cows. Twenty cows went up for AB in the three weeks leading to Jan 10, two or three more were seen on heat but left to the bull. Eighty per cent 3 wk NRR just ain't normal.
Time will prove one way or the other. Vet statistics for the past few years in this area show empty rates averaging 10 - 12%, about where we were last year.

Some interesting figure work. This data comes from the current season's herd tests. If I was clever I'd import it as a table, but I'm not clever and I'm not about to reveal the real time of morning (it's not what the time stamp says, it is late enough to preclude any and all effort).

25 cows milked once daily since early December Average of current herd test: 0.64 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 181 kg MS, range: 90 - 267 kgMS
35 cows put on once daily milking immediately after test - picked on udder appearance for low yield Average of current herd test: 0.89 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 227 kg MS, range: 75 - 290 kg MS (note - the 75 is an anomaly - late calver, looks as if she's milking not bad but has tested pathetically both times)
19 heifers grazed with really good grazier last year Average of current herd test: 0.73 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 190 kg MS, range: 137 - 222 kgMS
25 heifers grazed with less-skilled grazier last year Average of current herd test: 0.7 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 191 kg MS, range: 90 - 269 kgMS
134 cows with a BW of 150 or below Average of current herd test: 0.96 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 233 kg MS, range: 75 - 339 kgMS
85 cows with a BW of 151 or above Average of current herd test: 0.96 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 235 kg MS, range: 158 - 352 kgMS
13 cows with uncertain or no ancestry records Average of current herd test: 1.05 kg MS, cumulative for lactation: 245 kg MS, range: 184 - 327 kgMS

This is consistent with other individual herd tests I've checked. The once daily cows are picked out for low yield, and this was their first test (the first group) on once a day milking. Without going into a detailed analysis - I suspect the heifers are doing slightly less (between 0.1 and 0.2 kg MS) than they would be had they stayed on twice a day. A few of the cows are achieving good yields while on once a day, and a surprising number are achieving good yields while wandering into the shed with a slack udder every milking.
There is no significant difference between the heifers that were well-grown and those that came home small and fat.
There is no significant difference in production between low BW and high BW cows. It might be interesting to look at that lower end figure - taking out number 82 to see if there are more low BW cows who are poor producers. At a quick glance over the figures, I suspect there isn't much difference there either.
And as always - the mongrels lead the pack! By a huge margin.
I'll give LIC the benefit of the doubt that that might be an anomaly. It's a small number of cows, some of them have no ancestry information at all, others have uncertain parentage, a couple I bought as unrecorded, one I know for sure was the result of a natural mating - cow age and breed composition possibly gives this group an advantage over the herd average.

posted by nellta holdings @ 4:30 AM