Profitable dairying: Starting early and looking ahead for fertility and genetic gain

What does profitable dairying mean to you? Each farm owner, manager or sharemilker will have a different answer to this question. Milk solids in the vat, cows in calf, high-value progeny, longevity, cull value, easy-manage cows and more may feature on your list.

The defining point to note out of this list is that every farm is different and that each farmer has individual goals and aspirations for their herd. One size does not fit all. What all of these aims have in common, however, is that to achieve any of them, you need to get your cows in calf.
The backbone of New Zealand dairy farming has always been our ability to produce low-cost milk from pasture. No matter what level of supplements you are feeding, the milking season is still largely based around the pasture growth curve. Compared with dairy industries around the world, that means, as much as possible, a tight calving pattern and pressure to get cows in calf quickly in order to get more days in milk – and more milk solids in the vat.

Essential to this goal is herd fertility, managing your cows from birth and right through their lives to achieve the highest possible conception rate aligned with a concentrated calving period. Dairy NZ’s ‘In calf’ programme, undertaken in conjunction with leading consultants and agricultural organisations including AmBreed, identifies eight factors contributing to fertility in your dairy herd:

1. Calving pattern: Managing fertility and mating to ensure that the herd is tightly grouped with calving dates close to the beginning of the season. This not only gives you more day’s milk in the vat, but allows the necessary time for cows to recover and easily get in calf again early.

2. Heifer management: Monitoring, resourcing and mating your young stock to achieve herd members that are well-grown and set up to calve easily and early to set them up for early and reliable calving and milk production into the future.

3. Body condition and nutrition: Managing and feeding the herd and your young stock to ensure that they are at an optimum weight and condition throughout the year to calve, conceive and produce.

4. Heat detection: Educating yourself and your staff to use the best tools and methods to identify and record cows in oestrous before and during the mating period.

5. Dealing with non-cyclers: Identifying cows and heifers that have not come on heat during between calving and mating and treating them early to give them the best possible chance of getting in calf in line with the rest of their herdmates.

6. Genetics and AB practices: Choosing bulls that will achieve the goals you have set for your herd and farm and using tried and proven methods of artificial insemination.

7. Bull management: Running and rotating the appropriate number of healthy, active bulls of the right size and breed for your goals to get heifers and tail-end cows in calf.

8. Cow health: Measuring and feeding minerals and trace elements as necessary, treating problems early to limit their effect on conception and successful pregnancy rates.

So, it becomes obvious that mating management and fertility improvement is a year-round approach that lasts the lifetime of the cow. But what seems like a tall order in a volatile season will yield measurable improvement in future seasons, strong and consistent improvements in the herd as culling decisions are made under production, conformation and management objectives rather than fertility and even some immediate production results; a side-effect of more active management practices.

Want more profit in dairying? Make it a new year’s resolution to take a new look at your mating and fertility management.

Read more about profitable dairying.