Basic Dairy Records Flashcards
When should you view the start of lactation in order to maximize production?
2-3 weeks prior to calving
- this is when you set her up for success
What is the 100 day transition program contract?
Extends from dry off until you get her pregnant again
- this is where most of the issues with cow milk production occurs
What are the 4 types of dairy records?
Written Records: notebook, etc
DHIA (dairy herd improvement association): tester comes once a month and data is stored on a server
-measured the amount of milk that every cow gave, ran somatic cell count and milk butter fat and milk protein
-centrally stored records
Dairy Comp: on farm data collection and storage
-developed as dairies got larger
-records are taken by producer- enter in reproductive data and milk data
Milking Equipment: equipment manufacturer provides management software
-equipment manufacturer provides management software
What are the 5 major components of dairy records?
-production
-reproduction
-udder health
-culling
-replacements
What is the rolling herd average?
How much each cow makes a year on a dairy farm
-has lots of complication momentum
-a terrible indicator of how changes are impacting a production
*the only time you should look at this is to determine the overall productivity of a farm as a whole
What does herd fat% indicate?
Herd level butter fat
-see how much of a problem acidosis is on a farm
Herd butter fat is a loose indicator of what?
-rumen health and acidosis
-PUFAs will severely decrease milk butter fat
Daily milk/days in milk?
Daily milk production on the farm
- average days in milk
What is the 150 day milk?
Best predictor of month to month milk production
- dont look at this much except on very small dairies
What is stratified milk and fat production?
Start up milk and fat 1-40 days
-fresh cows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd lactations
Peak milk and fat 41-100 days
-peak cows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd lactations
For rolling herd average, what is the most important thing to look at?
Trend over the course of the year
- is this herd gaining milk or losing milk
- drives what you think the peak milk fat of a herd should be
What should the minimum milk butter fat be of a Holstein to insure that they have good rumen health?
3.5 as a minimum
-there used to be a time you could not get high milk production and high milk fat together, but that is no longer the case
- need good forage, good cow comfort and good nutrition program to get both
Why is looking at dairy herd butter fat data not always the best predictor of overall herd health?
Looking at a very small percentage of milkings over the total milkings per day
- cant just look at the numbers, you must also look at the cow
What does days in milk tell us?
How fresh or stale a herd is
-the further you are in days in milk, the staler you are
- if getting into the 200s, you are getting into the stale region
- harder to do anything about milk production the further you get out on that curve on a herd basis
When you have long days in milk as a herd, what is this an indication of?
Poor reproductive performance
Above what number of cows should you pay attention to average daily milk production and % fat and protein?
20 per group
What is the maximum deviation there should be between 1st and 3rd lactations?
80-85%
What are 2 reasons that heifers may underperform relative to mature cows?
Competition/overcrowding or poor development of heifers
What are the two places that milk butter fat comes from?
Diet or localization of body fat
- if you see very high milk butter fat in fresh cows, concerned about high amounts of mobilized body fat
Mobilized body fat will express itself as what disease process?
Fatty liver disease
-occurs with negative energy balance and subclinical ketosis
- only really concerned about this with fresh cows
Why are replacement heifers no longer valuable?
Raising a replacement heifer will cost more than what you can sell her for
What is the downside to buying replacements?
- take a hit to the biosecurity
- people arent willing to sell their best cows nowadays
What is the biggest red flag when buying a replacement?
They are less than 300 days in milk
- no one wants to sell a cow until she is milked out
What drives the demand for replacement heifers?
Cow culling practices
-must not look just at culling percentage but amount of days in milk that they are culled
What is the problem with the categories on many dairy records for culling decisions?
Often cows fall into more than one category
- dont look at reasons for cull except for death- not useful
What are the two main fresh cow diseases that can affect the survivability curves?
Ketosis and hypocalcemia
What is the ratio that you want for replacement cows?
1:1 ratio
Why are the number of female cows that can be sold growing in numbers?
Making extra pregnancies
