Basic Dairy Records

Question 1

When should you view the start of lactation in order to maximize production?

Answer 1

2-3 weeks prior to calving
- this is when you set her up for success

Question 2

What is the 100 day transition program contract?

Answer 2

Extends from dry off until you get her pregnant again
- this is where most of the issues with cow milk production occurs

Question 3

What are the 4 types of dairy records?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What are the 5 major components of dairy records?

Answer 4

-production
-reproduction
-udder health
-culling
-replacements

Question 5

What is the rolling herd average?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What does herd fat% indicate?

Answer 6

Herd level butter fat
-see how much of a problem acidosis is on a farm

Question 7

Herd butter fat is a loose indicator of what?

Answer 7

-rumen health and acidosis
-PUFAs will severely decrease milk butter fat

Question 8

Daily milk/days in milk?

Answer 8

Daily milk production on the farm
- average days in milk

Question 9

What is the 150 day milk?

Answer 9

Best predictor of month to month milk production
- dont look at this much except on very small dairies

Question 10

What is stratified milk and fat production?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

For rolling herd average, what is the most important thing to look at?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What should the minimum milk butter fat be of a Holstein to insure that they have good rumen health?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Why is looking at dairy herd butter fat data not always the best predictor of overall herd health?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What does days in milk tell us?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

When you have long days in milk as a herd, what is this an indication of?

Answer 15

Poor reproductive performance

Question 16

Above what number of cows should you pay attention to average daily milk production and % fat and protein?

Answer 16

20 per group

Question 17

What is the maximum deviation there should be between 1st and 3rd lactations?

Answer 17

80-85%

Question 18

What are 2 reasons that heifers may underperform relative to mature cows?

Answer 18

Competition/overcrowding or poor development of heifers

Question 19

What are the two places that milk butter fat comes from?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Mobilized body fat will express itself as what disease process?

Answer 20

Fatty liver disease
-occurs with negative energy balance and subclinical ketosis
- only really concerned about this with fresh cows

Question 21

Why are replacement heifers no longer valuable?

Answer 21

Raising a replacement heifer will cost more than what you can sell her for

Question 22

What is the downside to buying replacements?

Answer 22

• take a hit to the biosecurity
• people arent willing to sell their best cows nowadays

Question 23

What is the biggest red flag when buying a replacement?

Answer 23

They are less than 300 days in milk
- no one wants to sell a cow until she is milked out

Question 24

What drives the demand for replacement heifers?

Answer 24

Cow culling practices
-must not look just at culling percentage but amount of days in milk that they are culled

Question 25

What is the problem with the categories on many dairy records for culling decisions?

Answer 25

Often cows fall into more than one category
- dont look at reasons for cull except for death- not useful

Question 26

What are the two main fresh cow diseases that can affect the survivability curves?

Answer 26

Ketosis and hypocalcemia

Question 27

What is the ratio that you want for replacement cows?

Answer 27

1:1 ratio

Question 28

Why are the number of female cows that can be sold growing in numbers?

Answer 28

Making extra pregnancies