Costs

There are easier ways to make a living than being a dairy farmer. Getting up early and working for at best five or more often seven days a week is physically demanding whether you’re an owner operator or a paid employee.

There must be good rewards from dairy farming to make it attractive to current and future farmers. Rising costs of production erode the rewards and need to be curtailed.

Over the last five or six years, many dairy farm businesses have been coasting along, riding the waves of high milk prices and expansion. Costs are difficult to control in such scenarios, particularly when inflation is so high.

As in, it’s easy to conflate rising costs with extra cows and inflation rather than poor cost control. Poor cost control is an obvious factor though, and farmers must now take steps to regain control of costs.

In this week's dairy feature we take a look at five ways to reduce costs on dairy farms. None of them are easy to implement but are nonetheless important.

Non-cyclers

Over the next few weeks it will become known what cows in the herd are not yet cycling. Those that completed pre-breeding heat detection will already have that information, and can therefore take action quickly.

There is no point in carrying out any intervention in cows calved less than 30 days. The only potential intervention would be a washout if the cow is dirty. For this reason it’s worthwhile getting all non-cycling cows scanned by a vet who can prescribe treatments if necessary.

In many cases, time will be the best cure for these cows, but in herds with a spread out calving pattern you may need to use hormones to get these cows back cycling and submitted for AI.

Some cows will be short-cycled with prostaglandin while others will need to go on a fixed time synchrony programme. New research has shown that sexed semen – when used correctly – is now 92% as effective as conventional semen.

This is based on analysis by ICBF on sexed semen use between 2018 and 2022. Body condition score, days calved, age and how the straw is handled are all important factors in the success of sexed semen.

Bulls

Now is a good time for a health check on stock bulls that will be called into action in four to six weeks’ time. It takes 60 days for a bull to produce sperm, so ejaculates next July will be produced now.

It’s important that bulls are in good health and on a good diet. Some vets offer a bull fertility test where semen is tested for volume, motility and quality.

Most bull breeders will carry out this check prior to bull sales but it’s important to remember that semen quality can change over time.

Avoid buying bulls that are pumped with meal and are more suited to a show ring – you want bulls with good survival, particularly where there is a lot of walking to be done. A young bull is capable of serving 10 to 15 empty females, while a mature bull will be capable of serving 20 to 30 empty females.

Farmers that carry out fixed time synchronisation programmes on heifers may need to go back to AI around the time repeats are due to avoid overworking bulls.