1 Six-week in-calf rate

Know your targets – this is the key to profitability. Target is 90% of the cows calved in six weeks. Lifting the six-week in-calf rate from 60% to 90% in a 100-cow herd is worth €24,660. This is calculated at a 29c/litre milk price.

It drives profit as you have longer lactations averaging 280 days, more mature cows in the herd, more grass utilisation, all resulting in more milk solids sold and more milk solids from grass.

How is the 90% rate achieved?

  • 90% of the heifers need to calve in the first four to six weeks of the calving season at a 20% replacement rate.
  • 70% of the current herd in 2016 needs to calve in the first six weeks in 2017. To achieve this, milking cows need a condition score of 2.75 to 3.0, 90% submission rate and 50% conception rate is needed, or 85% submission rate and 55% conception rate.

    • 2 Milking cows

    On a high proportion of farms, we have recently condition-scored the milking herd and we found over 50% of the cows are less than 2.75 BCS. This is not abnormal for the time of the year. These herd owners in the past number of years have achieved high intakes of grass in February and March but to date have not been able to achieve this in 2016 due to not being able to graze initially and now low grass availability.

    Immediate action needs to be taken to reverse the loss in BCS, to increase the BCS and get cows on a rising plane of nutrition.

    Farmers need to match input and output levels in milking herds. Each herd needs to crunch numbers depending on several factors.

    What are the milking cows’ UFL requirements? We must base this on cow weight for maintenance and milk solids production.

    The other questions that need answers are what intakes of grass are being achieved? What feed supplement is going in? What is the farm grass cover?

    Inclement weather reduces grass intakes and supplementation needs to increase if that is the case. High-insulin diets are achieved by altering the level of starch in the diet and this is shown to be very successful in improving fertility in early lactation.

    For cows at grass, 14% protein concentrates are adequate. For high-yielding herds, producing between 25 and 30 litres of milk daily, the intake requirement is more than doubled, going from 8.1 to 17.5 UFL at 30 litres per day.

    3 What level of feed is right?

    Much depends on the herd and management. Table 1 shows the recommended concentrate supplementation to supply 100% of requirements in early lactation for herds with different yields that are out grazing by day and in on silage by night. Some herd owners who have enough grass won’t feed silage when cows are waiting to go to grass.

    When going to grass, graze by day only for one week prior to going out night and day. This is crucial from now on as we are entering the second-rotation grazing, otherwise we will have increased digestive upsets, LDAs, etc.

    Ensure grazed grass is in the diet as soon as possible and be realistic about grass intakes in your calculations. Herds with higher conception rates to first insemination had significantly higher mean intakes of DM and UFL during the first 100 days of lactation.

    Table 2 shows recommended concentrate supplementation to supply 100% requirements in early lactation at varying grass intakes (out full-time).

    The mistake I see most commonly is that farmers overestimate the intake of grass and if you overestimate the grass intake, cows will not be adequately fed.

    For many herds where ground conditions are difficult, it is important to have a plan so cows are well fed but again much depends on the quality of the forage. Ideally a long-term solution to get more reseeding and farm roadways developed is required on top of short-term additional feed.

    It may be the case that 300kg of meal is fed per cow in early lactation while cows are inside on silage but then farmers must reduce meal feeding once grazed grass is available.

    4 Once-a-day milking

    Once-a-day milking (OAD) is superb at increasing condition score as it reduces the output and means less stress on cows but farmers must maintain or increase the feed input.

  • An excellent option to increase BCS in cows of low BCS is to put them on once-a-day milking (OAD).
  • Keep them with the main herd and tape their tails or legs for identification. It keeps the cows relaxed and allows twice-a-day feeding.
  • Only put cows on OAD that you wish to keep for 2017 and get in-calf early.
  • Feed them twice a day with the main herd and milk them once a day. It is crucial to feed twice a day and if possible increase the intakes.
  • If cows are being housed at night, milk them in the evening as they will then be going into cubicles with empty udders and will be in grass by day with full udders. Less leaking of milk in the cubicles makes for more comfortable cows.
  • Most cows will respond quickly and after three weeks they will have cycled and improved BCS.
  • Some cows may take longer. A lot is dependent on grass growth and intakes.

    • 5 The neglected herd

    Late calvers and cows yet to calve are often termed the neglected herd. Farmers need to prevent these cows going into negative energy balance in the week before calving and in the first eight weeks post-calving.

    Avoid restricting intakes of cows. Late calvers need more attention to try to reduce their calving interval. If we succeed in getting them in-calf quickly and gaining a month, they are a valuable asset and assist in increasing the six-week in-calf rate, especially in herds with a spread-out calving pattern.

  • Calve in a BCS 3.0 to 3.25 max.
  • Increase their intakes in the last 10 days pre-calving.
  • Get grass into the diet as soon as possible.
  • Cows will have reduced intakes of grass for the first six weeks after calving.
  • In supplementing late calvers, assume that their intakes are 12kg grass DM and not 15kg DM like the early calvers.
  • A late calver should be fed more than early calvers.
  • An option is once they are calved 35 days put them on a synchronisation programme with fixed-timed AI, with easy calving short gestation bulls.

    • 6 Maiden heifers

    Complete all vaccinations prior to breeding season start. Liveweight and body condition score are the two factors influencing heifers coming into heat and their subsequent conception rates. Ensure heifers are 330kg. Get all heifers or at least light heifers out immediately as their weight gain will lift.

    Avoid holding back light heifers for three weeks, breed them and work with them throughout the year to maximise their gain each month. Maintaining dry matter intakes by avoiding sudden grass shortages is critical in achieving a high pregnancy rate.