A good few farmers have mentioned to me over the past few weeks about milking cows on for longer this back end. The reasons I’m hearing are that cows are milking well, silage is scarce so meal will be fed anyway, and that extra costs have been incurred this year so they need to claw them back by milking on for longer.
Cows are definitely milking more than last year. Milk supplies for October were up 20% on average across the country. But with more silage in the diet now, milk yields will drop off.
That said, cows are still milking well, with a lot of herds averaging between 13 and 16l of milk per cow per day. With solids between 9 and 10% on many farms, that’s a milk solids per cow of between 1.2kg and 1.65kg/day, which is great going heading into mid-November.
Of course there is a cost to that. You don’t get milk for free. It either comes through more feed, better-quality feed or off the cows’ back.
Looking at the body condition score (BCS) of cows around the country, I don’t think cows are milking off their backs as most herds have never been in such good BCS as they are now.
So cows are milking better than normal now because they are either getting more feed or a better-quality feed. Grass is definitely playing a big part here. Quantity and quality during October were excellent. The weather was brilliant, so utilisation was excellent also. Quality was good and dry matters were high so cows ate more of it, and they milked better as a result.
More meal is also being fed. I was at a discussion group meeting earlier in the week and 5kg of meal was being fed on average.
The farmers who participate on the Grass+ page have been feeding an average of 4kg of meal since the end of August. Yet average farm covers have dropped fast and most farmers are now at the same average farm cover that they were at this time last year, but they have a lot more meal fed. Rather than reducing grass intake, this meal was used to produce milk.
Dry period
Normally, mature cows get eight weeks dry while first-lactation cows get 10 weeks dry. Should the dry period be shortened this year to six weeks for older cows and eight weeks for first-lactation cows? This would mean milking all cows up to 20 December and all first-lactation cows up to 6 December, presuming calving start date is 1 February.
The first thing to find out is whether or not it pays. Most spring-calving farmers won’t milk past 20 December anyway. So only the cows calving in the first two weeks of February will be dry for less than eight weeks.
The most compact herds will have 50% calved in the first fortnight. If 15% of these are heifers, this leaves 35% of cows that will be on a less than eight weeks dry regime and some of these will be first lactation so will be dried for longer anyway. In a nutshell, you’re probably talking about 25 to 30% of cows getting a shorter than normal dry period.
As dry cows, they would eat around 12kg of dry matter per day (maintenance plus pregnancy requirements). As milking cows they would eat around 16kg of dry matter per day.
Feed quality
Intake levels are largely determined by the quality of the feed. If it’s highly digestible and high in dry matter, then they will eat more of it and either put on more BCS or produce more milk, or both, depending on what state they’re in.
Four different scenarios are examined in Table 1. There are two situations you can be in: you either have enough silage or you don’t. In each situation, you can choose to milk on for two weeks longer or you can dry off in early December as normal. Meal is costed at €270/t fresh weight and silage is costed at €180/tDM.
It’s difficult to account for labour. In many cases, the labour will be available anyway but the extra work with milking has to accounted for in some way. In the example, it was presumed that the milking process would take four hours per day at a cost of €15/hour. If 100 cows were being milked, this would cost €0.60/cow/day. Feeding dry cows meal is assumed to take one hour per day. Parlour running costs were calculated on a pro-rata basis for a 100-cow herd.
Based on the calculations, it makes financial sense to milk on for longer as the value of the milk is paying for all the feed. In terms of margin, milking on for longer in a silage deficit scenario is breakeven. When compared to feeding meal to dry cows, it makes more financial sense to milk them on as the value of the milk pays for the extra meal feeding when silage is scarce. The last line in the table refers to the saving made compared to the alternative, which is drying off cows.
Other considerations
What is not mentioned in the table is the effect of a shorter dry period on udder health, BCS or the person doing the milking. In relation to udder health, the science on this says there is no clear relationship between the length of the dry period and SCC in the subsequent lactation. A six-week dry period shouldn’t be the cause of higher SCC next season. However, farmers need to be careful about what antibiotic dry cow tube they use as some have long (56-day) withdrawal periods.
Body condition score is a different matter and one which concerns me most about milking on for longer. The target BCS at calving is 3.25. A lot of herds have an average BCS of 3.25 now, but there is a risk that this will fall if they are milked on for longer. This is a big risk and one that needs to be managed carefully. Not having cows calving at the right BCS next spring will cost a lot more in less milk solids and poor fertility.
Both of these things will far outweigh any saving by milking cows on for longer this winter.
There is extra work in milking for longer. In some cases, later-calving cows will be milked until 20 December anyway, so it will just mean milking a few extra rows. Some farmers shut down in early December every year, so milking for longer will be a change. After a hard year work-wise, is this a good idea? Downtime is important and if taken away morale might drop.
Many farmers are talking about milking on cows for longer.It does pay to milk on for longer as income for milk pays for the feed costs.It does increase workload and can reduce BCS. Read more
Dairy management: is now the time to stop grazing?
In it to win it: Grassland Farmer or the Year contestants
A good few farmers have mentioned to me over the past few weeks about milking cows on for longer this back end. The reasons I’m hearing are that cows are milking well, silage is scarce so meal will be fed anyway, and that extra costs have been incurred this year so they need to claw them back by milking on for longer.
Cows are definitely milking more than last year. Milk supplies for October were up 20% on average across the country. But with more silage in the diet now, milk yields will drop off.
That said, cows are still milking well, with a lot of herds averaging between 13 and 16l of milk per cow per day. With solids between 9 and 10% on many farms, that’s a milk solids per cow of between 1.2kg and 1.65kg/day, which is great going heading into mid-November.
Of course there is a cost to that. You don’t get milk for free. It either comes through more feed, better-quality feed or off the cows’ back.
Looking at the body condition score (BCS) of cows around the country, I don’t think cows are milking off their backs as most herds have never been in such good BCS as they are now.
So cows are milking better than normal now because they are either getting more feed or a better-quality feed. Grass is definitely playing a big part here. Quantity and quality during October were excellent. The weather was brilliant, so utilisation was excellent also. Quality was good and dry matters were high so cows ate more of it, and they milked better as a result.
More meal is also being fed. I was at a discussion group meeting earlier in the week and 5kg of meal was being fed on average.
The farmers who participate on the Grass+ page have been feeding an average of 4kg of meal since the end of August. Yet average farm covers have dropped fast and most farmers are now at the same average farm cover that they were at this time last year, but they have a lot more meal fed. Rather than reducing grass intake, this meal was used to produce milk.
Dry period
Normally, mature cows get eight weeks dry while first-lactation cows get 10 weeks dry. Should the dry period be shortened this year to six weeks for older cows and eight weeks for first-lactation cows? This would mean milking all cows up to 20 December and all first-lactation cows up to 6 December, presuming calving start date is 1 February.
The first thing to find out is whether or not it pays. Most spring-calving farmers won’t milk past 20 December anyway. So only the cows calving in the first two weeks of February will be dry for less than eight weeks.
The most compact herds will have 50% calved in the first fortnight. If 15% of these are heifers, this leaves 35% of cows that will be on a less than eight weeks dry regime and some of these will be first lactation so will be dried for longer anyway. In a nutshell, you’re probably talking about 25 to 30% of cows getting a shorter than normal dry period.
As dry cows, they would eat around 12kg of dry matter per day (maintenance plus pregnancy requirements). As milking cows they would eat around 16kg of dry matter per day.
Feed quality
Intake levels are largely determined by the quality of the feed. If it’s highly digestible and high in dry matter, then they will eat more of it and either put on more BCS or produce more milk, or both, depending on what state they’re in.
Four different scenarios are examined in Table 1. There are two situations you can be in: you either have enough silage or you don’t. In each situation, you can choose to milk on for two weeks longer or you can dry off in early December as normal. Meal is costed at €270/t fresh weight and silage is costed at €180/tDM.
It’s difficult to account for labour. In many cases, the labour will be available anyway but the extra work with milking has to accounted for in some way. In the example, it was presumed that the milking process would take four hours per day at a cost of €15/hour. If 100 cows were being milked, this would cost €0.60/cow/day. Feeding dry cows meal is assumed to take one hour per day. Parlour running costs were calculated on a pro-rata basis for a 100-cow herd.
Based on the calculations, it makes financial sense to milk on for longer as the value of the milk is paying for all the feed. In terms of margin, milking on for longer in a silage deficit scenario is breakeven. When compared to feeding meal to dry cows, it makes more financial sense to milk them on as the value of the milk pays for the extra meal feeding when silage is scarce. The last line in the table refers to the saving made compared to the alternative, which is drying off cows.
Other considerations
What is not mentioned in the table is the effect of a shorter dry period on udder health, BCS or the person doing the milking. In relation to udder health, the science on this says there is no clear relationship between the length of the dry period and SCC in the subsequent lactation. A six-week dry period shouldn’t be the cause of higher SCC next season. However, farmers need to be careful about what antibiotic dry cow tube they use as some have long (56-day) withdrawal periods.
Body condition score is a different matter and one which concerns me most about milking on for longer. The target BCS at calving is 3.25. A lot of herds have an average BCS of 3.25 now, but there is a risk that this will fall if they are milked on for longer. This is a big risk and one that needs to be managed carefully. Not having cows calving at the right BCS next spring will cost a lot more in less milk solids and poor fertility.
Both of these things will far outweigh any saving by milking cows on for longer this winter.
There is extra work in milking for longer. In some cases, later-calving cows will be milked until 20 December anyway, so it will just mean milking a few extra rows. Some farmers shut down in early December every year, so milking for longer will be a change. After a hard year work-wise, is this a good idea? Downtime is important and if taken away morale might drop.
Many farmers are talking about milking on cows for longer.It does pay to milk on for longer as income for milk pays for the feed costs.It does increase workload and can reduce BCS. Read more
Dairy management: is now the time to stop grazing?
In it to win it: Grassland Farmer or the Year contestants
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