Over 50% of our cows now milk recorded
We now have over 50% of our cows being milk recorded. Obviously, more and more farmers appreciate the advantages of this, and it is likely to increase further.
From the point of view of improving the quality of our national dairy herd, it is desirable to have at least 70% of our cows milk recorded.
A major barrier to milk recording in the past was the cost of meters and jars. This is being gradually overcome, with the introduction of electronic meters which are shared out to farmers by their recording society.
This information offers huge financial benefits for farmers, and also points to the way forward nationally for the industry.
The immediately obvious advantage is that it shows each individual cow’s milk yield, milk composition and SCC.
Milk recording is the only means by which SCC can be properly controlled. Casual testing for SCC will cost almost as much, and is not very effective in a control programme.
Farmers using the service can participate in “Herd Plus” by sending details of animal events to the ICBF throughout the year. In return they receive not only ‘
milk recording data, but also infor mation on fertility, health and other data that is used to determine an Economic Breeding Index (EBI) for individual cows and herds. This information is critical for breeding and culling purposes.
As more information becomes available from the ICBF on sires and cows, it will be possible for farmers to make more scientific breeding decisions for their herds.
Different farmers will be able to select animals to suit their own requirements.
Other advantages of milk recording include much higher prices for stock in the event of a herd being depopulated, higher prices for surplus stock, the opportunity to breed from your best cows and take part in herd health schemes, and comprehensive mastitis reports.
Farmers who make optimum use of milk recording can get a ten-fold return on their investment. Farmers who are not familiar with the end-of-year milk recording analysis should discuss it with their recording society and with Teagasc, in order to get the full benefits.
Different types of manual milk recording schemes are offered to farmers. The A4 (four-week recording) costs €19 per cow; A5 (10 visits), €16; the A6, €13.50; A8 (four visits), €11.50; A7, (five visits), 12.50. There is a herd fee of €60 for each system.
Relatively cheap meters are available from the recording societies. They should be disconnected from your milking system after recordings, because they have a bad effect on vacuum levels.
The electronic paperless recording system introduced a few years ago has many advantages over traditional systems.
Cows’ ID’s and all information are directly loaded to and from a data base, there is no writing involved. The meters (and bottles) are delivered to farmers and collected the following morning after milking, when milk volumes are immediately available. Farmers get the necessary training to carry out the testing. The reports give full information on yields of milk and solids as well as mastitis/SCC, EBI, individual animal details, farm summaries and annual reports. This system usually involves four visits at €130 per visit to herds up to 50 cows, plus €1.90 per cow above 50.
Herds with autumn calving cows will require six visits.
The electronic system has been a huge success. Demand is growing rapidly. As the system is particularly appealing to large herd owners who had no recording methods in the past, it is likely to significantly increase the proportion of our national herd being recorded.
The cost should be regarded as an investment in the future.
