August 26, 2020

 

How Australian dairy farms maintain good fertility is focus of new video series

 

 

Dairy Australia has released a new video series of on-farm case studies, which focuses on the practices of seven New South Wales and Victoria farmers with medium to large herd sizes with varied calving patterns, Dairy News Australia reports.

One of the videos features Simon Portwine, a Northern Victoria farmer who says improving fertility is a key driver of profit on his 330-cow dairy farm.

 

Mr Portwine has put in place selecting for fertility, ensuring a rising plane of energy for cows at joining, and using collars for automatic heat detection as his strategies for achieving good fertility.

 

Dairy farmer Nathan Gledhill of Bamawm, Victoria, stresses the importance of fixed time artificial intelligence, bigger heifers and a younger herd to improve the reproductive performance on the 900-cow dairy farm he manages.

 

Helped by his vet and AI technician, Mr Gledhill has seen his six-week in-calf (pregnancy) rate on the 60/40 split calving herd go from 60% to 70% over five years, as per report.

 

Dairy farmers Nick and Emma Strong, meanwhile, calve 400 cows all year round on their NSW south coast dairy farm.

 

Maintaining DIM at 160 days

 

By maintaining days in milk (DIM) at around 160 days, they drive higher production from the same feed inputs, capitalising on the fact that the fresher the herd, the greater the production and the greater the profit.

 

Mr Strong said that maintaining good herd fertility is vital to achieving DIM of around 160 days, adding that good herd fertility is driven by the quality of data collected and analysed, as well as the veterinary service availed of by the farm regularly.

 

He also gives great importance to staff training in areas such as heat detection and the culling of non-performing cows based on production, fertility and health data.

 

Phil Tate, on the south coast of NSW, who milks 580 cows that calve all year round, maintains good fertility in the herd by keeping excellent data records, engaging professional veterinary services on a regular basis and having good facilities, along with an efficient transition cow management programme and good staff training.

 

Tate also utilises the knowledge he has gaimed from Dairy Australia courses in areas such as nutrition, transition cow management and pastures for profit.

 

To watch the video case studies, you may visit: dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/animal-management/fertility.