Dairy
Managing Heat Stress
Heat stress occurs when cows are unable to control their body temperature at high temperatures, which leads to reduced feed intake, rumination, rumen function, milk yield and milk fat and protein levels, and increased respiration rate and risk of acidosis. The higher the relative humidity (RH) the lower the temperature at which heat stress occurs, [...]
Holding Yields at Peak
There is an opportunity with increasing dairy prices to maximise returns by maintaining milk yields as high as economically possible after peak, with diets based around home grown feeds (pasture, other forages, crops). Maintaining intakes of feeds with high Metabolisable Energy (ME) levels are key to sustaining milk yields and body condition, which may be [...]
Early Lactation
Previous articles have emphasised the importance of good feeding and management during the transition period around calving, so early lactation management should build on a good transition foundation. Early lactation is a stressful time for dairy cows, as they recover from calving, rapidly increase milk production while losing body condition, and prepare for the next [...]
Benefits of Good Transition
The risks of disease and metabolic issues are greatest during the transition period (3-4 weeks either side of calving), which is dominated by a series of adaptations as cows move from pregnancy to lactation. As much as 80% of all health issues related to this period. Establishing successful lactations requires an integrated transition management and [...]
Rearing More Productive Heifers
It has been demonstrated that better grown calves and heifers have higher first lactation and lifetime production than less well grown ones. What is less certain is the extent to which the benefits of early rumen development remain through to and after calving, with heifers reared off farm. This was tested in an on farm [...]Rearing More Productive Heifers – Trial Review
Rearing calves well has long been recognised as important in the development of productive heifer replacements. This concept has been extended more recently to studying the benefits of early rumen development on subsequent growth and milk production. Agrifeeds/Agritrade have promoted an early rumen development feeding programme using an extruded pre-starter feed RumenX®, and have conducted [...]
Managing Cows During the Dry Period
Last month’s article focussed on feeding cows to achieve calving body condition targets prior to drying off. This month’s article covers feeding and management during the dry period prior to the transition to calving. Most dry cows are wintered on pasture or crops off the milking platform, with the aim to maintain or gain condition [...]
Nutritional strategies to help maintain production and body condition in late lactation
Although we’re aware of the importance good management over the next three to four months has on next season’s production, working out the optimal time to dry off can be far more challenging. Assessing condition scores (CS) of your herd now is an important first step to making informed decisions. Target condition scores are 5 [...]
