Managing a breeding program is one of the biggest challenges on a medium to large herd dairy farm.
While big steps have been made in genetics and production systems, it could be argued that improvements in managing cows from the dry paddock to the milking herd and then getting them back in calf remains static.
Without careful management, this can go backwards very quickly.
At the Tocal dairy, the past two years have proved the challenge of bringing the breeding program back to a highly productive state after a slump involves a broad range of factors and a lot of management effort from all the team.
Management software
Tocal dairy has used the ‘Easy Dairy’ program for more than 12 years to maintain all herd records and produce reports that guide management decisions.
As with all herd programs constant attention to detail is needed to ensure that all information is entered promptly and accurately.
One person needs to be in charge of the system, but all staff must to be responsible for this.
Once the data is inputted, there needs to be regular system checks and maintenance.
Often problems cannot be solved in house so a good relationship with the developers and managers at Easy Dairy has been essential.
All systems develop problems and these need to be rectified quickly before they compromise the system.
Often it’s prompt action on the simple things that make a difference.
In the end, the accuracy of the reports produced is what counts.
Health checks
Having a regular monthly herd health check to ensure cows are pregnant (or not) and healthy is critical.
The feedback from the vet in a reliable report, formatted to measure improvement across the herd has been a valuable management tool for Tocal.
Tocal dairy has enlisted the support of Dr Luke Ingenhoff from the Livestock Veterinary Teaching and Research Unit at Sydney University to carry out a monthly herd health check.
Dr Ingenhoff provides a comprehensive report that has tracked our progress.
We have improved consistently over the past 18 months and now are on the cusp of meeting all the targets.
These targets are industry wide breeding targets developed from decades of research and investigation by the InCalf project, funded by Dairy Australia.
The key measures are Average Days In Milk (DIM) for the herd, 80 day submission rate, 100 day in calf rate and average days to first breeding (DTFB).
It is the work behind these measures that really matters.
Managing health and nutrition of the springers, delivering effective heat detection, managing fresh cows, maintaining conception rates with AI and managing cows to dry off at the correct condition score are all critical daily tasks.
It is not doing any one of these tasks to a perfect standard, but doing all of them to a high standard that impacts on the final outcome.
New technology
What’s next then? Obviously we cannot take our eye off the ball on what has been done but at the same time we need to keep looking for new technologies and tools that can improve some of the more persistent problems, like heat detection.
Education is what we do at Tocal.
Whether it’s for full-time students, adult learners or industry, the Tocal dairy needs to be out in front introducing new ideas and trialling new technologies.
Practical experience of the most basic farms tasks through to planning and managing more complex systems involves learning how to use technology.
NSW Department of Primary Industries has invested significant capital into upgrades and new infrastructure over the past two years and the latest technology to be implemented is the ‘HeatTime Pro+ System’ SCR by Allflex.
Forty collars have been installed on fresh cows and the number of collars will increase over time until a viable number is reached.
The collars will track movement, calving alerts, heats and rumen health with all information sent back to computer, mobiles and iPad’s via a data receiver located at the dairy.
The other technologies being trialled are sexed semen and genomic investigation of sires and dams.
Each of these areas will become an important part of improving the breeding at Tocal dairy.
In the end, it’s the people and their efforts to manage well that make these programs work.
