DHI Notes...

June 07| Bennet Cassell

State DHI averages for important management areas in May 2007

Management area	May 2007	Change from last year
Rolling herd average milk	21649	-142 lbs.
Peak yield in heifers	74	0 lbs.
Days to first breeding	95	-1 days
Days open	163	+1 days
Net Merit of proven service sires	$305	*
Herd turnover less dairy sales (%)	30%	+1%
Monthly average SCS	3.0	+0.1
Feed cost per cwt. (milking cows)	$5.28	$0.09
Milk blend price	$16.34	$1.82

*Net Merit changed in August 2006 and averages are not comparable.

Culling, including involuntary losses of all sorts, is a necessary part of the dairy business, as no cow is immortal. However, some reasons for removing cows from the herd are particularly hard to swallow. Death is probably the worst ending for a dairy cow from a financial viewpoint. Cull cow value at the stock yards is lost and disposal of such animals is an expense. The farmers I know like their cows, most cows on most days at least, and death losses upset them. The average Virginia dairy herd includes 156 cows. In the past year, the average herd experienced 11 deaths, a loss rate of 7%. About two thirds of these losses are in older cows in third or later lactations, but deaths do occur among the first and second lactation cows as well. I dug back through a stack of state DHI summary sheets to find the May 1987 report. That month, the death rate for the previous year had been 3.9%. Herd size was 103 cows in May 1987 and the average cow in milk was 51 months old. Today, that average age is 46 months. Today’s cows do calve into the herd 3 months younger than they did 20 years ago, (27 vs. 30 months of age), so total time in the milking herd is not so much shorter as the ages suggest. The biggest difference is that production has increased from 16,602 lbs in May 1987 to the 21,649 shown in the table. The cow’s body pays a price to make more milk, and not just in the cost of extra feed or higher energy density in the ration. Days open was 128 days in May 1987, over a month less than for cows today. The AI program used two units of semen per cow in 1987, but 3.1 today, so semen usage is up 50%. There was no reproductive drug budget twenty years ago. In 1987, low production was the second most frequent cause of culling, just behind reproduction. Today, low production is the fifth most frequent reason for culling, behind deaths, reproduction, disease and mastitis or udder problems, in that order. What is the take home message for these trends? Maybe there is a better way to make a buck at this dairy business than higher yields. It’s time to be more aware of production costs. Swap some improvement in yield for better fertility and productive life in sire selection. Use feeding programs that are designed to maintain cow health and fertility rather than basing the whole program on how much milk is produced. Yes, milk pays bills and cannot be ignored, but those last few pounds of milk per cow per day are getting to be pretty expensive.

 

Bennet Cassell
Genetics and Management