DHI Notes...

May 2006 | Protocols are now part of PCDART | Bennet Cassell

State DHI averages for important management areas in April 2006

Management area	April 2006	Change from last year
Rolling herd average milk	21707	+985 lbs.
Peak yield in heifers	74	2 lbs.
Days to first breeding	96	+1 days
Days open	162	+3 days
Net Merit of proven service sires	$311	+$34
Herd turnover less dairy sales (%)	30%	3%
Monthly average SCS	3.1	0.1
Feed cost per cwt. (milking cows)	$5.10	+$0.10
Milk blend price	$15.35	-$1.08

Dairy farms have always involved a lot of chores. These repetitive but highly important tasks vary from animal to animal, are often “time sensitive”, and are numerous enough that some always seem to fall through the cracks. As herds increase in size, the challenge of performing all those tasks well and on time increases. Most dairy herds have established “protocols” to help organize fresh cow management or steps to follow when drying off cows. The PCDART program now offers a system to document those protocols, assign animals to receive each protocol, and to monitor the process. The first step is to identify the “chores” – the tasks to be performed. Protocols are made up of a series of chores, and are of two types: planned events like calving, breeding, or drying off or unplanned events such as a flare-up of mastitis. Chores usually involve deadlines, like “today” for dipping navels, “by 30 days” for a postpartum check, or withholding times for milk following certain mastitis treatments. Once a cow is assigned to a particular protocol, PCDART will keep track of the chores to be performed, alert the herd manager on when those chores are to be performed, and identify “missed chores” when proscribed treatments have not been carried out. PCDART includes an easy data entry screen to report when chores are completed, and stores a record of treatments or health events for future reference on each cow. Several protocols may be appropriate for events like a case of mastitis, depending on the severity of the case. Control is entirely in the hands of the user – which chores, what deadlines, how many versions of different protocols. The Protocol feature is included in the latest release of PCDART. It is one more reason to recommend this increasingly useful and powerful computer program to every dairy herd in Virginia.

Bennet Cassell
Genetics and Management