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The question of why milk fat levels are on a fast decline – hitting some of the lowest points in almost two decades – has puzzled producers and nutritionists alike. The butterfat slump can wreak havoc in the short term with milk check revenues declining, while the long-term implications reach far beyond profits into herd performance and health.
Milk fat levels hit lows
Figure 1 compares milk fat levels from January to July of 2009 and 2010. As the figures show, milk fat production has been much lower throughout 2010 when compared to 2009, with the largest drop seen from April to May. Levels have continued to fall through July, at a time when production began to improve in 2009.
Feeding calves to their potential is critical during the first 60 days. Research has shown that the nutrition a calf receives during its first 60 days of life has a lasting impact by affecting both her age at first calving as well as her first-lactation performance. An automatic calf feeder can be a great way to feed calves the nutrition they need to grow and perform to their full potential while providing the proper management and observation needed to raise a healthy herd.
Because of increasing interest and use of automatic calf feeders on farms across the country, we purchased our own automatic calf feeding unit two- and-a-half years ago for the purpose of testing the usability and effectiveness of automatic calf feeders.
Obtaining and maintaining high corn quality silage requires good management in the areas of forage management harvest, storage and feedout. For this article’s discussion, it is assumed that proper genetics have been selected to provide maximum levels of milk per acre of corn silage.
Harvest
The most important things to remember when harvesting corn silage are whole-plant moisture level, theoretical length of chop and kernel processing. The desired level of whole-plant moisture will depend on whether the silage is stored in upright or horizontal silos. For bunkers and drive-over piles, I like to see whole-plant moisture at 66 to 68 percent and for vertical storage structures, 63 to 66 percent.
“I think in the dairy business we are doing a very good job, but we still have a lot of room to improve cleanness, especially in small and mid-sized dairies. I’m not talking about the well-established freestall barns because they take very good care.
I think the vast majority of dairymen are taking very good care of their animals because they need to keep them healthy and comfortable to have a good quality product, good quality milk and have longevity for their cows.”
Alvaro Magalhaes
Independent veterinarian
Clovis, California
Anyone remember the old Dunkin’ Donut commercials, “Time to make doughnuts”? The commercial dramatized the constant attention and long hours required to bake fresh doughnuts every morning.
We received a call from a dairy producer in North Dakota that felt the same way about changing his inflations as the doughnut guy did about making doughnuts.
“Time to change the inflations.” It was to the point that the producer was spending way too much time and money maintaining his milking equipment.
TRENDING TOPIC ARTICLE: HERD HEALTH
Published: September 22, 2010 print issue
In this article, University of Kentucky’s Jeffrey Bewley outlines several ways producers can achieve and maintain low somatic cell count milk, including adjusting milking protocols and culturing high-SCC cows. or scroll down to jump to the article.
Because this article was so popular, we asked Bewley, “Of the best management practices you outlined, which practice do you think producers and employees most struggle with?”
Bewley says, “Of those management practices listed, I think using bacteriological cultures is the most underutilized. So much information can be obtained from culturing milk samples. On-farm culturing systems make this practice even more useful.
Management and environmental factors account for about 96 percent of fertility variation in a dairy operation. Our challenge is what are those factors affecting fertility, and how do we help improve them?
The answer to this question is too broad to summarize in this article, as it includes facilities, nutrition, overcrowding, semen handling, A.I. technique, etc. In this article, I will summarize challenging issues that are frequently found on U.S. dairy operations while conducting on-farm visits.
During the Dark Ages, when I was in seventh grade at Heber School, I was required to memorize the Gettysburg Address. I puzzled over the meanings and archaic mentions of time.
Last issue I tested your knowledge to see if you could identify the parts of an engine that were circled. Now I would like to point out what some of the lesser-known or often-neglected parts do and how they are important.
1. Turbo oil feed line: This line takes cooled, filtered and clean oil to the turbo charger. The turbo charger is flooded with oil so the quickly-revolving parts can work properly.
Dear Editor & Fellow Dairymen,
We will soon be facing the most important decision our industry has had to make in the last 50 years. I ask that you give the following thoughts some very careful consideration.
All over our country our dairy leaders are suggesting milk quotas and coming up with complicated plans to cut back our production so as to improve milk prices. They are promoting their plans as a quest for price stability (a worthy goal), but price enhancement is really their main goal, just as it was in their CWT effort.
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