How high production cows?
We are growing as milk producers and we have advanced in many cases to work that a while ago seemed utopian to Argentina, but now are among our peers and have come to stay: the drums of high individual production. Is that a good part of the milk that we produce comes from land with agricultural capacity and the competition for the earth will be bringing those businesses to work more intensive.
The first thing that we should define the concept of high-producing individual. We always refer to the averages 40-45 lt of our friends in the north. But there are some things we need to consider when trying to compare. For instance, they used the triple milking (x3) and in good proportion to the hormone, bovine growth (BST) to achieve these productions. In systems of two milkings (x2) and without the use of growth hormone, we estimate a production equivalent to those 40-45 liters norteamercianos would be 32-37 lts per cow/day for our environment.
Those who score high production individual with their cows do not have a magic recipe at your feeders. Doing an analysis of the drums that achieve high productivity of the individual in the sample of dairy farms of the groups CREATED, we have observed that these are establishments “they do everything well” (among the things they do well is the nutrition of course). Or is that to achieve a rodeo of high production, which we really need to implement is a a system of high production.
The companies that are organized to obtain systems of high productivity have been working on 5 key aspects to achieve these objectives and they are:
1.- Genetic selection: on the one hand working for a rodeo, cows with udders full and couples. On the other hand, exerts selection pressure by segregating those animals that are genetically inferior (for example cows in lactation occur below the general average of the rodeo).
2.- Breeding of heifers : A vaquillona must give birth with 85-90% of the adult weight for the race. The adult weight is that of a cow the month ring. On measurements of some fields, we obtained an average value of 630 kg/cow of more than 2 feedings a month pregnant. In these cases, the heifers should calve with 550 kg of bw if we intend to produce well. If you stop with a lower weight should result in the good proportion of the food supply to grow at the expense of the individual production. The heifers are typically 25 to 30% of the rodeo milking so that its incidence in the general average is large and quite different if they produce 25 lts or 18 lt/Vq/Day. It is also important to observe adequate progress in the development of the calves in the first 10 months of life because there is defined the conformation of the ability to produce milk that will have the mammary gland. The national average is 31 months of age at 1st birth, and 17.5 lt/day.
3.- Transition period : Maybe this is the issue of greatest interest by advancing between the drums of tip. It is known that in this period the animal is exposed to enormous stress, childbirth recent nutritional changes and group. For this reason, 75% of the deaths of cows experiencing a tambo, occurs at this stage (20 days before and 20 days after birth). But there is a group of cows, which, if not die produce little, as they present several metabolic diseases that affect their production. We have measured 1400 lt difference between the production of healthy cows in the top third versus cows with any pathology of the lower third of production in the first 120 days of lactation. The key goes through early detection behaviors and the united abnormal to be able to treat them before it's too late. The topics to see looking for a cow potentially sick are attitude, appetite, ears, eyes, breath, flow, dung, filling of the udder and temperature. If any of the above is abnormal, the presence of fever (rectal temperature above 39,5 °C taken in the morning) is a determining factor in the treatment.
4.- Comfort animal : This is a theme also key in the systems of high production. The heat stress, the facilities are poorly designed (milking, feeding, shadows, and watery), streets maintenance-free,with wells, rubble, presence of dogs, mud, sticks, shouting, etc conspire to severely against animal productivity.
5.- Power quality : After all this we finally come to the rumen. By the side of the nutrition we note the importance of providing food of very good quality. This is a topic for a separate article, but we need to do analysis and to work for the cows to eat the best food that can be given. But this is not only comedero...de rumen. There is that to obtain a system of quality food too. Working with groups of cows of similar requirements, the group of heifers and cows fresh, you have enough space troughs for the animals of each group, access to clean water, abundant and fresh...all issues of power quality.
Marcos Snyder [twitter-follow screen_name=’dairylando’]
Article published in the journal, The Nation ( http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1578510-las-cinco-claves-para-tener-vacas-de-alta-produccion )
