Milk Watch - November 2011

Cows in good condition as 140 are served

Service started two weeks ago on Huddlestone Farm, near Steyning, West Sussex, where Milk Watch farmer Tim Gue says it is too early to have a clear indication of how things are progressing.

“We won’t know submission rates for another week, but we have already served around 140, which is the most we have ever served by this date,” he says.

“This may be because normally as soon as we start, nothing seems to come bulling, but this year they’re coming on heat well. I can’t say silage quality is particularly good, but they do seem in good condition and most are being served at a body condition score of around 2.5.”

Service sires have been selected on the strength of their Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI), with daughter lifespan, fertility and cell counts all prioritised over anything else.

“We’ll look at type next, but we won’t look at the Type Merit score at all,” says Mr Gue. “That’s because if I select for Type Merit, I’m going to get big cows which are more angular.

“I don’t want tall, angular or deep cows, but am more interested in not having extremes, making sure individual linear profiles are right and having great udders, legs and feet,” he says.

The long-term emphasis on fitness is paying off in performance, with cell counts now rolling at 115 and mastitis rates down to 30 cases per 100 cows per year. Parlour routine is meticulous, but fairly standard, involving an iodine pre-dip, stripping and wiping with a clean cloth for every cow.

“We’d like to achieve a 90 second lag between wiping and cupping, although the reality is probably closer to 60,” says Mr Gue. “Post milking, we use a high-persistency, thick iodine dip and, although the independent experts say a cheap product will do just as good a job, every time we try one, mastitis rates go up.”

Preferring to stick with a protocol developed with the vet, he praises the farm staff for implementing the agreed plan.

“Herd manager Adam Christian does a fantastic job,” he says.

“He’s halved cell counts over 20 months and he and the team will now aim to get mastitis down to 20 cases per 100 cows per year over the next 12 months. Of course, we’ll always still have blips,” he says. “But you know what? If you do things right, it really does work.”

Optimism over success of red embryos

Calving is three-quarters complete across the four herds at Higher Ashton Farm, near Dorchester, where Milk Watch farmer, Sam Foot says some of the latest additions are very welcome.

“We’ve done quite a bit of embryo work over the past 10 years, and recently thought we’d try embryo transfer to increase numbers of red and white Holsteins,” he says. “Nine months ago, I purchased 14 red embryos from Germany and 10 red calves have just been born as a result.”

Mr Foot is optimistic as only three are heifers. He says every one of the seven bull calves has AI company interest and each is now undergoing genomic testing.

“We were pretty careful about what bloodlines we selected, so they’re top end for production and type and have some interesting pedigrees,” he says.

Although he claims he has brought the red and whites in for the interest they create for staff and their potential market value, the real reason could lie with Harry, his five-year-old son.

“Harry saw his friend, Felicity Cobb, take a red heifer to Dorchester show,” he says. “Ever since, he’s been desperate to take a red calf of his own, and he assures me he will do all the work.”

Even milking cows seems to have taken on a rosy hue.

“The herd we mentioned last month, Bayard Dairy, for having just 12 cases of mastitis so far this year, still hasn’t had another case,” says Mr Foot. “Normally October and November are our worst months, but we seem to be on a roll, with the standard of cows getting better every year.”

Milking routines in place to help with this achievement include using one washable wipe per cow, which has been soaked in par-acetic acid solution (200ml par-acetic acid to nine litres of water).

“We also aim for a 60-90 second delay between wiping and cupping - the recommended time to stimulate milk let down.”

However, because of the skin irritation caused by paracetic acid, one of the herds has been using chlorine tablets.

“This seems to be just as effective, and is, in fact, in use in our best herd for cell counts and mastitis, so we have just started to use it across all four,” he says.

With a standard iodine spray after milking, he says, a key aim is to keep the process simple.

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