Dairy

Heat stress could be costing UK dairy farmers a 20% depletion in milk yield and significant fertility losses – but it is not just about short-term affects: generational productivity is at risk. Natalie Noble reports.

But its currency smoothing mechanism means the price will drop by 0.03ppl in the UK

First Milk will raise its members’ milk price by 0.5ppl from August 1.

Victoria and William Newsham took responsibility for their father’s Lancashire dairy herd after he died in September 2019. Since then they have made impressive changes to management, improving productivity and efficiency to secure the farm’s future.

Paying attention to details and making lots of practical, small changes is the way to improve transition management and overall herd performance, according to Dr Huw McConochie, dairy nutritionist with Zinpro Corporation.

We spoke to three independent experts about transition cow management.

Welsh dairy farmer Andrew Thomas says that making small changes to his transition cow management is delivering dividends in terms of cow health, performance and productivity.

More and more dairy farmers are appreciating the overall benefits of cow monitoring technology which gives them intelligence and awareness of the cow’s overall health, as well as their readiness to conceive. Such systems are proving their worth, particularly during the critical transition period.

Premier Nutrition’s Transition Management System is helping farmers and feed advisers improve cow health and production by evaluating performance during the transition period (30 days pre-calving to 30 days post-calving).

The Roundelm Herd, based in Elmore, Gloucestershire, is achieving increased fertility rates and finding it easier to manage transition as a result of installing the SenseHub herd monitoring system from Allflex Livestock Intelligence.