BY
DR. GEORGE F. W. HAENLEIN
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Delaware
On farm visits, it’s not unusual
for Holstein producers to tell me
that a particular cow which gave
12,000 pounds of milk last year and
is milking this lactation at barely
herd average has had no problems
with regular calving
12.5 months, year after year. They
may then point to another cow that
milked over 100 pounds per day
last month and this, but which still
hasn’t been bred back although
she’s already three months fresh.
In our University of Delaware
dairy herd we have similar ex
periences with Holsteins and
colored breeds, even though you’d
think these cows would know
better, from all the academic
exposure, personnel and animal
breeding lectures going on around
them daily!
As the cows in our U.S. dairy
herds are genetically improved
through selection for higher and
milk production per day per lac
tation, is the price for that
progress going to be longer calving
intervals?
Do our cows need--
physiologically, endocrinologically
and nutritionally- longer calving
intervals to be able to produce
these ever higher daily amounts of
milk? In other words, do the
simple laws of chemistry, physics
and energetic balances dictate that
these super cows have a certain
number of days-open to do it?
Some old and astute dairy farm
ers have thought so for some
time. They therefore use 365-day
lactations instead of the standard
305-day lactations once considered
the ultimate goal years ago when
Holsteins averaged only 8,000
pounds per year and a 100-pound
per-day cow was looked at as a
miracle.
Oddly enough, dairy goats have,
by evolution, solved this dilemma
very neatly. Instead of increasing
their kidding interval, dairy goats
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Accurate Heat Detection Lowers Calving Intervals
have a much shorter pregnancy
length (5 months versus 9%
months for cows). This allows
them to have a 12-month kidding
interval and at the same time have
twice as many open days as cows.
As a result, they’re able to attain
daily milking rates of as much as
10 percent of body weight with less
nutritional deficit and fewer
reproductive problems than our
high producing cows.
What should we dairy farmers
do? Economists tell us that it costs
$2 per cow in lost milk income for
every day over a 13-month calving
interval. Since a 13-month interval
equals 395 days and a Holstein
pregnancy lasts at most 290 days,
there’s a 105 day difference- I
ST. LOUIS Mo. U.S. fanners
plan to plant 60.842 million acres of
soybeans this year, according to a
survey released by the American
Soybean Association (ASA). The
survey indicates farmers will plant
2.288 million fewer acres of
soybeans this spring than last. In
1985 soybean planted area totalled
63.130 million acres.
The survey was a random
sample of 8,423 soybean farmers in
29 major soybean-producing'states
conducted by a questionnaire
mailed April 14.
The ASA planting intentions
survey indicates a 1.203 million
acre reduction in soybean planting
from USDA’s March Prospective
Planting Report that showed
soybean planting intentions of
62.045'mi11i0n acres.
The planting intentions have
been divided into five regional
areas:
• The Eastern Corn Belt
(Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
and Wisconsin) will plant 19.235
million acres, a 285 thousand acre
increase from 1965.
• The Western Corn Belt (lowa,
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repeat, only 105 days- in days
open. During that time our cows
must do four important things: (1)
show estrus, (2) be bred, (3)
conceive, (4) permanently implant
and grow the embryo.
Different levels of dairy
management skill may be more
critical to the successful com
pletion of these four steps than the
biology of our cows and bulls.
Here in Delaware our best herd,
milking 81 cows, averages 94 days
open or 11 days better than the
above-discussed goal. The worst
averaged 204 days-open last year
with 97 cows, while our county
averages ranged from 120 to 140
days-open. Nationally, the average
is 136 days.
Multiplying the *2 per day per
Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska and the Dakotas) will
plant 23.610 million acres, a 670
thousand acre decrease from 1985.
• The Mid-South (Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas,
Kentucky, Oklahoma and Ten
nessee) will plant 11.106 million
acres, an 884 thousand acre
decrease from 19RR
• The Southeast (Alabama,
Cut com ear rot now
NEWARK, DE - Farmers who had a problem last year, where plants during dry periods by
experienced high levels of Diplodia practical,-plowing to bury com irrigating if possible. Also, avoid
ear rot in com last fall may be debris in that field will reduce the extremely high plant populations
wondering what can be done to number of spores present to infect and use a balanced fertility
prevent a recurrence this year. this year’s crop. However, plowing program, avoiding high nitrogen
According to University of w ui be less effective if the field and low potash levels.
Delaware extension plant adjoins a neighbor’s which isn’t “From our limited observations
pathologist Bob Mulrooney, three plowed, since spores could blow of this disease on Delmarva, there
conditions are needed for another over from that field.’’Rotating to a don’t appear to be any com
outbreak: the Diplodis fungus, different crop is another solution in varieties with good resistance to
favorable weather, and a problem fields. Diplodia ear rot,” the plant
susceptible hybrid. Farmers can’t influence weather pathologist says
How can growers affect any of but they can reduce its effects on
these disease factors? “The fungus ear ro ts by planting several
is everywhere on com debris,” hybrids with different silking
Mulrooney says. “But if com is not tiwws to spread the risk. If just one
widely grown near a field which hybrid is planted, it could become
severly infected if the early part of
the season is dry, followed by wet
weather before and after silking
optimal conditions for fungal
development.
Beyond that, Melrooney says
growers can reduce stress on com
cow difference between these
different lengths of days-open
gives some tidy differences in milk
income for these herds. The money
involved can mean the difference
between survival and drop-out.
On an average dairy farm, cows
are bred the first time around 60
days after calving. Since heat
detection identifies, on average,
only 55 percent of all cows, and
-'first inseminations have only about
a 52 percent success rate, this
means only 29 percent of the cows
will have a calf within the target
calving interval. Studies have
shown that, overall, cows are
responsible biologically for only 11
percent of the failures to detect
heat; 89 percent are apparently
Georgia, Florida and the
Carolines) will plant 5.141 million
acres, a 1.089 million acre
decrease from 1985.
• The Mid-Atlantic states
(Delaware, Maryland, New Jer
sey, Pennsylvania and Virginia)
will plant 1.751 million acres, a 71
thousand acre increase from 1985.
The ASA Survey also showed
missed by management failures.
Once cows have been detected in
heat and are bred, research shows
that 58 percent of the failures to
produce a pregnancy are caused
by embryo mortality and 21 per
cent by other biological causes.
Management failures apparently
account for up to 21 percent of the
remaining losses that cause
prolonged number of days-open.
So, what can you do to reduce
your |2 per day per cow losses
from prolonged days-open?
Plenty! Average statistics show
that better heat detection should be
your No. 1 priority to increase
farm income. Improve that and
your calving interval should im
prove automatically.
that farmers plan to plant 78.529
million acres of corn; a 5.8 percent
decrease of 4.819 million acres
from 1985. The Eastern Corn Belt
showed a 7.5 percent decrease of
2.226 million acres from 1985. The
Western Com Belt showed a 4.9
percent decrease of 1.838 million
acres from 1985. The Mid-South
showed a 4.1 percent increase of
195 thousand acres from 1985.
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