C2-L«ncaster Fanning, Saturday, January 26, 1991 High Milking Cows, GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN Extension Dairy Specialist University of Delaware NEWARK, Del. As 1991 begins, it’s time to make New Year’s resolutions. Many of us in the dairy business could also make a wish list for what we want, or don’t want, as the case may be, in the next year. Freudian analysts suggest that sex is a thought foremost on peo ple’s minds, but for dairy opera tors, it’s simply business. We are professionally and seriously con cerned with that aspect of sex that hits us in our pocketbooks con ception in dairy cows. Despite all the wonderful biotechnological progress, one in four dairy cows last year was not getting the point of sex, which is to conceive. So on top of my 1991 wish list is better sex performance in all dairy animals. The problem might be that the dairy cow has been increasingly productive physically, producing more and more pounds of milk per day. New studies from lowa State Universi ty indicate that higher milk pro duction is related to longer periods of suppression of estrous behavior in cows. Traditionally cows have been expected to have a calf every 12 to 13 months. A top dairy cow with 1500 pounds bodyweight might be milking 150 pounds per day. Compare this to a top dairy goat with 150 pounds bodyweight milking, not unusually, 15 pounds per day. However, evolution has made most of these dairy goats seasonally anestrous, because their gestation period is only 5 months as compared to 9'A months for cows. Also, goats, in contrast to cows, can easily have two or three healthy offspring per parturition. So what are the options for dairy-cow people? Systematically producing twins or triplets is not feasible, not unless E.T. (embryo transfer) plus Cesarian section delivery can offer a breakthrough some day. Nor is a shorter pregnancy possi ble. And considering less milk per animal per day is not practical since that is where the profit is. Experts agree that the profitability of today’s dairy farm is inextri cably tied to higher milk produc- SOIL MANAGEMENT AND AGRONOMY CLASS by Arden Anderson PHD FEB. 11, 12, 13. 1991 Care of soils and crops with cm in-depth view of biological and non-toxic methods ★ Call now for class fee and reservations. 1-800-332-4171 or (717) 442-4171 tion per animal. So for this seemingly one-track problem only one option is left; to forego the traditional requirement of one calf every 12 to 13 months and maybe sex-identified E.T. can be a breakthrough here or to discover why sex with concep tion and high levels of physical work are not compatible, and then rectify the situation. One interesting discovery in the new lowa study is that high milk production was not antagonistic to reactivation of ovarian function, only to expression of estrous behavior. This means a more silent estrus, resulting in less detection of its occurrence by Bucks Co. DHIA November 1990 Rolling Herd Average No. % Days Milk Fat Protein Brd. Cows In Milk Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Name Robert Hewitt B 3 25.3 Arlin Halteman B 3 67.0 Fred Seipt Fami ly 3 117.0 Patty-Run Dairy Farm B 3 W B Saul High School 3 Richard A Bech tel B 3 Robert + Terry Moser B 3 Correctional Indus! B 3 George Seneko Jr 3 Edwin A Pol lock B 3 Arthur A Kulp B 3 Harold K Halte man 3 Chester Soltys 111 B 3 Merrymead Farm 3 Franklin J Schlegel B 3 Harold Moser Jr B 3 Charles Rhoads flUPbm BOWL ENERGY FREE WATERER tha MOST ADVANCED Daalgn In Llvaatock Water aril % 5 IJ&f'' ' , '' A'* ’ *#* ' 4 LOCAL DEALERSHIP AVAILABLE WE SHIP VIA UPS ANYWHERE • A MODEL FOR EVERY NEED - 1.2 AND 4 OPENING • UNIQUE HINGED DOOR CLOSURE EASY TO OPERATE • LOWEST PRICES-BUY DIRECT AND SAVE • SUITABLE FOR ALL ANIMALS - COWS. CALVES. SHEEP. HOGS ETC. U S AGRI-SYSTEMS, INC. 1-800-222-2948 Reproducing dairy farmers. Furthermore, fat heifers or those in negative energy balance showed reduced fertility because of less progesterone hormone sec retion, which affected the regular ity of the estrous cycle and accura cy of timing of A.I. Days to first estrus increased in high-milking cows, and these have negative energy balance, less blood glu cose, less liver glycogen and more fat breakdown metabolites. This brings to mind the time-proven procedure of sheep breeders who practice “flushing” when they want to bring their ewes into estrus. They temporarily increase the nutritional levels of the sheep. Monthly Report 21,933 95.3 90.6 19,973 20,295 89.0 87.2 20,585 64.1 89.4 20,134 20.1 80.4 90.0 19,500 18,763 78.4 V 89.4 19,196 154.9 85.5 89.7 19,100 65.0 18,730 40.6 88.3 88.2 18,748 50.7 18,802 62.8 88.5 88.3 18,526 55.8 88.5 17,706 104.0 17,546 36.1 90.1 94.6 83.5 17,535 18,029 89.6 35.5 680 670 704 655 693 648 752 640 630 678 626 687 655 624 654 616 707 611 563 608 629 593 694 593 648 574 650 571 636 568 660 567 567 703 Cows Offer With all the genetic selection success in dairy cows, have we hit a nutritional ceiling that says from here on you have either milk or conception but not both? Yet we have added to our bag of nutrition al new tricks rumen-protected pro tein and rumen-protected fat to provide the digestive guts of our cows with the nutritionally higher density ration needed to overcome those negative energy balances. This has given us 24,000-pound herd averages, or 75 to 80 pounds milk per day. Certainly we know how to reach much more milk per cow per day than 75 to 80 pounds, but we do not know too well yet how to sustain such a level to reach 30,000-pound herd aver ages, especially in the face of reduced estrous activity. SUSPENDED COMFORT STALLS For Modern Tie Barns * Coated with baked on TGIC Polyester Urethane Powder * All welded construction to give many years of trouble free service * Stall constructed with 1.9 0.D., ,133 wall, high strength tube and 2" square tube post with 1/4" wall Choices A partial answer comes from a new Cornell University study that examined pregnancy-check strate gies. When on-farm milk proges terone was tested on day 19 after breeding followed by treating the detected nonpregnant cows, a sub stantial net-profit per cow was realized above the alternative strategy of the traditional pregnan cy check by rectal palpation between days 35 and 50 after breeding and the use of pressure sensitive mounting detectors. It certainly seems that this opportun ity for earlier catching of cows which have, not conceived should reduce numbers of repeat services and long average calving inter vals, which will help make 1991 more profitable for such practitioners.
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