firming, Saturday, January 1, fW4
GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN
Extension Dairy Specialist
Univcrsitiy of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. Milking
30,000 pounds per cow per year
for a total herd! Sounds fantastic?
A few years ago, yes, but not any
more.
We’ve come a long way in one
generation of dairying. Where will
it all end? And what will the eco
nomic and biological conse
quences be?
When 1 took over the Univer
sity of Delaware dairy herd in
1957, our Holsteins milked 8,000
pounds per year. Now. after 36
years, we milk ipore than 20,000
pounds per cow per year in the
Holstein herd. This is a progres
sion of more than 300 pounds milk
per cow for each year.
What other branch of animal
agriculture can boast such a suc
cess story?
Today’s pig litters are about the
same number weaned as 36 years
ago, and ewes still raise the same
number of lambs as then.
But the research of land-grant
Agricultural Experiment Stations
in better dairy feeding rations, the
wide acceptance of artificial in
semination of genedcally superior
dairy sires, and the wide use of
DHIA for collecting monthly data
on sire-proving and herd-culling
management are the unique tools
in dairying that made this pheno
menal progress possible.
All this was achieved even be
fore bST and other biotechnology
techniques arrived on the scene.
Artificial insemination is used
in 95 percent of cows and 88 per
cent of heifers in high-producing
U.S. herds, according to a recent
survey published in the October
issue of the Journal of Dairy Sci
ence. It also revealed that cows
that milk more make, on average,
more money than lower producers
despite higher feed costs. And
dairy feeding rations have become
much more sophisticated than the
l^gHHiraial
INC. A\
GROO
Powder
gmiiraift
30,000 Lh. Herd Average
former pasture management
Much like race horse owners
who have long depended on po
tions, supplements and secret
practices, dairy farmers now re
quire the services of nutrition con
sultants and nutrition-educated
veterinarians to remain ahead of
their high-producing cows.
DHIA monthly data has been
the backbone for evaluating cow
progress, not just for the tradition
al registered breeder, but increas
ingly for the commercial dairy
farmer. The current electronic re
volution is on the brink of joining,
or even overtaking, DHIA daily
individual cow supervision.
In 1960 our university dairy
herd left the traditional stanchion
bam and its manual cow feeding,
bedding and manure removal for a
loose-housing bam, first with a
general manure pack bedding,
then with free stalls.
We instituted individualized
electronic grain feeding of at least
six meals per day and began to re
cord electronically daily indivi
dual milk production data plus
temperature and activity records.
We also advanced to electronic
calf milk nursing at least six meals
per day.
What’s next? Most likely, the
practice of cows and calves feed-
ing themselves at least six meals
(whenever they want a meal) in a
24-hour period will be extended to
milking.
This will occur when the tech
nology, which already exists,
meets the required sanitary health
standards of cow udders and milk.
Cows milking more than 100
pounds per day already have so
much built up pressure in their ud
ders that it’s beneficial to milk
more than the traditional two
times in a 24-hour period. And a
three-times-a-day milking proce
dure is usually rewarded by those,
high milking cows with about 10
percent more milk, which pays for
the extra labor.
The electronic feeding of at
least six meals per day is already
helping those high milkers to
maintain that level of production.
The most important variable in
high milk production is the daily
feed intake level, specifically dry
matter intake and its nutrient den
sity.
The nutrition research here at
Delaware has lead to unique ways
of iqcreasing the nutrient density
of the dairy ration-wafering, pel
leting, extruding, fat addition, ru
men protection of fat and protein
in addition to other fortifying
and buffering supplements. Dairy
farmers are already making profit
able use of these innovations.
On the other hand, electronic
evaluation and management is just
beginning and, for the most part,
only on larger farms.
As erf last month, DHIA in all of
the Northeast is now 100 percent
electronic, meaning that the mail
ing of herd records horn the farm
has been replaced by phone trans
mission from a portable computer
operated by the DHIA supervisor
and/or the dairy farmer.
The next day the dairy farmers
can retrieve herd records from
their home computers, connected
by phone with die computing cen
ter.
They can get as many different
reports as they need for their man
agement, a consultant, the veterin
arian or a buyer interested in some
herd animals.
All this is leading up to the
30,000-pound herd, not 30 years
from now, but probably much
sooner.
Such a high level of annual milk
production is still unusual and re
quires many days of milking more
than 100 pounds per day. How
ever, at least one herd in the
Northeast is already milking four
times per day. This practice not
JANUARY 3-8, 1994
HOUSE
r-CHARLES S. SNYDER, INC.-i
RD#3, Box 109, Tamaqua, PA. 18252
1 Mile East Of Rt. 309 On Rt. 443
(717) 386-5945 Fax (717) 386-4080— 1
MON. THRU FRI. 8:00 A.M. TO 5:00 P.M.;
SAT. 8:00 A.M. TO 12:00
EVENING HOURS BY APPOINTMENT
Within Reach
only reduces the pressure for the
high-milking cows, but adds extra
milk per day.
Once the electronic self-milk
ing of cows becomes reality, cows
will be able to go for milking six
times in a 24-hour period, as they
do now for feeding grain. That’s
when the 30,000-pound herd will
become reality. By then, we will
have researched new ways of
keeping these cows well fed, so
that they'can sustain the high lev
els of milk production.
A good example is recent re
search from Nebraska involving
36 high-milking Holsteins. When
almost half of the corn silage ra
tion was replaced by soybean
hulls and an additional third was
replaced by chopped hay, the
cows ate more, avenging a for
merly incredible 4.7 percentage of
bodyweight and producing 10
pounds more milk per day than the
control cows.
In this difficult year of poor
com yields and poor com silage,
this research is interesting, help
ing dairy farmers to maintain their
milk income by maintaining high
milking cows.
In the past, when silage or hay
was poor, we tried to help our
selves with cottonseed as a sup
plement (it also' has fiber value).
Yet we always worried about die
gossypol content of cottonseed
and the moldiness that tends to de
velop, especially during a humid
winter.
The new nutrition research
proves that there is value in high
amounts of soybean hulls, up to 25
percent of daily total dry matter
intake by cows. This helps main
tain high milk production, not on
ly early in lactation but also in
mid-lactation, while holding milk
fat test and increasing milk protein
test
Recent research from Wiscon-
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sin showed (hat cows milked four
times per day had increased milk
production per day, and those
milked eight times a day had even
more milk.
Cows milked more than four
times appear not to require com
plete milking out each time, and
they don’t require pre-tmilking
stimulus as much as low produc
ers do.
This conclusion is contrary to
the traditional one-minute let
down stimulation of long standing
in dairy science teaching.
These results are similar to
what we already know about dairy
goat milking.
When goats milk 2 gallons per
day, equal to 10 percent of body
weight, they don’t require much
pre-milking stimulation and they
easily eat between 4 to 5 percent
dry matter per day. This is a level
that we are just beginning to reach
with 30,000-pound dairy cow
herds.
Our university research with the
new Sttmopulse feature of elec
tronic milking bean this out as
well. High-milking cows really
have a much faster letdown reflex
time than the traditional one min
ute.
So as a new year approaches,
we dairy farmers can be confident
about the future.
With more land-grant Agricul
tural Experiment Station research;
more artificial insemination and
embryo transfer, and electronic
feeding, milking and record keep
ing, we will reach 30,000-pound
herd averages sooner than we
reached 20,000-pound herd aver
ages. In turn, we can expect new
levels of herd income with far less
labor. Happy New Year!