GEORGE F. W. HAENLEIN
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. —As daily
producers, our primary concern is
getting the right milk price every
month, yet we have so little con
trol over it.
We need an organized effort to
increase local consumption of
milk, yogurt, ice cream and
cheeses.
If we can get more people to
eat more pizza more often, that
will increase the consumption of
mozzarella cheese. Why? Because
our milk price at the farm gate is
driven by how much cheese is
sold in Wisconsin every month.
One thing we do have control
over at our farms is the cost of
producing milk and the reproduc
tive cost of our milking animals
which is, next to feed, the major
expense.
By reproductive cost, we mean
that if most of our cows were in
the early months of lactation, we
would have nothing but peak yield
production and peak efficiency.
But since admittedly we don’t
yet know how to keep all cows in
peak production at all times, we
have to suffer the financial conse
quences of less and less milk pro
duction as cows come to the end
of their lactations.
Yet it makes a huge difference
financially whether we are skilled
enough to have only a few cows
or many in late lactation.
This skill we can sharpen daily
by looking at our herd records,
especially our DHIA records on
each cow and for the whole herd.
Ask yourself: What is the
reproductive status of my herd
today?
Not being able to detect cows
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Several Ways To Increase Dairy Profit
in heat is probably the biggest
obstacle to lowering reproductive
costs. Missing half the cows in
first heat after calving, because of
their silent estrus or other reasons,
will translate into an eventual con
ception rate of no greater than a
costly 60 percent, even when
insemination takes place by 51
days after calving and everything
else works perfectly.
Heat detection accuracy on
many of our farms is only SO per
cent, and many farms do not yet
breed all their cows back after
calving by 51 days.
At least eight parameters have
a bearing on how well we can
reduce reproductive costs. The
first is the “length of dry period’’;
a dry period shorter or longer than
60 days costs money.
A short dry period does not
provide enough time for mamma
ry regeneration and results in less
milk yield in the next lactation. A
long dry period costs in feed
money without milk income; it
also often causes fat cows with
many health problems after life
next calving. Our research has
shown that each day over 60 days
costs an average of $3 per cow per
day; and each day under 60 days
costs $2 per cow per day.
The second parameter is “days
open.” Your goal should be no
more than 90 days open after calv
ing. Any excess days are costly.
If your herd right now averages
120 days open, as many of our
dairy farms that means that a
100-cow herd will lose $9,000 per
year, based on the cost of $3 per
cow per day above 90 days open.
Many things are responsible for
longer days open—heat detection
accuracy, of course, but also
semen quality, breeding tech-
& 16t
, 14t
nique, nutrition during peak pro
duction, diseases, the weather and
skilled labor.
The third parameter in check
ing cow and herd records is “ser
vices per conception.” The num
ber of services are directly related
to conception rate.
Conception rate influences
days open, because every missed
heat period adds 21 days to days
open. The goal per herd should be.
no more than 1.5 services per con
ception. If the average is 2.0 ser
vices, this 0.5 fraction will trans
late into an additional cost per
cow per year of $7.50. At 1.5 ser
vices per conception, the average
conception rate would be about
only 64 percent.
Fourth, but in my opinion the
biggest problem, is “heat detec
tion accuracy.” At $3 cost for each
day open above 90 days, the
financial loss for each extra
missed heat period of 21 days
would be $63 per cow per year.
Fifth is “days at first breeding”
after calving. With good heat
detection and with proper feeding
at peak production, the first estrus
should show at 30-50 days after
calving. This means that good
herd management should lead to
first breeding after calving at the
second heat, or 51-71 days in milk
after calving.
The sixth parameter is “breed
ing interval,” which also is relat
ed to how well heat is detected,
especially after first breeding. A
herd average should be no greater
than 25- 30 days, but if a heat is
missed, the average breeding
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interval increases to a costly aver
age of 41 days.
Seventh is “calving interval’’
between two consecutive calv
ings. It’s affected by days open
and pregnancy length.
Calving interval, which is a
sharp indicator of historical per
formance in my herd, should be
between 12 and 13 months per
cow per year. If a herd instead
averages 13.3 months, the finan
cial loss for that herd would be
$14.62 per cow per year; at 14
months, it would be $57.54 and at
14.3 months, it would cost $88.92
per cow per year extra.
Research has also shown from
a study of 795 herds on DHIA
with 121,773 cows that herds
with a calving average of 12.7
months had average milk produc
tion per cow per year of 18,330
pounds, while herds with 13.7
months had 17,864 pounds and
herds with 15 months had only
15,991 pounds, a considerable
production and financial loss due
to long calving intervals.
The eighth parameter, “days in
milk,” which is closely related to
length of dry period, is probably
the quickest and best daily indica
tor of how skilled reproductive
Personally, I’m not a computer
devotee, but computers do a lot of
work for me, like a slave, which
makes my management effective
and more profitable even at lower
market prices.
Commercial Goat Milk
Production To Be Discussed
NEW HOLLAND goat cheese processor.
(Lancaster Co. —An A meeting has been
opportunity exists for goat scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
owners to produce milk on Tuesday, Dec. 13 to
commercially for a local discuss the commercial
costs in a herd are managed.
An annual average should be
no more than half the usual 305-
day lactation length, for example,
150 days. Averages around 200
days in milk indicate severe heat
detection and conception rate
problems, unless a herd is delib
erately on a longer than 305-day
lactation length maybe for
embryo tranfers or other special
management decisions.
All these parameters are mean
ingful only if daily records on
each cow are kept either with
DHIA or another computerized
milk and feed recording system.
We used to do it by hand
before the computer age, but now
with larger herds, the computer —
the PC on my desk or the big one
at DHlA—is making the job so
much easier, faster, more com
prehensive and more detailed. I
don’t know how so many of our
herd owners can survive econom
ically much longer without a
computer.
production of goat milk.
The meeting will be held
in New Holland at the
Diffenbach Auction
Bams located along
Jackson Street, south of
the sales stable.
Topics to be dis
cussed include:
• “The Goat Cheese
Market” Alan Toby,
Fleer Dc Lait Foods, Ins.,
New Holland.
• “Budgeting Dairy
Goat Income and Ex
penses” Glenn Shirk,
Extension Agent, Lan
caster
• “Producing Goat
Milk Commercially—
Our Experiences” Rick
and Denise Goss, Red
Oak Farm, Palmyra
• “Getting Started in
the Commercial Goat
Milk Producing Busi
ness” panel consisting of
Rick and Denise Goss,
Lynn Sammons of the
Willow Creek Animal
Hospital, Reading and
Jacob Fisher, Windy Hill
Goat Dairy Manheim.
Anyone who is inter
ested in the commercial
production of goat milk
is invited. There will be
plenty of opportunity for
question and for sugges
tions and to discuss top
ics to be addressed at
future meetings.
This educational meet
ing is being conducted by
Penn State Cooperative
Extension in cooperation
with the Lancaster Coun
ty Dairy Goat Club, the
Eastern Lancaster Coun
ty School District, and
Fleur De Lait Foods, Inc.
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