From the Department of Dairy and Animal Science
This regular column from Penn State’s Department of Dairy and
Animal Science features the research findings, student opportunities, and
resports on other important topics generated in the Department. The
back issues of the column are archived on Lancaster Farminq’s
Internet www.lancasterfarming.com home page. Look for them.
Induced Lactation as a
Tool to Increase Dairy
Farm Profitability
By Ronald S. Kensinger
Department of Dairy &
Animal Science
Pennsylvania State
University
Profitability on a dairy farm is
defined by the simple equation:
Profit = (pnce/cwt of milk -
cost/cwt of milk) X volume.
Reducing the cost of milk
production offers the most
promising opportunity for dairy
producers to increase profitability,
and has been the subject of recent
research within Penn State’s
Department of Dairy and Animal
Science in the College of
Agricultural Sciences. Most dairy
producers realize there are a
limited number of strategies to
increase the price they are paid
for milk. The volume of milk
produced per farm has steadily
increased in recent decades, and
will continue to increase as
limited by land mass, nutrient
management regulations, and the
availability of cows, facilities and
labor. Therefore, controlling the
cost of producing milk plays a
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significant economic role at the
farm.
One factor that increases cost
of producing milk is the
significant involuntary cull rate
on the dairy farm. This often
occurs when otherwise healthy
cows do not conceive in a timely
way, and need to be culled from
the herd. Options include
replacing them with heifers from
the farm, or purchasing a pregnant
heifer or cow that is near calving.
This reduces profits on the farm,
and it is our goal to reduce this
cost.
Dairy producers are well aware
that the primary reason to rebreed
a cow is to gam the resulting calf,
and to prepare the cow for another
lactation It is the lactation that
has the greatest impact on farm
profitability, as most income
results from sale of milk. The
goal of our research is to treat
those open cows in a manner that
creates a brief “artificial
pregnancy”, in order to stimulate
udder development and induce
them to have another lactation.
The basic methods in this
procedure were introduced 25
years ago by research at Ohio
State University, but were not
Kreider Dairy farm, Manheim, PA (Lancaster Co.)
Ftey Dairy Farms, Conestoga, PA (Lancaster Co.)
1100-Cow Freestall Barn & Milking Center
560-Cow Freestall Bam
refined to the point of 100%
success rate Furthermore, no
company or organization
attempted to take the method
through the process of approval
required by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA).
FDA approval is essential if a
technology like this is to be
widely used in the industry.
Research at Penn State
modified earlier methods in terms
of estrogen and progesterone (the
natural hormones of pregnancy)
administration. In addition, we
utilized bST after the cows began
to produce milk. Results were
very encouraging, as the induced
cows produced an average of 60
pounds of milk/day for 305 days.
Furthermore, most of these cows,
which were problem breeders at
the start of the trial, conceived
during the induced lactation.
Thus, they have returned to the
regular herd, and continue to be
profitable animals.
We then compared the
profitability of retaining these
cows in the herd to the alternative
of raising replacement heifers.
Results showed that the average
dairy farm could increase profit
by about $520 eveiy time a cow is
induced to lactate rather than
replace her with a heifer.
Depending upon the size of the
farm, the impact could be very
significant.
In addition, we hope to extend
our studies to determine if these
technologies can be applied to
young heifers to get them
producing milk earlier m their
lives, and improve lifetime milk
production. Since this procedure
is not approved by FDA, we must
Milking Center
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 29, 2000-A33
ensure this technique is safe for Inarch include Drs Larry
animals and people. We hope that duller *? lke 0 C ° nnor ’ and
private industry will partner with Steve Ford ’ iesearch s P eciallsts
us in our desire to ensure that A " n Ma g |,aro and Dawn S,lli ”
dairying remains profitable and stuc * ents Adam Kauf, Emma
Colleagues who have Herscher ’ Shannon Beabes and
contributed significantly to this Steve Blackburn
Donaldson Re-Elected To
AFBF Board
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.)-Pennsylvania Farm Bur
eau president Guy Donaldson of
Orrtanna has been re-elected to
a two-year term on the Amer
ican Farm Bureau Federation
(AFBF) Board of Directors and
appointed to its Executive
Committee. He was re-elected
during the nationwide farm
organization’s 81st annual meet
ing earlier this month in Hous
ton, Texas. Donaldson attended
the annual meeting as one of
three Voting Delegates repre
senting the Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau. He has served one the
American Farm Bureau board
since January, 1998,
Donaldson was appointed to
the AFBF Board’s Executive
Committee for the first time. He
will represent the Northeast
state farm bureaus as one of six
members on the committee The
Executive Committee’s responsi
bilities include approval of the
budget for the nearly five-mil
Give Us A Call!
We would be pleased to
show some of our
completed facilities
lion member organization and
handling items of concern which
need action before the next
scheduled board meeting. The
32-member AFBF Board of Dir
ectors meets five times per year
Donaldson has been presi
dent of Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau since April, 1996. Prior
to that he had served as the
organization’s vice president
since 1987 He and his wife,
Betty, in partnership with their
three children, operate a 550-
acre fruit farm in Adams
County They grow apples,
peaches, cherries and vegetables
and operate a retail farm mar
ket in season.
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is
a non-governmental voluntary
farm organization which repre
sents over 27,300 farm and rural
families. It is one of 50 state
farm bureaus plus Puerto Rico
which comprises the nation’s
largest general farm organiza
tion, the American Farm Bureau.
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