A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 1, 2000 DHIA Service Center, Orchard Road, University Park, PA 16802 Question: We are debating the need for a prefresh diet for our heifers. What are some indicators that would tell us if this management change would be beneficial? When this question came in, I checked some PA DHIA records before giving an answer. I always recommend a transition or prefresh diet for all animals before their next calving. I believe this is especially benefi cial for heifers that calve for the first time, due to all the changes that happen to them during this period. What are some statisti cal indicators that lead me to this conclusion? One place where I evaluate heifer performance and how well prepared the heifers are to ATTENTION DAIRYMEN LANCO Dairy Farms Co-Op Inc. is now a marketing division of Allied Federated Co-Op’s of Caton, New York. We Would Like To Ask You These Questions: Are you tired 0f... 1. Mega-Merger’s and Consolidations? 2. Lower Milk Prices? 3. Supporting High Debt Load Co-Op’s with Farm’s Check As Their Banks Equity? 4. Paying High Salaried Executives & Directors? Let Us Show You How You And Your Neighbors Can Put A Load Of Milk Together And Market Through Lanco l And Gam A Higher Bottom Line. Our Markets Are Wide Open And Waiting To Take Your Milk At A Higher Premium Than You Receive Now. Find Out Why Other Processors Are Calling Us For More Milk And Are Looking For Better Choices To Feel More Secure With A Local Milk Supply. The Processing Industry Is Not Happy Either. FOR MORE INFORMATION: 410-658-7532 610-273-2536 717-367-9302 717-993-6808 become cows is found on the third section down on Herd Summary 11. Here we see “Profile of Cows by Lactation Number.” Near the center of the page is a column that states the average days to peak and the average milk at peak. As we compare days to peak in this particular herd, we see a large contrast between older cows and first lactation heifers. The sec ond lactation cows reach peak at 80 days and the older ones at 60. In contrast, we see that the first lactation heifers take 130 days to reach peak. It is normal for heifers to reach peak slower than their older counterparts, but certainly not this slow. Past first lactation, cows should reach peak milk production two to three weeks ahead of reaching peak dry matter intake. With this bit of knowledge, we recog nize the need for proper body reserves and transition diets can reduce the weight loss that is seen as cows reach peak around 60 days in milk. Heifers that obviously are going through more changes at this time usual ly hit peak milk a bit later at 75 to 85 days in milk. The heifers that are peaking much later than this are telling us we have not prepared them very well to be milk cows. Another evaluation that tells us if we are meeting the needs of these changing animals is look ing at some reproductive perfor mance parameters and how they differ from one age group to another. Again, we use our PA DHIA Herd Summary II for this information. The second section down is the “Reproductive Profile of Breeding Herd.” Going right to left we come across the column labeled average days to Ist service. This herd again shows great disparity between first lactation and older cows. Performance differs little First To Finish... Built To Last - Vegetable Cultivator - L M Lo C c Fo /^uuuuu|, H >uuui.^ s i -R/SSLER-* r —i “i “i TWUC-HOE”i —i -i DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME between second lactation and older cows with the average days to first service at 110. When we look at the first lacta tion animals, we see a substan tial difference. Noting that the performance of the older cows can be improved reproductively, the first lactation animals show a more severe problem. Here we see these cows being bred for the first time at over 160 days. When we see that the first lacta tion cows make up 45% of the herd, it is no wonder the overall herd reproductive performance is not at all what we would like. These two evaluations do not exclusively point to problems caused by the lack of a transi tion period. Bunk management and grouping needs can be indi cated when first lactation per formance lags behind the rest of the herd. The numbers seen for this herd suggest that the lack of a prefresh period might initi ate problems as these new ani mals come into the herd. Certainly, getting off to a good start by proper preparation should be your first step. PA DHIA offers a consulta- ♦ Field Crop & Vegetable Consulting ♦ Soil Testing ♦ Precision Ag ♦ Spreader Calibrations ♦ Nutrient Management ♦ IPM / Field Scouting ♦ GPS Soil Testing * ♦ Manure Analysis 800-840-1711 tion service to address these types of concerns. For those of you who are testing for MUN, you have the opportunity for a free farm visit that will help in record evaluation. Remember, these are your cows evaluation what you do...and sometimes what you do not do. Average Farm Feed Costs for Handy Reference To help farmers across the state to have handy reference of commodity input costs in their feeding operations for DHIA record sheets or to develop livestock feed cost data, here’s last week’s average costs of various ingred ients as compiled from regional reports across the state of Pennsylvania. Remember, these are averages, so you will need to adjust your figures up or down according to your location and the quality of your crop. Corn, No.2y 2.51 bu., 4.49 cwt. Wheat, N 0.2 2.41 bu., 4.02 cwt. Barley, N 0.3 —1.75 bu., 3.74 cwt. Oats, N 0.2 —1.55 bu., 4.84 cwt. Soybeans, No.l 4.95 bu., 8.25 cwt. Ear Corn 76.63 ton, 3.83 cwt. Alfalfa Hay —123.75 ton, 6.19 cwt. Mixed Hay —122.50 ton, 6.13 cwt. Timothy Hay —132.50 ton, 6.63 cwt. Mohnton, PA (800) 436-5623 r erse rd,
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