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Greg Hamill.
During calving many farmers focus on matching cow dry matter (DM) requirements with grass growth rates to ensure their feed budgets sustain them through to September/October when growth rates match feed intake.
Many off-the-shelf feed budget software programs deal with a standard 282-day gestation time to base their cow daily feed requirements on.
But there is a better alternative: the LIC herd management system Minda. This enables farmers to ensure their feed budgets coincide with their expected calving reports because Minda enables these to take into account the parents' gestation lengths.
Even when I was farming I was always supplying the factory before the official planned start of calving. That is because 95% of calves born arrive plus or minus nine days off their expected due date.
For example, if you have synchronised 100 heifers and their due date is July 20, 95 of them will calve between July 11 and 29. Five are expected to calve outside this window; some may be earlier and some later.
The average gestation length for the national herd has moved from 282 days to 281. The effect on gestation length is being seen in the influence of LIC's top bulls with shorter gestation lengths as their progeny flow into the gene pool of the national dairy herd.
This is expected to continue as LIC's breeding scheme continues to deliver sires with shorter-than-average gestation lengths. Currently the breeding value (BV) gestation lengths of LIC's Premier Sires teams range from -2 to -5 days, with individual sires ranging from +4 to -9 days. Half a bull's BV will be expressed in his offspring BV.
This is good news for farmers. Every additional day a farmer gets in milk is more money in his pocket. The more days a cow is in milk, the more profitable she is.
In the past, Minda would give farmers expected calving reports with a date the cow had been mated, and the date she was expected to calve based on the then 282-day average gestation length.
But we know individual bulls and cows have their own gestation length. So a few years ago the sire gestation length was added into Minda so that a farmer's expected calving report reflected the bull's expected gestation length.
Last year the cow's individual gestation breeding value was also added into the expected calving report.
Minda is now giving a more accurate indication of when you can expect to have your cows calving. Farmers can know which cows are more likely to be calving before planned start of calving, which also enables them to do more accurate feed budgeting.
This is important especially as we have more farmers having to transition cows back from winter crops.
In short, farmers will still on average be supplying the factory before their planned start of calving. They will now be doing so with more accurate information.
• Greg Hamill is LIC Genetics business manager.
LIC chief executive David Chin says meeting the revised methane reduction targets will rely on practical science, smart technology, and genuine collaboration across the sector.
Opening a new $3 million methane research barn in Waikato this month, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay called on the dairy sector to “go as fast as you can and prove the concepts”.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
The first calves of a new crossbred dairy-beef offering are now on the ground at a Pamu (Landcorp) farm near Taupo.
Academic and former Fonterra director Nicola Shadbolt has been elected as LIC director.
Acclaimed fruit grower Dean Astill never imagined he would have achieved so much in the years since being named the first Young Horticulturist of the Year, 20 years ago.
The Ashburton-based Carrfields Group continues to show commitment to future growth and in the agricultural sector with its latest investment, the recently acquired 'Spring Farm' adjacent to State Highway 1, Winslow, just south of Ashburton.
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has blasted Fonterra farmers shareholders for approving the sale of iconic brands to a French company.
A major feature of the Ashburton A&P Show, to be held on October 31 and November 1, will be the annual trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial test match, with the best heading dogs from both sides of the Tasman going head-to-head in two teams of four.
Fewer bobby calves are heading to the works this season, as more dairy farmers recognise the value of rearing calves for beef.
The key to a dairy system that generates high profit with a low emissions intensity is using low footprint feed, says Fonterra program manager on-farm excellence, Louise Cook.
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