Milking longer with maize silage
This season's dry conditions have made one thing clear: not having enough feed on hand can bring your season to an early close.
A SURVEY prompted by lack of data on calf deaths in the New Zealand dairy industry has found there’s a huge range in mortality.
The debate on euthanasia of calves following the Chilean clubbing footage prompted Manawatu researcher Dr Lucy Waldron to look into the death toll on farms here. She found there’s a dearth of data, not just on euthanasia but also on losses in general, so did her own poll.
While only 10 farms responded, even in that limited sample total losses ranged from 1% of calves intended to be reared, to 31%, averaging 7.4%. The survey also found a wide range in approach to farm biosecurity.
“It shows it’s a bit hit and miss, what people are doing,” Waldron, of LWT Animal Nutrition, told Rural News. “A lot are effectively leaving it to chance. They wash-out and disinfect before the calves arrive and then they have to take their chances from there.”
Only one had wheel-baths for vehicles and fewer than half had systems for ensuring rearers’ clothes were clean.
“Milk tankers may be cleaned at the factory but they often go to more than one farm on a collection round, and there are numerous other vehicles that go from farm to farm, potentially carrying infectious agents that can sweep through a calf shed.”
Even vehicles which don’t go from farm to farm pose a threat due to contamination of roads with manure and vermin carcases, she points out.
“You need to think of your farm as its own little island when it comes to biosecurity.”
Valuing heifer calves at $500 and bulls at $200 the financial loss of just the animals was up to $19,000/farm. “In a low payout year like this can you afford that?”
Only four respondents put a cost on losses other than the animal itself, ranging from $100 to $1000 in total, but Waldron suggests that given the time and effort involved in nurturing sick calves those additional costs are probably a gross underestimate.
“Calf rearing should be one of the most important activities on a dairy farm and I don’t think it gets the focus it deserves on many farms. Partly it’s because of shortage of labour but also it’s about farmers’, sharemilkers’ or managers’ attitudes towards it. Often it comes bottom of the priority list but herd replacement calves are your cows of the future and a lot of how they perform in later life is determined by their health and nutrition as calves.”
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.