Taking heat stress out of cows
With the advent of climate change, dairy farmers could expect to be dealing with more days where their cows are suffering from heat stress.
Heat detection is a challenge in any season, but autumn calvers know that cold and wet weather slows cows down, making heats harder to call with confidence.
According to the makers of the Flashmate heat detector, anxiety over `lost milk’ from missed heats and poor-quality submissions can drive up stress levels on farm.
Robert Buchanan farms 280 cows at Inglewood and faced a steep heat detection learning-curve some years ago. He says Flashmate is a solution that delivers results without the stress and at an affordable cost, which has been using for many years now.
“Our empty rates have dropped a lot. Last year we didn’t have any empty two-year-olds and I had one empty three-year-old, so something’s obviously working for us,” Buchanan says.
He was determined to make a step up in performance from tail paint, without lifting farm costs long-term. This was important, given the possibility of future down-turns which can extend or even eliminate the payback on higher-cost commitments.
Next came considerations of training and staff requirements, along with effort to interpret data needed to make your own final heat decisions. With long-term resilience in mind, he opted to keep it really simple.
“We’ve trialled collars and found Flashmates are a lot more attainable in terms of cost.
“It all corresponds, they fit in well with a system like ours. We try to keep costs down and I‘ve used them six years in a row. There’s no lying with it really, it’s either on or off.”
In winter weather, cows may be cycling, even if they’re not making this obvious to the team. Silent heats drag down submissions, impacting six-week in-calf and empty rates.
“We’re picking up silent heats with hardly any marking on tail paint. You’re definitely picking up more cows earlier and picking up those cows that you’d normally miss,” says Buchanan.
And later in the mating period, poor submissions carry additional risk.
“Flashmates are another visual thing you can say, ‘that cow, she’s definitely not on’ [so] you don’t put that cow up for AI, so you’re not getting that embryonic loss.”
OPINION: Ministry for Primary Industries' situation outlook for primary industries report (SOPI) makes impressive reading.
Sheep and beef farmers Matt and Kristin Churchward say using artificial intelligence (AI) to spread fertiliser on their sprawling 630ha farm is a game changer for their business.
Commercial fruit and vegetable growers are being encouraged to cast their votes in the Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) board directors' election.
A unique discovery by a Palmerston North science company, Biolumic, looks set to revolutionise the value and potential of ryegrass and the secret is the application of ultraviolet (UV) light.
A New Zealand company is redefining the global collagen game by turning New Zealand sheepskin into a world-class health product.
With further extreme weather on the way, ANZ Bank is encouraging farmers and business owners impacted by the recent extreme weather and flooding to seek support if they need it.
OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the…
OPINION: The Hound hears from his canine pals in Southland that an individual's derogatory remarks on social media have left…