Make the most of good silage

It’s been another special year for harvesting. After a very good first cut, most dairy farmers were not able to get much from second cut. Most of this was of less quantity and quality with a lot of stalk and containing less nutritional energy because of the drought.

The corn was also different this year. Some farmers got a very good harvest while others were stuck with too little amount and containing too little starch. On top of that, during feeding it seems very hard to keep cold.

What does your roughage stock look like and how many months of good quality supply do you have for your cows? 

If that’s considerably less than the supply you need during the winterperiod, then it is crucial to take measures to stretch the duration of your supply.
We don’t want to have to think about the possibility of good cows eating poor quality roughage.

Some example measures you can take: Give non-lactating cows and young cattle other feed (Dry cows could get hammered straw).
Give the lowest producing cows, in a production group, different roughage, perhaps.
Or, strictly select the bottom end of the herd and dry off cows on time (or earlier).

Correct the ration with by-products as well, both on quantity and type of supplementation. This year, this will be a special field of interest.

Consult with your advisor on these issues. Don’t just take the quality or quantity of silage for what it is. S/he will also experience new situations this year and can tailor solutions to your specific region.

Use the good qualities of your machine.

Currently, there are 6 to 7 milking robot brands on the market. And guess what, they all can milk cows.

Experts however, claim that each robot has its strengths.
All brands have their good and less good points.

Do you leverage the strengths of your milking robot ? You paid for it!
Consult your advisor to what extent you can use the strengths.

And if you focus on automatic milking: can you objectively choose which strengths of a brand are best for you and your company?

Daylight in the stall.

In nature, cows mated during summer and were calving next spring. This is when grass is at its best for optimal milkproduction and so for the growth of their calves.

This is what the cow is used to, so she is evolved.

That is why it is important to simulate for the milking cows the “May-Situation” year-round through mimicking  daylight hours in de stall and give them the best, fresch, tasty “May-quality” feed.

In terms of light in the barn: dairy cows need about 16 hours daylight while dry cows and highly pregnant heifers should have only 8-12 hours a day. The former simulates the summer while the latter represents the winter setting.

Young cattle also need 16 hours a day for growing and to be more fertile!

A good check of what is good daylight is: “Can you read your newspaper in the entire barn ?”

How much concentrate fed per milking robot visit.

How much concentrate may a cow receive per visit to the VMS?

That depends on what more is being fed. For example, when the cow steps out of the VMS, does she then immediately get a ration with lots of concentrate-like by-products?
If this is a high basic ration we have to look out for rumen acidification. A gift of 2 kg or better less, per visit should be the maximum.
However, if you only feed roughage with a lot of flavor (good intake) at the feeding fence what has also good structure value, then the cows can get 3 kg or even more per VMS visit.

You can change this setting under “Unit”.

If you set a higher concentrate feed rate than 2½ kg per visit, remember that there should always be good and sufficient feed in front of the feeding fence. A cow shouldn’t eat 3 kg of concentrate on an empty stomach ….

With larger rations of concentrated food per visit, we should also pay extra attention to whether or not the cow gets enough time to eat it during her visit. So, the dosing speed per VMS and per cow also plays an important role. (See Tip of the Month – May 2014)

With a 6 minute visit to the VMS, a dosing speed of 400 grams per minute is at most 2.4kg. In practice not many cows can eat more than 2 kg per visit.

When inseminating?

Early insemination has pros and cons: Fresh, fit, cows are at an advantage with a milking robot, these cows are milked oftener, and therefore give more milk. On the other hand, every calving also gives health risks for the cow. So if your company has a lactation graph with a long peak, or over many days, then a short calving interval is less interesting than when your cows are peaking after 40 days (for example) and then quickly decrease in production.

Look at your business cows lactation curve on how many days your cows have the highest production and how long their peak production lasts.

Look at the Herd graph (the one with all those dots).

After 50 DIL the cows are marked red, is there a good excuse not to inseminate this cow?