Cows 365 Blog

July 2011 - Posts

• Scanning a dairy herd in Fermoy, County Cork reveals that the farm tops the pole in terms of pregnancy rates.

  Scanned a dairy herd of 68 cows outside Fermoy this evening of which 62 were diagnosed pregnant for a window of opportunity for breeding for 70 days. This figure of 88% is the best figure recorded so far this year and shows that a Friesian herd managed well can deliver on both milk solids, fertility and cull cow pricing structure to leave the optimal profit in the business. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 29 2011, 12:38 PM by cows365 with 1 comment(s) Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: 88% pregnancy rate in cows [Edit Tags]

• Fertility in large dairy herds can be excellent if management is correct.

  Visited 2 large dairy herds with 360 and 250 cows with a pregnancy rate of 70% and 81% respectively for a breeding window of 7 weeks. Cows presented on these farms today range from 35 to 84 days pregnant. Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 29 2011, 12:36 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: cow fertility [Edit Tags]

• Delayed puberty in Limousine heifers.

  Visited a herd outside Tralee, County Kerry where a group of Limousine heifers were presented for scanning as they had not been detected in heat. All of the heifers presented had failed to come out of puberty. The heifers were under size for their age which is associated with malnourishment in the period post-calving, early weaning and grouping with older animals. Silage quality and quantity were limited. This impacted severely on the calves and weanlings resulting in failure of the animals to come out of puberty at 2 years of age. The lesson from this is that a breeding programme starts when calves are born. They need to reach a certain growth rate in the early stages of life to prevent delayed puberty. Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 28 2011, 09:52 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: Delayed puberty in Limousin heifers [Edit Tags]

• Scanning cows in Dingle.

  Spent the evening and the following morning scanning dairy and beef cows in Dingle, Co Kerry. As we had to travel out from Dingle to Balyyferriter and Ventry, the views were fantastic especially down around Ferriter’s cove and the whole area over Ventry. The possibilities here for farmers to expand and increase milk production by 50% by early 2020 does not pertain. Farm fragmentation is a major issue. Lifestyle seems far more important to these individuals than milking large numbers of cows. Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 26 2011, 10:32 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: scanning cows in Dingle [Edit Tags]

• Jersey Cross's v's Friesians scanned for fertility.

  Jersey Cross’s v’s Friesians scanned for fertility outside Killarney to-day. A scan today in a large dairy herd resulted in no advantage for the Jersey Cross’s v’s the Friesians in overall fertility. The farmer in question was very disappointed with the results and add this to the poor cull value for these Jerseys and their off-spring bull calves raises questions on their future n this dairy herd. Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 26 2011, 10:31 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: Friesian cows, Jersey Cross's [Edit Tags]

• 80% cows confirmed pregnant in the window 21 to 90 days

  Visited a dairy herd outside Ardfert, County Kerry where a herd of Friesian cows were running with a stock bull. Of the 72 cows presented, 80% were confirmed pregnant in the window 21 to 90 days – total of 10 weeks. To date, this is one of the best results achieved. Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 25 2011, 10:47 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: cow scanning [Edit Tags]

• A dart player and twins

  Visited a dairy farmer outside Tralee this afternoon. Once the scanning was finished we had dinner. It was mentioned while eating the dinner that a guy had 11 children and the final two children were twins. It was quoted ‘’ like any good dart player, you should always finish with a double’’! Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 25 2011, 10:26 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: cow scanning [Edit Tags]

• Scanning cows to accurately age pregnancies.

  Visited a dairy farmer outside Mallow, County Cork this evening. We scanned about 230 dairy cows. Their breeding programme began 2 months ago and only AI has been used on this farm. We identified 13 sets of twins and 20 cows that had been Ai’d while they were already pregnant. This information is invaluable to the client as he depends on the scanning for the accurate dry off dates for managing cows with twins and vaccination programmes . Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 22 2011, 09:56 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: accurately age pregnancies [Edit Tags]

• cows need to be scanned that have undergone a superovulation programme.

  Visited a client where they presented a heifer which had undergone a superovulation programme. The animal was polycystic and had dropped a mammary gland which is a side effect of a superovulation programme. I advised the client to rectify this situation immediately as it would have consequential effects in terms of fertility in the animal. He did not wish to do anything with the animal as he had planned to show the animal in 3 weeks time. It is always advisable to scan animals that have undergone a superovulation programme to check for an abnormal reproductive function associated with hormonal treatment. Posted Jul 19 2011, 06:42 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: super ovulation programme [Edit Tags]

• Grassland management in a dairy herd outside Croom, County Limerick.

  Morning rise and time, today first call was to a dairy farmer in County Limerick. Herd management and BCS was excellent. At present, grass growth rates have resulted in grass far too strong for grazing purposes. The client has taken these paddocks out of the system for production of round bailed silage and has increased concentrate input to 3 kgs per cow per day, in a system where cows are currently producing 26 litres of milk per cow. His philosophy is that BCS has to be maintained and reproduction cannot suffer at any cost. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 19 2011, 06:41 PM by cows365 with no comments [Edit Tags]

• 20% incidence of twins among pregnant cows in a suckler herd.

  Visited a beef farmer in County Westmeath who presented a herd of suckler cows. Of those scanned pregnant (n =25) 5 were scanned carrying twins and of these five, four of them would be considered high risk as both foeti were present in the one uterine horn. The advice to the farmer in this situation is to ensure that the cows were managed properly nutritionally up to 7 months of pregnancy. Thereafter, to isolate the cows and to ensure a straw bed for the winter period indoors. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 19 2011, 09:47 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: incidence of twins in a suckler herd [Edit Tags]

• Impending Superlevy results in early dry-off of cows.

  On a farm visit outside Mallow this evening, the client informed me that a large dairy herd out by the Race course had been dried off because of excess numbers of cows for quota available. It’s incredible to think that a dairy herd calved in the Spring is now dried off. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 18 2011, 12:28 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: superlevy [Edit Tags]

• Metricheck as an aid in oestrus detection.

  Visited a farm outside Macroom, County Cork where a dairy farmer presented both dairy cows and heifers for scanning. On the outside farm the heifers were scanned but the ages of pregnancies presented varied enormously from the farmers records. Subsequent analysis revealed that the heifers were in calf to earlier insemination dates. The client acknowledged severe problems in heat detection based on the use of oestrus alerts applied to the tail ends of the animals continuously showing signs of heat. Secondly he was using a vaginal probe to check for the presence of vaginal mucus associated with the signs of heat. Neither of these systems appeared to be effective in this situation as too many of the heifers were pregnant to earlier services. These heifers were primarily Norwegian Cross Friesian heifers. The client informed us that the problem for heat detection was more difficult with the Norwegian Cross heifers relative to pure Friesian heifers. The Norwegian Red heifers showed various signs of heat which failed to manifest standing heats in a lot of situations. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 15 2011, 12:01 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: Metricheck [Edit Tags]

• Family Farm Award for quality food production.

  There is a need for the recognition of farm families who produce food with the due care of animals as a priority in their production system. We visited a farm in County Offaly where both parents and children are involved in the production of quality of food with the care of their livestock as a priority in the food production system. It was fantastic to see every animal known as a member of a family line and investigating on a with questions as for how their livestock production system could be improved to achieve the welfare of their livestock with the ultimate aim of food production in a quality contolled environment.. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 14 2011, 03:07 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: food production [Edit Tags]

• Fleckviech breed as an option in a cross-breeding programme in a dairy herd.

  Visited a family farm in County Offaly today where Flechviech was used as a Cross-Breed on Holstein cows. This adds great strength and increases highbred figure. They are using this as an option to increase strength in their cows, enhance the immune system and thereby improve overall reproductive performance. The scan today revealed that all of Flechvieh Cross-Bred cows were pregnant and the BCS was excellent. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 14 2011, 03:06 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: Cross-bred n Holstein cows, Flechviech [Edit Tags]

• Sexed Semen can be used successfully in dairy cows.

  Visited a client in County Offaly who uses sexed semen in dairy and heifer cows. He conducts a pre-scan on both to access reproductive status and sexed semen is used for AI those animals considered fit reproductively for same. The pregnancy rate in heifers is in excess of 60%. All of the heifers scanned pregnant had female pregnancies. In the dairy cows, the pregnancy rate was close to 50% and once again all of the pregnancies were female. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 13 2011, 10:12 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: sexed semen [Edit Tags]

• Photosensitation can cause dehabilitation in cows.

  Visited a farm in County Limerick where a Red and White Holstein cow had undergone trauma with photosensitation, The animal was previously pregnant but lost the pregnancy due to stress occurred. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 12 2011, 10:13 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: photosensitation in cows [Edit Tags]

• Scanning cows made easier with excellent records.

  Visited a farm in North Cork this evening where a family presented over 100 cows and heifers for scanning. They had a record for every animal in terms of days served which could be checked against scanning dates and enabled problematic animals be dealt with much easier. We were able to identify how long some of the animals had embryonic death. In addition, we were able to make decisions on some of the problematic cows in terms of retention in the herd or a decision to cull same from the herd. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 11 2011, 09:45 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: scanning cows [Edit Tags]

• Once a day milking v’s twice a day milking.

  Visited a client in County Waterford who has a Holstein herd with an average of 2,100 gallons per cow v’s 2 other farmers visited today with an average of milk production of about 1,000 gallons per cow. The farmer producing 2,100 gallons per cow would have far poorer fertility in his herd but he claims that with his system of production there is no need for the cows to calve every 365 days and the cows that fail to go in calf by June 1st are recycled and a breeding programme starts on November 1st. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 08 2011, 10:16 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: once a day milking v's twice a day milking [Edit Tags]

• Cow comfort in the milking parlour

  .Visited a farmer in County Waterford who had just installed cow mats in the milking parlour. Since putting them in he has had not one cow slip or fall coming in or out of the parlour. Cows are far more comfortable and happy in the parlour. Cows 400E and were installed in 10 minutes. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 07 2011, 09:54 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: cow comfort in the milking parlour [Edit Tags]

• Poor grazing conditions in County Kerry

  On calls in County Kerry and in certain parts of the Dingle peninsula, cows are back being fed silage at night. Grazing conditions have become very poor because of the current wet spell of weather. Dr Dan Ryan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 06 2011, 09:33 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: poor grazing conditions Dingle peninsula [Edit Tags]

• The farmer’s dole existed in the 1960’s and still exists today.

  Visited a client this morning in County Kerry who informed me that the farmer’s dole was available for any farmer with a land valuation less than 20 pounds. This farmer informed me that he drew the farmer’s dole which he was entitled to from 1960 to the early 1980’s. On further questioning, I asked him did he need the dole. He said no that he got by without it. The money was put aside as savings e.g 3 months dole was equal to the value of a welder. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 05 2011, 10:43 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: farmer's dole [Edit Tags]

• How many Jersey heifer calves were born in Ireland this past year?

  Recent figures suggest that the number of heifer claves born with Jersey bloodlines is far lower than that suggested in the popular media press. Recent figures released present figures close to 16,000 heifer calves born with Jersey bloodlines whereas 260,000 Friesian heifer calves were born in the last year. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 04 2011, 09:47 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: Friesian heifer calves, Jersey Bloodlines [Edit Tags]

• Hydrated lime to control rats in whole crop.

  Visited a client in Co. Derry who told us that he managed to control rats at attacking his whole crop of wheat silage by placing hydrating lime on all the walls surrounding the whole crop. The rats end up getting this on their paws and will not go near the whole crop because it burns them. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 04 2011, 09:45 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: rats, Hydrated lime [Edit Tags]

• Type grazing lush grass will cause reproductive problems.

  Visited a client in West Limerick today who presented a herd of dairy cows where overall reproductive performance was very poor. Body condition score in the cows was acceptable. However, the faeces of the cows were far too loose. Further discussion with the client informed me that he had a programme whereby grass monitoring was completed by a company every two weeks and a grazing system was put in place on the basis of same. Grazing cows on lush grass with high protein which is off an extremely degradable form will cause excessive scouring of cows, high passage rates and impaired reproductive performance because of the stress put on the digestive system. My advice to the client was adjust the diets by introducing a concentrate supplement which would balance the overall diet and mop up the excess degradable protein in the diet. Dr Dan @ www.cows365.com Posted Jul 01 2011, 09:53 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: reproductive performance, lush grass [Edit Tags]