LONGER-LIVINGCOWSWANTEDEVERYWHERE…
LONGER-LIVINGCOWSWANTEDEVERYWHERE…
Ailing milk markets have
dulled dairy producers
dash for cash and longevity
has replaced out-and-out
production at the top of
some breeders wish list.
Simon Wragg reports
DEPENDING on how the sums are done, poor cow longevity can be costing modest herds up to 3.5p/litre to generate replacements, report consultants. Thats a very unwelcome dent in dairy margins.
The shake-up of established milk marketing arrangements in the UK during the 1990s encouraged breeders to select cows which could generate extra litres as milk prices rose. After incomes peaked, production costs came back under scrutiny and bills for replacing high yielding cows which were spent after two or three high yielding lactations had to be cut.
According to Tim Abbott, sire analyst with Genus US-based breeding partner ABS, there is now a consistent call for longer lasting cows from most of the worlds leading dairy markets. "The demand for an improvement in longevity is almost universal. Cows that are burning out after a couple of lactations have become all too common."
When speaking to Genus Breeding Club members and other like-minded producers during a tour of the UK, Mr Abbott agreed breeding companies were at a crossroads.
"Its plain to me that it doesnt matter how commercial a unit is, there is a global need to focus on type traits. We need to breed new generations of cows that will last. When we look at the real star performing AI bulls of the past there is a series of good cow families behind each of them.
"But we must be selective. Theres nothing worse for a breeder than to use a top bull and have 35-40 daughters delivering the goods, but as soon as you get to the second crop they dont perform. How many of us have been a witness to that?
"As breeders, we know that cow life has a major impact on profitability and type traits are important for that reason. We also need reliability. There will be some failures in any breeding programme, but also a big number of successes."
UK breeders are keen to see sire analysts act, but Mr Abbott warned that it would not be an overnight task. "Some of the traits producers are looking for could be bred back into cow families within a couple of generations. But there is a lot of genetic material to work through."
However, not all breeders are behind a refocus on type traits as a single driver for the future generations of dairy cows.
Farm manager Keith Chesters, from Nantwich, Cheshire, believes milk protein and butterfat levels are slipping in high generic merit stock, despite the fact that the two constituents dictate income for many in the UK. A matter that needs reversing.
Mr Chesters, who oversees a 350-cow herd for cheese-maker Joseph Heler Farms, said despite good intentions analysts were behind the times.
"I know its crystal ball gazing, but analysts seem to be behind the plot. What seems to have been lost is the fat and protein. Most of our milk buyers still pay on percentages, yet when we look through a whole list of bulls there are few that produce a plus on fat and even on protein."
Mr Abbott agreed that AI companies have not been good listeners of what breeders want. "The industry is screaming for cows that dont just produce water, wherever you go in the world. However, fat is a breeding criteria for selecting cow families.
"I think it will breed back into the population quicker than some other traits, probably in a couple of generations – if we use a high-fat bulls.
"Can I promise it will be solved? No, we still have a lot of genetics to get through that dont have high butterfats. Even in the US, five years ago we werent being paid on butterfat and we just let it go."
Conscious of the time lag in breeding, Mr Chesters is already using AI sourced from Italy to compensate for the slow degradation of milk fat and protein traits in black-and-white breeding.
"We have heifers on the ground at the moment that will be milking within the next couple of years. Nobody wants to lose a grip on type traits, but we still need to be aware of how were paid as producers and breed future replacements that can deliver on that basis."
But UK genetics had held up better than others. US breeders had already begun looking at this side of the Atlantic for bloodlines to improve longevity, said Mr Abbott. "We would hope to have 10 young bulls on offer in the US and sell anywhere between 10-50,000 straws." *
• Need to improve longevity.
• Type traits important.
• Common world-wide.
Longer living cowThere is a global need to focus on type traits, so cows last longer in the herd and are more profitable,