Proportion of farmers who are milk recording on the rise

Farmers who adopt milk recording see improved economic performance and animal health. Milk recording simultaneously decreases the risk of mastitis incidence, improves product quality, increases output, and thereby enhances gross margins.

“There’s an economic benefit. We can clearly see that, whenever we analyse data from herds that are recording versus herds that aren’t recording. There will be 50 to 60 kilos of milk solids in the difference,” Mr Leane said. 

You could just use a simple milk price, say of €7/kg, that’s €350 per animal, and in a 100-cow herd, that’s €35,000. That’s very simplistic, but it shows the economic value that is there from milk recording.

Intensive use of milk recording information over time facilitates good breeding decisions, through identification of the best performing cows, and timely detection and isolation of cows with subclinical mastitis infection.

Milk recording data is also an invaluable tool for vets in terms of antibiotic usage decisions.

Mr Leane recommended at least four milk recordings per lactation. The more data collected, the better it can support health, breeding and disease treatment decisions.

“For any herd, I would say do a minimum of four, and as the year progresses, if you have an issue with somatic cell count, or if you have an issue with the bulk tank, I would say contact the milk recording organisations and try to get a recording in, to clarify that situation”.

Taking a recording early in the lactation yields important information. “Without the early recording in that first 60 days of lactation, you really are not able to draw any conclusions from your dry period,” Mr Leane said.

Definitely before Paddy’s Day, I’d be recommending people getting their first recording in - that’s for two reasons: the first reason is to get an indication of how the dry period went, for SCC and selective dry cow therapy. The second thing is to get that recording before the breeding season, and that will allow you to make decisions for breeding your replacements.

He recommended the next recording to be taken in May, ideally before the start of the silage season when farms get very busy. He suggests a third recording in July or August, and a final October to November recording, before drying off. 

“When it’s spread out like that, that gives you a nice understanding of the lactation curve and gives you a nice understanding of how your cows are performing within the different seasons”, he said.

“What I say to every person when they get their milk recording results is to sit down and review the report, the SCC section of it probably first. That outlines the cows that are persistently infected, the cows that are recently infected, the cows that are recently cured, and also the healthy cows”. 

Recently-infected animals and persistently-infected cows would be key cohorts for follow-up action.

“The other side of the reports is the actual performance and the lifetime performance of the animals. This is probably critical around breeding decisions. It’s critical in terms of identifying the best cows, the medium and the poorly performing cows. We’re in a time now where we’re trying to breed the best, to create the best herd we possibly can going forward,” Shane said. 

“Nine times out of 10, you’re identifying the same cow, whether you’re looking at genetics or you’re looking at the milk recording. It's very highly correlated”, he said. “The milk recording data is contributing to the genetic evaluations in all the data that’s flowing through ICBF.”

If the farmer requests that their milk recording samples are tested for pregnancy, this can also be easily done in a timely manner. From 28 days after insemination, the test can identify whether the cow is in calf.