From diaryeditor's BLOG • May 2, 2009
Train workers better
I have seen a remarkable increase in requests for training workers, with more dairymen worrying about losing milk quality bonuses. A dairyman also mentioned to me that he is using less supplements in the ration. He is going back to the basics. I am not encouraging people to do that, but I notice that a lot of the dairymen are looking hard at their ration.
Another dairyman has started using young sires in A.I. to save money. I think lots of the dairymen are going into survival mode and not caring as much about long-term effects. They just want to survive the crisis and then they will deal with the consequences. Is that the right way of proceeding? I don’t know, and it is hard to judge because each dairyman’s situation is different.
Mireille Chahine
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Idaho
Higher forage diets
One of the best things that is being done is to cheapen rations. This is the greatest expense, and a movement towards higher forage and lower concentrate diets will significantly reduce costs, improve cull rates and improve overall herd health.
Paul Lloyd
Silage Specialist
Mycogen Seeds
If it’s so easy ... People need to verify that the core fundamentals are in place to allow cows to excel in their environment and transform feed into milk efficiently. I think everyone ought to measure their cow environment up front in the current situation so they have a chance to capture the fundamental or easy milk that cows deliver if given the chance. Measuring cow observations allows producers to manage proactively versus sitting in a meeting with their consultants looking at reports and graphs several months later. I actually experienced this recently in a team meeting. A team expert was looking at four-month-old data trying to explain the feet, culls and repro without any data from the cow environment or a plan to monitor those in the future. We did a complete assessment of cow activity and environment and found some holes that will keep tools like 3X milking, Posilac (bST) and expensive feedstuffs from returning their potential.
I know those are easy, but I would hate to see producers going through these times for months on end only to find many of the strategies they have employed did not return because of lacking dairy fundamentals. I always say, “If it is so easy, how come we keep getting it wrong?”
Neil Michael
Veterinarian
ABS Technical Services Director
