Efficiency when times are tough
It seems that there are no end of challenges for our industry at the moment. One of the many we have faced is a rapid milk price drop in the Spring combined with significant penalties for producing more milk than 2025 production.
At times like this, understandably, we see many producers trying to reduce their cost of production. However, some cuts may eventually lead to an increase in cost down the line. Examples may be to find a cheaper dry cow mineral or stop vaccinations. While these decisions may reduce the monthly bills in the short term, if they lead to an increase in disease then overall cost will increase considerably.
There are some things that dairy producers should consider that can have a significant effect on overall cost of production.
Cull unproductive cows
When cows are culled from the milking herd or are dried off, often the overall herd milk output remains constant despite cow numbers dropping. This indicates that the stocking density is limiting the individual cow production in the herd. If you can produce the same amount of milk in a shed with 190 cows as you can with 200, then it is not sensible to run 200 cows! Every cow has to eat about 70 MJ just to maintain her weight. That means the extra 10 cows will be eating 700 MJ a day for no extra production. That is likely to be costing about £28 per day (assuming approximately 20ppl feed cost) just to feed cows for maintenance. Conversely, if they go as culls, that is cash in the bank!
Some farms are run at an appropriate stocking density, so losing cows means loosing milk. How do we know if any cows are unproductive? When times are tough, it is important that we know what our pence-per-litre feed costs are. Because a cow has to eat the equivalent of 14 litres worth of feed just for maintenance, so if we know what our feed costs are, and our milk price, it is easy to work out what cows are passengers.
If you regularly milk record or have parlour milk meters, you can identify the passengers.
Above we see a scatter plot from a milk recording. It is easy to see that there are cows giving less than 10 litres. There are many others giving between 10 and 15 litres. If you know your pence per litre feed cost, you can quickly do the maths and understand who is not paying her way. It is probable that on the above farm, there are a significant number of cows that are actually costing money to keep on the farm as the feed they eat costs more than the milk income they generate. In lean times it is important to get rid of the passengers.
Rearing too many heifers
Another area where wastage is common is in breeding and rearing too many heifers. According to AHDB it costs at least £1800 to rear a heifer (it can cost in excess of £3000).
Therefore, rearing more heifers than are needed can be a significant inefficiency. Sexed semen has completely changed the replacement equation. It is now easy to produce the
replacements that are needed. But it is also easy to produce more than needed. Breeding heifer replacements needs to be planned! Using a heifer inventory helps to breed the right number of replacements.
Computer software allows us to see how many heifers we have in each age group and how many sexed semen pregnancies we have in cows and heifers (see above). Farmers should have a quarterly requirement for sexed semen pregnancies in mind and only produce that many. The number needed will be determined by herd replacement rate, calf mortality rates and heifer fertility rates. Calf (and heifer) mortality and poor heifer fertility can significantly increase our need for sexed semen pregnancies.
If we then only breed the sexed semen pregnancies we need, we reduce our overall replacement costs. We also have a more productive herd milk wise because mature adult cows produce 20% more milk than heifers.
But another benefit of only breeding the replacements that are needed and controlling forced culls, is that we can be more selective about the females we breed replacements from.
Written By Graeme McPherson, Veterinary Surgeon
