Shorter dry periods help team manage high yielding herd

The 400-strong milking herd at the Heaselands Estate, Holmbush Farm near Haywards Health has been managed with strategic short dry cow management for the last 18 months. Averaging around 9,000 litres, herd manager Steven Barbour and vet Rob Drysdale from the Westpoint Veterinary Group have developed the short dry cow management programme for a number of reasons.

“We are limited by housing so a major decider was being able to manage all the dry cows as one group, housed together with in-calf heifers 2-4 wks off calving. The effect of this was simpler feeding and it also made it more straightforward for the staff who, as on most farms, are pushed for time,” says Mr Barbour.

The TMR ration is made up of varying levels of maize and grass silage, ground wheat, crimped maize, wholecrop oats as well as rapemeal, soya, soya hulls and minerals. Fortnightly meetings with the farm’s nutritionist allow the ration to be reviewed according to availability performance and stock health. The aim is for 14-15kg DMI per day, and Mr Barbour is of the opinion that the less that ration is altered and adapted through the dry period in the run up to calving and the start of lactation, the less stressful it is for the cows.

“There is plenty of work to show that body condition score is less likely to alter dramatically when dry cows are kept on a consistent ration, and this is positive for the onset of lactation,” comments vet Rob Drysdale.

The year-round calving herd had suffered from environmental mastitis problems in the past. Contagious mastitis had also featured, with Staph. aureus found to be an issue a few seasons ago. However, a revised parlour routine and decision to bed on sawdust and lime has helped.

Known to be a good broad spectrum antibiotic producing high cure rates, Cephaguard DC was selected by Mr Drysdale as the most appropriate product to use at Heaselands.

Dry periods are between 35 and 42 days as cows are dried off once a week; any cow giving less than 10 litres a day are also dried off, as are mastitisc/high cell count cows.

“With the extra few days in milk, we see most cows almost ‘dry themselves off’ as the lactation curve falls away,” says Mr Barbour. “This means that we have less milk leakage after drying off and a more successful teat plug formation. The combination of this, the tube being used and changes to the housing, means we certainly see less mastitis due to infections from the dry period.”

The farm pays particular attention to the milk sold/cow/year figure, which has increased from 7,760 litres to 8,826 litres since shorter dry periods have been introduced. There has been a clear impact on the business’ bottom line of extra days in milk, coupled with slightly improved fat and protein levels.

“Fertility has also improved recently when you look at the 100 day post calving in-calf rate and 200 day not in-calf figures,” adds Mr Barbour.

Article first publised 26/03/07