From transition cows to the whole herd

I was originally brought in to fix the transition cows only. The farm was having far too many transition problems, including milk fevers, retained cleansings and DAs, which were carrying through into poor performance in lactation and hurting fertility.

The three weeks either side of calving decide the whole lactation. A cow that calves well and holds a consistent dry matter intake is much more likely to peak higher and milk better throughout the lactation. A cow that has a bad start rarely catches up. Milk fever, a retained cleansing or ketosis each make the next problem more likely, and it shows up later as lower yields, poor fertility and more culls.

Fix transition and the benefits run right through the herd. Together with keeping an eye on days in milk, it's often the fastest way to lift a herd average.

Transition work is a team job, so it started with the vet and the farm team. We looked at the dry cow ration, condition at calving, the current feeding strategy and how fresh cows were being managed.

We moved away from a partial DCAB approach to a zeolite-based dry cow approach which, fed properly and accurately, keeps transition problems to a minimum. Once the fresh cows were consistently coming through with fewer problems, Vacca was given the opportunity to advise on the feeding for the milking herd.

With the whole herd in view, we could line everything up. Cows calved in better shape, got off to a better start and could be fed to hold that. The herd moved from separate high and low groups to one diet fed to all groups. That's easier for the farm team to manage, and more consistent for the cows if they need to change shed. Forage and feed budgets also became much simpler. Milk yield, performance and fertility were the key points of focus. We have also started precision feeding rumen-protected methionine to the close-up and milking cows.

The herd average has risen from 34.5 litres at 2.6kg of milk solids to 38 litres at 3kg of milk solids. Fertility has improved steadily, which has made culling decisions a lot easier.