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Choose a lifestyle and breed your herd to suit your lifestyle!

Rossmore Dairy 5 year plan

• 90 ton of M/S from 77Ha milking OAD, (42 ton Protein, 48 ton Fat).


• 200 cows milking 200Kgs Pr and 240kgs Fat. (Currently 190Kgs Pr/220Kgs Fat)


• 90 ton of Cows, cow size to reduce by 25kgs/cow.


• 30 ton of concentrate (18 ton fed in 2014 to 120 cows).


• 5% empty +10% = 15% replacement rate, (4% empty in 2014).


• 95% submission rate in 1st 3 weeks, (95% in 2014, all cows served by day 34).


• 70% calving rate in 3 weeks, (2015; 67%/3 weeks, 95%/6 weeks, ).


• Keep Repl Heifers from Feb calvers who conceive to 1st service and never get mastitis.


• No meal feeding in dry period.


• Increase Cow herd life from 4.5 to 5.5 lactations, (presently twenty 8th-11th lactation cows).


• Calving Interval 365 days, (currently 361 days 2014/15).


• Maintain production costs at €0.18c/l for high solids milk.

History

The herd was bred for fertility, health and BCS/Appetite since the late 1980's using Dutch HF young/unproven bulls like Victorie (VIC EBI €190, BCS +0.22), Bos Ripp (BRI EBI €115, BCS +0.92) and Triosex (TSX EBI €93, BCS +0.34). These still rank among the top HF bulls for health and fertility in the world and the best 25 year old bulls for EBI.

In the late 80's Sunny Boy (SSB EBI €42, BCS -1.05) was all the rage and Doreen Corrigan described Jabot (DCJ EBI - €111, BCS -1.20) as the best bull in the world, he really bombed it when his fertility and health figures became known but we already knew this after seeing his daughters in Holland.

In the mid 90's instead of using the best HF bulls to fix herd problems we used the best bulls from the best health/fertility breeds. Swedish/Danish Red bulls S315 Hulan (EBI €215, BCS +1.60) and Fyn Rosen (EBI €142, BCS +0.92) were used a lot as young bulls. In 2001 we crossed the complete herd with BGX (EBI €198, BCS +1.68) and ULK (EBI €243, BCS +1.38) the highest fertility bulls from the highest fertility breeds in the world, they had a dramatic effect on fertility, health and longevity.

Herd fertility went from 40/100 cows calved in February to 80/100 calved in February in a few years. Their offspring were crossed with Rotbunts and Montys with mixed results. In 2008 we bit the bullet and crossed the complete herd with Jersey with amazing results. Jersey bulls with good Kgs Pr, Body Condition scores, Capacity, Fertility and SCC figures were picked.

Bull Selection Criteria

• Kiwi Cross and Jersey bulls ranking high on the Once/Day index, pure HF will not be used because of mixed results, nobody wants to buy the 3/4 Fr heifers and we don't want to milk them so why breed them?


• Fertility is selected for on the male and female side.


• High EBI is no longer being chased because there's no KiWi X bulls on the list and NZ bull Dams are classed as EBI breed average!


• Maintain 50% Jersey blood in the herd because of their higher efficiency.


• Select for Kgs Protein with good Fat/Pr balance.


• Body Capacity and Rump width, cows with greater capacity and higher BCS (Body Condition Score) have lower RFI (higher efficiency), cows remain in Harmony.


• Select for BCS alongside Pr Kgs to deliver cows that don't go thin while producing, improve Genetic Appetite at the same rate as production so cows remain in balance!


• Feet/Udders.


• Select low SCC without selecting bulls that sire slow milkers, this delivers increased disease resistance!


• Low RFI (Residual Feed Intake) delivers cows with similar production who maintain BCS but eat 5% less, so 5% more cows can be kept on the milking platform. That's an extra 10 cows on the farm without extra feed requirement or €10,000 extra profit/annum in a 200 cow herd.


• Some Montbeliarde may be used on skinny cows with too much Jersey blood because they also perform well on OAD milking.


• Longevity.