Farms that have been calving since late January should be thinking about scheduling their first milk recording of the spring soon.

Ideally you should be aiming to carry out your first milk recording within 60 days of the calving start date.

At roughly €12/cow, many farmers can be hesitant about milk recording when the whole herd has not calved down.

But it should really be done in this timeframe even without the whole herd calved, as the data captured during the early season is valuable in determining how the dry period went.

The data pulled can also help when it comes to breeding decisions, culling decisions, antibiotic usage, and general health and welfare indicators.

Early recordings can also help improve solids, lower their somatic cell count (SCC), and lower total bacteria count (TBC).

Therefore, despite the cost and the time of spring milk recording, the benefits still outweigh the cons.

According to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), 689 farms have already carried out milk recording in 2026, equating to 68,390 cows.

Milk recording

Milk recording during the calving season is generally put on the long finger as some might consider it a nuisance at a very busy and pressurised time.

However, farmers need to remember the cost and time involved with mastitis infections, and think about how milk recording will capture new infections and improve cure rates during this time, saving both time and money in the long run.

Farmers can use the farm summary report to identify problem cows and implement a cull cow strategy.

As well as that, with sexed semen straws now being used on the top performing cows in many dairy herds, milk recordings also become crucial in creating breeding programmes.

The results will allow you breed enough replacements from the best cows in the herd while obtaining the quickest increase in genetic gain possible.

According to Animal Health Ireland (AHI), farmers should undergo six milk recordings, as follows:

Two recordings to evaluate dry cow management;
Two recordings to improve milk quality;
Two recordings to safely dry off the cows.

Research

Research carried out by Teagasc and AHI on the economic benefits of milk recording, showed how the advantages outweighed the costs.

Compared to farmers who did not milk record, farmers who did achieved the following:

Gross margin/cow was €39 larger;
Milk yield/cow was 178L higher;
Milk solids/cow were 29kg higher;
Herd SCC/ml of milk was 13,000 cells lower.

If you are not already recording, it is important to understand the benefits and positive economic outcome that comes with it.

Quite often, farmers think they know their cows and which ones are performing best, but you only get a true idea of what these cows are really doing through a recording, as 'the best cow in the herd' may be a millionaire in terms of SCC.