Dairy
Farmers should consider analysing their milking routine to see if it needs improvement or adjustments ahead of spring calving.
Although many herds have yet to start calving, farmers should already be considering when to book in their first milk recording.
With calving fast approaching and even starting on some farms, the risk of cows contracting mastitis increases dramatically.
As farmers gear up for the busy calving season ahead, many may be considering once-a-day milking in early lactation.
The majority of work is done with heifers ahead of spring calving, however keeping your eye out for heifer mastitis is still crucial.
In episode four of Agriland's limited podcast 'The Dairy Trail', which aired earlier this week, John Byrne spoke about reducing SCC.
Podcast
In the latest episode of Agriland's limited podcast series "the Dairy Trail", technical dairy...
The latest data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) shows that 1,148,854 cow have being milk recorded so far this year.
Once cows are dried off, farmers need to focus on reducing the risk of mastitis over the dry period to ensure they have a successful spring.
Tipperary native, Micahel Ryan featured on episode one of season three in Agriland's 'The Dairy Trail' podcast earlier this week.
In the first episode of season three of Agriland's limited podcast series 'The Dairy Trail', we...
As winter milking is already a costly system, keeping the somatic cell count (SCC) down is crucial in order to avail of bonuses.
Farmers will be preparing to dry-off underconditioned cows over the next two weeks considering February is only 11 short weeks away.
A lot of farmers may be wondering is it worth considering the move to to once-a-day milking for some time before drying off the herd.
Many farmers may see SCC rising in the back end of the year due to an increase in the number of infected quarters
As the days get shorter, we will experience a drop in grass growth and dry matter (DM), resulting in lowered yields.
Over the coming weeks, farmers will using milk recording data to decided which cows to need to be dried off first.
Preparations are now under way as most dairy farmers prepare to dry-off the spring calving herd over the coming month to six weeks.
Somatic cell count (SCC) can often start to rise in the few months of the lactation due to harsher weather, difficult grazing conditions...
Litres will begin to ease up, but cows will be producing high protein and fat percentage quality milk in the final months of the lactation
A milk recording at this of the year is hugely beneficial to pinpoint the best and worst performers on the farm as we have reached that...
If your somatic cell count (SCC) is beginning to creep up at this time of the year, it should not be ignored, as it is more than likely....
There is still a long way to go in terms of production this lactation, which means the milking machine should be checked and serviced...
