Extended Lactation Case Study
Michael and Debbie Cole, Foster, Gippsland
Background
Michael and Debbie Cole, dairy farmers from Foster in Gippsland recently used EL to shift their calving pattern from spring to autumn.
There were multiple reasons for shifting the calving time including:
- To match winter milk incentive;
- To match pasture growth;
- Dryer conditions over May – July in recent years;
- Cows are dried off in February, when there is low pasture availability;
- Avoids calving down in a wet spring.
The system
The Coles milk 320 cows – 2/3 Friesian and 1/3 Friesian/Jersey cross. They used EL to move the whole herd from July 16 to April 2 start of calving (they were joining the cows from Oct 6, but are now joining from June 23). To achieve this, they did not calve the cows in July 2008, carrying them through to calve from April 2 2009 (simply by delaying mating).
The cows were dried off on February 15 2009 for a 6 week dry period. The herd had produced 170,000kg milk solids annually, they produced 135,000kg milk solids annually during the change over period, but additional income was made over the winter period as the cows were in milk longer. This highlights that, as with traditional 300 day lactations, less milk is produced in late lactation.
18 cows were culled in December 08, as their milk production dropped below 10 litres, and they became over conditioned. Michael was able to feed less silage in Feb to May.
Most of the cows conceived on the first joining of their EL with only 18 of the 320 cows being empty.
The cows finished the EL at about a condition score of 6, this was about 1 condition score higher than normal, this extra condition score was utilised by the cows in early lactation. The EL cows are currently (June 09) producing 2.2kg milk solids per day which is equal to their previous spring peak.
Comments about EL
Michael and Debbie said they would consider using EL with cows that he felt were “too good to sell”, they would see if their milk production persists for up to 22 months and if not they would cull cows once their milk production went below about 10 litres.
For further information contact:
Greg O’Brien, DPI Ellinbank, ph 03 56242288
Ash Michael, DPI Leongatha, ph 03 56629901
Hayden Ballinger, DPI Warrnambool, ph 03 55619926
Tom Farran, DPI Kyabram, ph 03 58520505
Acknowledgements:
The contribution of major funders Gardiner Foundation and DPI Victoria, together with support funding from GippsDairy and DHIA is gratefully acknowledged.
