Breakthrough gives farmers more time

By LIAM DANN Primary Industries Editor

As winter's chill sets in and the value of those last few minutes in bed begins to rise it is easy to sympathise with early rising dairy farmers.

But Hamilton-based breeding company Livestock Improvement has made a breakthrough that could make their mornings more leisurely.

The company has completed a breeding index designed to help farmers move from milking twice a day to once a day.

The index, which will be unveiled at Fieldays this week, makes it possible to identify the cows with the best traits for once-a-day milking. It also identifies the bulls that will sire those cows.

Using the right cattle, a 15 per cent increase in stock numbers would produce as much milk from one milking a day as a normal herd would from two, says Livestock Improvement genetics general manager Peter Gatley.

The cost of the extra stock was offset by savings on labour costs and electricity, he said.

Milking once a day was also better for the animals. The reduced stress meant they could be milked longer into the season and lameness caused by excessive walking was reduced.

Farmers milking once a day could also use land that was too far away for cows to walk from twice a day.

And they could use the spare time to work off the farm if they needed cashflow, he said.

Of course, they might prefer a sleep in or an afternoon off.

Livestock Improvement already produces a breeding index designed to maximise the efficiency of herds for twice-a-day milking.

More than 90 per cent of dairy farmers in New Zealand record their animals' details on the Livestock Improvement database.

A wealth of data is collected on each cow and is cross-referenced so the cow's performance can be measured against others in the herd.

That is combined with knowledge about the cow's family history and rank it in a breeding index.

"It basically tells farmers which are their most valuable animals," Gatley said.

Because nearly all farmers milk twice a day, the system is built around twice-a-day indexes.

That meant anyone wanting to move to once-a-day milking was basically stuck with the wrong kind of cows, he said.

"What we have done is tracked down every herd in the country that is milking once a day, we've collected all their data and scientists have analysed it to generate an index which they can use to rank those animals."

Now when farmers want to move to once-a-day milking, their herds can be ranked to identify those cows best suited to it.

Livestock Improvement can also supply bulls chosen to further improve the herd for once-a-day milking.

North Waikato dairy farmer Neil Bateup tested the index and last season moved about a third of his herd on to once-a-day milking. He now plans to move his whole herd over in the next two seasons.

"It's been tremendous," he said.

From an animal welfare perspective it was clear the cows were under less stress.

Bateup increased the stock numbers of the once-a-day milkers by 15 per cent as recommended.

His production volumes were 13 per cent up on last season, in line with increases on other farms in the region. But it indicated no loss of production, he said.

One of the fringe benefits was the more social hours he and his staff could work.

Bateup opted to keep milking in the morning and reduce the amount of afternoon milking.

Milking now finishes an hour earlier and once every three weeks he is able to give one of his three staff a whole week of nights off.

And Bateup can take a break on the weekends when he used to work as the relief milker.

The more farmers who moved to once-a-day milking the better the results would be, Gatley said.

At this stage scientists have used only physical characteristics in their search for ideal cows. The next step is to identify the genes present in the best once-a-day cows.

Gatley believes the research has great potential to change farmers' lives.

"For so long people have just accepted that if you go into dairy farming the downside is you have to milk twice a day," he said.

"It's possible that this could become a substantial part of the industry.

"It's mind boggling."