Managing Animal Performance

Managing animal performance



Managing animal performance

Introduction

The aim of this essay is to provide a detailed assessment of dairy cattle performance within the United Kingdom and provide a critical appraisal of the impact played by biological and economical constraints. Also by analyzing current dairy costs and national milk records discuss how they may be manipulated in order to achieve optimum performance. To analyze a dairy farm there are several things to consider, firstly the practical performance of the herd, this can be measured in terms of the tangible for example mastitis and lameness rates can be compared on a yearly basis and held up to national benchmarking.

Discussion and Analysis

It is often said that if you want to feed the cow you feed the rumen, in the case of a dairy cow you are feeding for the set goal of maximum milk production. Feeding is increasingly becoming a balance between the scientific research and nutritional knowledge available and the traditional use of the eye. The nutrient requirements for effective milk production involves the large scale conversion of nutrients, within her lifetime a high yielding dairy cow may, in a single lactation ,produce five times the amount of dry matter in the form of milk than is present in her own body (Chamberlain 1996). The raw materials from which milk constitutes are derived and the energy needed for the syntheses are supplied by food and as such the actual nutritional requirement depends on the milk constitution and yield. (Atkin, 1993, pp. 120-181)

Milk price is generally determined by milk component yield rather than volume and whilst dietary changes can alter the milk fat concentration by up to 3% in a unit milk protein concentration rarely varies above 0.5 %. High concentrations of fat and proteins are required in milk to achieve premium payment. An example of this is that a farmer on a Dairy Crest cheese contract is required to provide minimum milk fat values of 4.04% and protein levels of 3.29%. The figures above are minimum requisites and premium prices are paid for values above this. These rates can be achieved through a combination of improved genetic potential through selective breeding and correct feeding.

Genetic improvement of the dairy cow has contributed to around half the increase in milk yields and milk constituents (MDC 2008) and whilst the improvements made by implementing a breeding programmed are not as immediate as those of feeding and management their longevity means that improvements are noticed throughout the subsequent generations. However the rise in genetic merit was thought to correlate with the continued decrease in cattle fertility. Subsequent studies have found that there is no decline in fertility rates of heifers with higher genetic merit indicating that the decrease can be attributed to cattle management. (Greer, 2005, pp. 60-78)

The United Kingdom's agricultural sector has benefited over the past year from the continued weakness of sterling. This has made exports of UK agricultural products more competitive on the world ...