Milk Matters By Christine Pedersen
Senior Dairy Business Consultant The Dairy Group
www.thedairygroup.co.uk
Dairy Business Strategy - There is on-going discussion across the dairy industry about which is the most profitable dairy system. Is it a high input/high output, blocking calving, all year-round calving, all year- round housing or grazing system? As a Dairy Business Consultant, having these types of discussion with farmers and establishing a clearly defined strategy that suits each individual business is a key part of my role. A recent report by AHDB Dairy which examined optimal dairy systems, states that ‘the businesses that were fully focussed on a clearly defined production system tended to be the most profitable businesses’. The data in the report can be summarised by saying that no one system is more profitable than the other, but how the system is implemented and managed by the operator affects the profitability of any dairy system. Establishing personal and business aims and objectives and determining the strengths and weaknesses of both the operator and the business are the first steps towards developing a clearly defined strategy.
Managing Milk Quality – as feed compounders will know, managing milk quality at this time of year can be challenging. UK average butterfat and protein levels follow typical seasonal trends as shown in the following graphs with troughs for both in June and July:
UK Average Butterfat %
3.80 3.85 3.90 3.95 4.00 4.05 4.10 4.15 4.20 4.25 4.30
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar UK Average Protein %
3.20 3.25 3.30 3.35 3.40 3.45 3.50
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Source: DEFRA PAGE 16 JULY/AUGUST 2018 FEED COMPOUNDER
The average masks a range of butterfat and protein results for
individual producers and in some cases milk compositional quality may fall below contract minimums (for example, 3.5 % butterfat and 3.0% protein) in which case the financial penalties are huge and require dramatic action. Milk payment schedules have moved increasingly towards
constituent payments and the effect of reduced milk constituents on milk price can be significant if you look at the following examples:
UK Average Milk Quality 2017 – 18
Butterfat Protein
Constituent Payments *
4.09 % 3.32 %
24.49 ppl
UK Trough Milk Quality
2017 – 18 3.93 % 3.24 %
23.7 ppl
UK Peak Milk Quality
2017 – 18 4.20 % 3.37 %
25.0 ppl
*Constituent payments are based on butterfat payments of 3.163 p/1% and protein payments of 3.479 p/1%. This represents the total constituent payments only, not the total milk price.
Milk quality parameters including Butterfat, Protein and Milk Urea
levels are often reported for every milk collection which serve as a useful guide to the nutritional status of the dairy herd and help monitor the impact of any dietary changes made. Managing grazing to maximise milk from forage at the same time as managing constituent levels can be challenging but it is fair to say that the producers who have a clear strategy to manage both in place at the beginning of the grazing season achieve the best results.
2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
New Breeding Indexes – genetic indexes for lameness, calf survival and dairy carcase (a combined index made up of 80% Average Daily Carcase Gain (ADCG) and 20% Carcase Conformation (CC)) developed by AHDB Dairy were added to the April 2018 bull proof run with the Digital Dermatitis index to follow in August 2018. Lameness is one of the most significant welfare and productivity
2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
issues in dairy farming, costing the industry millions of pounds every year in lost production, treatments and early culling. The average cost of a lameness incident may be in the region of £180 (source: AHDB Dairy) or up to 1p per litre depending on the rate of incidence. The introduction of the new Lameness Index will mean that dairy farmers can now select sires to help reduce lameness incidence. Whilst the heritability of lameness is only about 4%, the continual compounding effect of high scoring sires over several generations should start to make an impact, as we have already seen with SCC and fertility. Whilst the Lameness Index adds another tool to reduce lameness in the dairy herd, it should be used in conjunction with management changes which can lead to much faster improvements. The Calf Survival Index has been developed to help producers
select bulls whose progeny has a greater chance of surviving. The heritability of this trait is around 5% which is comparable to the current lifespan index and again can be used as part of a management strategy to improve calf survival.
Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd
www.cfegroup.com
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