Post by Tammy on Dec 30, 2009 11:05:05 GMT -5
The information I received is second hand as I was not present for the conversation. So, a lot of pieces are missing obviously but just wanted to share.
My husband's cousin, her husband and family run a dairy farm. If I am not mistaken, they have about 100 cows they milk. It might be a little less or a little more than that. Cousin's husband was talking to my FIL and telling him that he had learned so much from him over the years and had finally started "listening".
My FIL, my husband and his brother ran a dairy up until about eight years ago that was started by my husband's grandfather. They started with Guernseys and eventually bred over to having a herd of mostly Holstein with a tiny but of Guernsey still bred into the herd. My FIL and his two sons always treated the cattle well, did not push them for maximum production, and learned to treat them themselves instead of always calling for a vet. (Dr. Wise at the local vet clinic grew up with my FIL and is a distant cousin. He was always very helpful to teach my FIL how to do things himself so that he did not always have to call the vet.) The cattle were not over-fed on the grain or silage and were allowed to graze. As a result, it was not unusual for their dairy to have cows that were nine and ten years old and still producing. Their philosophy was that you can wear a cow out in a few years and replace her or you can treat the cows humanely and get many years of service and calves out of her and get more milk in the long run than if you had pushed them. My FIL and sons had very little incident of DA and few health problems.
Cousin's husband has been doing his own research and paying attention for quite a while now and has gone to different programs promoting the ideas of rotational grazing. He has obviously been doing a good job for a long time and treating his animals well because he still has in his herd five out of the six cows that he bought from my BIL when he sold out of the dairy business and they are still going strong. These cows are now around nine years old.
Anyway, to bring all of this to a conclusion, Cousin's husband said that they cut their cost tremendously at their dairy by using rotational grazing and by cutting back on the amount of grain and silage that they are feeding. As a result they have gone from having a number of cases of DA to not having any this year. I think I got my figures correct (like I said this is second party information) but Cousin's husband said the vet bills have been in the many thousands (I believe he said up to $15000 a year) and this year their vet bill for the entire year was less than $2000. That bill included bangs vaccinations for heifers and all the well cow visits.
Cousin's husband said that in a year when most dairies were struggling, losing money and going under that he actually made a profit and can see himself making a profit in the years to come all because of the changes that he has "grown into".
I was very encouraged by this report and it made me think again about opening our dairy up !
This was just another example of how good care and proper feeding can make a huge difference in keeping dairy cows. DA's are so common among the dairies here. My husband is called upon frequently to pick up cows with DA's and haul them for another dairy that we are friend's with the owners. They do not get much grass for grazing and are fed unbelievable amounts of grain and silage. Their living conditions leave much to be desired. This is a family that is struggling to hang on to the dairy that has been in their family for generations.
There are a lot of other things to factor in to running a successful dairy and this is not to imply that the dairies that are going under are mis managed because that is not necessarily the case. And, there are great dairymen and women out there who are using rotational grazing, etc and still struggling. But, in this situation, it has made all the difference in the world.
For what it's worth, I just thought I would share.
Tammy
My husband's cousin, her husband and family run a dairy farm. If I am not mistaken, they have about 100 cows they milk. It might be a little less or a little more than that. Cousin's husband was talking to my FIL and telling him that he had learned so much from him over the years and had finally started "listening".
My FIL, my husband and his brother ran a dairy up until about eight years ago that was started by my husband's grandfather. They started with Guernseys and eventually bred over to having a herd of mostly Holstein with a tiny but of Guernsey still bred into the herd. My FIL and his two sons always treated the cattle well, did not push them for maximum production, and learned to treat them themselves instead of always calling for a vet. (Dr. Wise at the local vet clinic grew up with my FIL and is a distant cousin. He was always very helpful to teach my FIL how to do things himself so that he did not always have to call the vet.) The cattle were not over-fed on the grain or silage and were allowed to graze. As a result, it was not unusual for their dairy to have cows that were nine and ten years old and still producing. Their philosophy was that you can wear a cow out in a few years and replace her or you can treat the cows humanely and get many years of service and calves out of her and get more milk in the long run than if you had pushed them. My FIL and sons had very little incident of DA and few health problems.
Cousin's husband has been doing his own research and paying attention for quite a while now and has gone to different programs promoting the ideas of rotational grazing. He has obviously been doing a good job for a long time and treating his animals well because he still has in his herd five out of the six cows that he bought from my BIL when he sold out of the dairy business and they are still going strong. These cows are now around nine years old.
Anyway, to bring all of this to a conclusion, Cousin's husband said that they cut their cost tremendously at their dairy by using rotational grazing and by cutting back on the amount of grain and silage that they are feeding. As a result they have gone from having a number of cases of DA to not having any this year. I think I got my figures correct (like I said this is second party information) but Cousin's husband said the vet bills have been in the many thousands (I believe he said up to $15000 a year) and this year their vet bill for the entire year was less than $2000. That bill included bangs vaccinations for heifers and all the well cow visits.
Cousin's husband said that in a year when most dairies were struggling, losing money and going under that he actually made a profit and can see himself making a profit in the years to come all because of the changes that he has "grown into".
I was very encouraged by this report and it made me think again about opening our dairy up !
This was just another example of how good care and proper feeding can make a huge difference in keeping dairy cows. DA's are so common among the dairies here. My husband is called upon frequently to pick up cows with DA's and haul them for another dairy that we are friend's with the owners. They do not get much grass for grazing and are fed unbelievable amounts of grain and silage. Their living conditions leave much to be desired. This is a family that is struggling to hang on to the dairy that has been in their family for generations.
There are a lot of other things to factor in to running a successful dairy and this is not to imply that the dairies that are going under are mis managed because that is not necessarily the case. And, there are great dairymen and women out there who are using rotational grazing, etc and still struggling. But, in this situation, it has made all the difference in the world.
For what it's worth, I just thought I would share.
Tammy