75% of UK and Irish dairy farmers now milk recording

Milk recording on Irish and UK farms has gained important reputation in the previous couple of years.

A latest survey performed by Herdwatch discovered that over three quarters of dairy farmers within the UK and Eire at the moment are milk recording with the intention to monitor cow well being and enhance herd efficiency.

And, the most recent knowledge set from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) reveals a 12.9% improve within the quantity of recordings which have taken place in 2022 vs. 2021 on Irish farms.

Milk recording

The Herdwatch survey additionally revealed some large variations in why farmers in both nation select to take advantage of report.

Cow efficiency and somatic cell rely (SCC) are nonetheless the 2 essential the reason why Irish dairy farmers are recording their cows, whereas within the UK, SCC tops the chart alongside monitoring Johne’s illness.

It’s thought that as much as 30% of all herds within the UK are contaminated with Johne’s illness, which causes enormous monetary loss to some farmers.

2022 will probably see extra Irish dairy farmers milk recording than ever earlier than.

Since January of this yr, underneath the brand new Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal merchandise, the blanket use of antibiotic dry cow remedy is prohibited in Eire, in the end which means that farmers are not allowed to manage dry cow tubes to all cows within the herd by default.

That is a part of a world plan to scale back the usage of antibiotics in meals chains, which have been growing the extent of antibiotic resistance in people.

On account of this, farmers will want milk recording data to show that their cow requires antibiotics.

Herdwatch

Milk recording is just a part of the method and extra importantly than the recording itself, is knowing the info that comes again.

“Interpretation of milk recording knowledge and the data that it offers can have a crucial function to play within the growth of breeding plans on farms sooner or later,” Conor Vaughan from Herdwatch stated.

“Its significance will develop into much more crucial as blanket dry cow remedy is phased out.”

Farmers which are utilizing Herdwatch can use the milk recording and efficiency dashboards to simply choose their finest and worst cows.

They will then choose cows for breeding replacements from, choose cows for culling, and ensure drawback cows should not being bred and in the end, scale back herd SCC and enhance herd efficiency.

The usage of extra selective breeding will improve herd EBI, solids and fertility.

“We all know the significance of milk recording to Irish and UK dairy farmers, so we launched the milk module within the Herdwatch app final yr,” Vaughan added.

“You’ll be able to view your milk recordings in Herdwatch by herd common and/cow within the efficiency part of the app.

“This can aid you determine your finest and worst performers to make higher selections on farm via easy accessibility to take advantage of yield, proteins, solids, SCC and extra.”