Winter Feeding for Dairy Cows

Winter feeding and dairy cow management were the issues discussed at a recent short course held on the farm of Ian & Jim Hamilton, Pomeroy.

The Hamilton family manage around 180 dairy cows plus replacements. In 2009 the farm completed the conversion to organic milk production. This has lead to a number of management changes being made. Also in 2009 the farm was selected as a focus farm under the category of organic production.

Silage quality is vitally important on the farm to maximise the potential milk from forage. To achieve this all of the silage swards have been reseeded over the past four years with a seed mix of perennial ryegrass and red-clover. The benefits of this can be seen in this years First cut silage analysis

The First cut silage has the potential to feed to maintenance plus 19 litres. A silage analysis report is essential in planning winter feed diets.

Organic concentrates are expensive and thus feed efficiency is very important. The Hamilton’s have installed a new computerised feeding programme that links milk yield information to six out of parlour feeders. Cows are batched into two groups and fed to a base level through a diet feeder and then fed to yield through the out of parlour feeders. This reduces the level of over feeding to low yielding cows and allows the highest yielding cows to reach their full milk potential.

The computerised feeding systems also allows the gradual build up of concentrate levels to fresh calved cows which helps increase peak milk yields and minimise digestive upsets

Fleckvieh genetics have been introduced into the herd to reduce animal health issues and get a cow more suited to the current management system. Ian and Jim are now seeing the benefits in terms of better cow health, fertility and milk quality.

Rumen and liver fluke problems and were also discussed on the day and it was highlighted the negative effect that fluke can have on milk yield.

Financial benchmarking of your herd can help assess your level of feed efficiency. Contact your local dairying development adviser for more details.

Jim Hamilton outlines the feeding and management of his herd.