Dairy calving statistics play an important role in understanding what is happening in the national dairy herd.
The information they provide gives an insight into areas where farmers may need improvement.
To maximise the benefits of a spring-calving dairy system, high levels of fertility and a compact calving are necessary.
These targets can be measured using the calving interval and six-week calving rate as performance indicators.
Fertility
According to the latest data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), the national dairy herd’s calving interval is 388 days.
These statistics are based on data recorded from 14,326 Irish dairy herds.
This has remained the same as last year, but is still off the target of 365 days.
Improvements have been made in the last 10 years however, with a reduction in the calving interval of five days.
Looking at the six-week calving rate, the national average in now 66%. Again, this is an improvement from a low of 57% in 2014 and 2015.
However, there has been a slight reduction in the six-week calving rate from last year when it was 67%.
Overall, the data shows that the national herd is still off the fertility targets that would allow farmers to obtain maximum profitability.
Dairy calving statistics
Although the national calving-interval average is 388 days, the top 10% has an interval of 364 days and the bottom 10% has a calving interval of 422 days.
This shows that there is a huge variation within the national herd.
The top 10% has a six-week calving rate of 86%, while the bottom 10% has a six-week calving rate of 39%.
One of the most interesting pieces of data is the percentage of heifers calved between 22 and 26-months of age.
On the top 10% of farms it is 100%, while it is only 18% in the bottom 10%. The national herd average is 75%.
Looking at the data it is easy to understand why profitability rates on Irish dairy farms vary so much.
It has been shown on farms where a compact calving system is operated in the spring, that increased profitability can be achieved whereas on farms that have a large calving spread, profitability/cow is reduced.