Milk solids production on the Teagasc Greenfield dairy farm has jumped 28% since 2011, according to Teagasc’s Abigail Ryan.
“This increase is mainly due to cross breeding and improved genetics,” the Teagasc Dairy Specialist said at Wednesday’s open day.
“At least 60% of the herd is crossbred, which means that some of the cows in the herd have between 10-60% Jersey genetics,” she said.
Teagasc research shows that cross breeding is an effective way to increase the production from dairy herds, first cross herds produce 10% more milk and 8% more profit.
Our milk production is improving each year, we sold 400kg of milk solids per cow last year. From the very start of the farm is was 368kg per cow.
She added that milk solids production per hectare has also increased as the farm sold 1,100kg of milk solids per hectare last year.
Despite the relatively high level of milk solids production, Ryan said that this was achieved on 180kg of concentrate per cow last year, as grazed grass plays a major part in the cows diet.
But, the concentrate feeding level varies from year-to-year depending on the weather conditions and in 2013 the farm used 600kg of concentrate per cow, she said.
Ryan also said that the genetics of the Greenfield herd have improved since the farm was established in 2009.
Ryan said that the foundations of the Greenfield dairy herd consisted of cows from 11 different herds, and as a result the average EBI starting out was quite low at €117.
This has increased to €171 over the seven-year duration of the programme, she said.
Importance of keeping cows in the herd
Ryan also said that keeping cows in the herd is important for production, as older cows tend to produce more milk.
“First lactation cows have 30% less production than a mature cow, no matter what you do to her, she won’t produce as much as an older cow.
“It is the same for second lactation animals, they produce 88% of the mature cow,” she said.
And as a result, the culling rate on the Greenfield farm is reducing every year, with 26% of cows replaced in 2016.