The term ‘flying herd’ refers to when a dairy herd is kept only for milk production, with all calves being sold and all of the replacement heifers bought in from other sources.
With ongoing issues around the nitrates derogation and banding, farmers have had to reduce their organic stocking rates in order to farm within regulation.
There has been plenty of discussion around the possible ways of reducing your stocking rate, with many purchasing land, contract rearing their heifers, or reducing their cow numbers.
However, a flying herd must be considered, as it means your farm will only be stocked with cows that produce milk and make money.
By buying in your replacement heifers, you can stock your milking platform fully with cows and not have to worry about reducing your organic stocking rate.
Buying in your replacement heifers might be an option for this year and even for next year, but it might not be a long-term option for your farm, due to the increase in sexed semen and beef semen usage.
Farmers were generally a lot more selective when it came to sexed semen this year, and once they reached the number of replacements needed for their farm, sexed semen was stopped.
This could potentially have an effect on the number of surplus heifers available over the next couple of years, as dairy-beef has seen a surge in sales this year also.
There will always be surplus heifers on the market, but, in the coming years, they might not be as plentiful, which will see the price of them increase.
Flying herd
Although they may not be as plentiful in the next few years and may become slightly overpriced, it is still the best option for improving your herd’s genetics rapidly.
Switching to flying herd can be very beneficial in terms of reducing your organic stocking rate but it is also the quickest way of improving your herds genetics.
Herds that have poor genetics and a lower economic breeding index (EBI) often arises from the over use of dairy stock bulls or a focus on individual traits in isolation such as milk volume only.
Using a high EBI team of bulls will improve the quality of replacements entering the herd but, unfortunately, a change in breeding strategy will take five to seven years to have any significant impact on herd performance.
For farmers that want to improve their herd’s genetics over a short space of time, the best way of doing this is by purchasing high EBI replacements and breeding a large amount of your existing cows to high quality beef semen.
The replacements that are available to purchase from the highest genetic merit herds nationally are far superior to any replacements that you could breed yourself if your herd currently has a low EBI.
By buying in these high genetic merit heifers, they can then be used to produce the herd’s replacements going forward, which will accelerate genetic gain even further.
Heifer considerations
We know that the heifers being purchased should be of a high genetic merit, but there should also be a focus on fertility with a good potential for milk solids.
Ideally, the heifers should be artificial insemination (AI) bred and calving in early February or March, if it is spring calving replacements you are purchasing.
The only disadvantage to buying in replacements and having a flying herd, is that you could potentially be buying in stock carrying disease.
This is why it is so crucial that you are purchasing your replacements from a herd with a verified low disease risk and that you take all relevant precaution when you are transferring the stock to the farm.
Find out the disease status of the herd, whether they have had a TB outbreak within the last couple of years, and what the vaccination protocol is on the farm.