When our milking herd finally broke the 100 pounds of milk per day average, a lot of changes made on the farm had started working well. We had switched from a pasture-based system, milking 2x daily, to a conventional freestall barn and started milking 3x daily.
In addition, we now have daily milk weights provided by Alpro (now DelPro) and automated activity monitoring that gave us the ability to detect changes in cow performance in real time. Heat detection was truly being monitored around the clock by the activity system. Before this addition in technology, we honestly were trying to see heats, but we were not walking the herd round the clock to detect them.
We knew we had a herd with good conformation and great genetics. The herd had been on a mating program by Genex, and we were making genetic progress. We just had not removed enough barriers to high production that were limiting our cows' ability to produce to their potential. Once we started to manage the cows' environment better within the freestall barn, by adding rubber flooring, cow brushes, daily freestall grooming, and evaporative cooling, the cows started to respond with higher production.
All milkers were retrained to use better milking prep procedures. I learned to use Alpro/DelPro to gauge milking performance not only for the cows but also for the employees.
We started driving our daily feeding goals based off dry matter intakes from the previous day entered onto spreadsheets. We feed daily for a 3 percent overfeed and weigh it back once daily to see the exact dry matter intake for each milking group.
We learned that we have to pay as much attention to the small things as the larger daily chores. Neglecting to repair a fan, clean cow sprinklers at the feedbunk, enter feed numbers into the spreadsheets correctly, manage silage bunker faces, or check on cows deviating from normal production levels can result in significant production losses.
It is tough to break a 100-pound herd average . . . and it is even tougher to maintain it. In the Georgia humidity with outside temperatures over 100°F, it truly becomes a balancing act.
Mark and Caitlin Rodgers are dairy farmers in Dearing, Georgia. Their "Daddy and Daughter Dairy Together" column will appear every other Thursday on HD Notebook. The Rodgers have a 400-cow dairy that averages 32,000 pounds of milk. Follow their family farm on Facebook at Hillcrest Farms Inc.
