Our cows moved off the winter block and their kale, maize silage and pasture silage diet on the 20th of July, when they moved back to the milking platform. They are now consuming a diet of 4kg pasture, 2kg maize silage and 4-6kg of pasture silage. We have had a few calves from our first calvers, and we have the first mature cows due at the start of August. Our first calvers were bred with a Jersey bull for easier calving, and our mature cows have been bred with dual purpose Fleckvieh or Norwegian Red semen or with Angus or Hereford semen. The IHDF has started using these dual purpose and beef semen to reduce the number of bobby calves. Beef calves can be sold and raised for beef, giving them a longer life than if they were bobby calves. Some of the dual purpose calves can be kept as replacements,and when they join they herd, if they are bred with beef, the calves will yield a higher carcass weight than typical dairy beef calves. The remaining dual purpose calves who aren’t needed can be sold as either dairy replacements or dairy beef calves, eliminating bobbies from those cows. Next season, our first Fleckvieh replacements will join the milking herd.
We also trialled our smart feeders this month. These feeders allow us to feed out silage, minerals, pellets or grain at a specified intake rate. The smart feeder scans the cows' EID tag, and the cow can push open the gate to the feeder and eat. The feed bins have a scale and once the cow has eaten her allocation, the gates shut. This will allow for preferential feeding that will be useful to increase body condition score of low condition cows without increasing condition in cows that are at or over target as well as for other research projects. The smart feeder is working well and our only challenge now is training the cows to use it!
