Irish dairy farming is constantly changing and evolving. In this changing landscape, data has become one of the most valuable resources available to herdowners. Herdowners are using this data to make decisions that will enhance the productivity, profitability and sustainability of their farm. 
Milk recording is a valuable tool to provide herdowners with this data. A wealth of information can be gathered about individual animals from a small sample of milk – information regarding a cow’s production, profitability, health and reproductive status.

 

Individual Animal Performance:

By measuring individual cow yield, along with the fat and protein percentages within that cow’s milk sample, we can rank this individual cow’s production performance within the herd. 
This production data also increases the reliability of genetic evaluations, allowing for more rapid genetic gain within the herd. This data allows herdowners to make informed decisions regarding which cows to breed replacements from, which cows to breed to beef and which cows to consider replacing with a higher genetic merit animal.
 Notably, 93% of herds in the top 20% for EBI, milk production and fertility are milk recording versus 64% of herds with an average EBI.

 

Somatic Cell Count:

Somatic cells are ‘body cells’. In milk, the vast majority of these somatic cells (>98%) are WBCs, so SCC is a very good indicator of udder health and milk quality. When the udder is exposed to pathogenic bacteria, WBCs move from the blood stream into the milk. Milk recording provides an opportunity to measure individual cow’s SCC. At an SCC of <200,000cells/ml there is no evidence of infection and milk quality will not be affected, which is important from a milk processing point of view. Elevated SCCs also result in significant economic losses – high SCC cows produce less milk, may require treatment intervention and are more likely to be culled prematurely. Lost bonuses, discarded milk and the extra labour involved when managing high SCC cows also need to be taken into account.
As the saying goes, “you cannot manage what you cannot measure”. This is especially true for SCC, as high SCC cows will not always have obvious changes in their milk.

 

Other Health Indicators:

Abnormalities in milk composition can indicate other health issues:
•    Milk protein percentage is a good indicator of energy balance within the herd. If greater than 15% of cows have a protein of < 3% in a milk recording, this points to negative energy balance in the herd.
•    Low fat to protein ratios can indicate a problem with acidosis. 
•    Lactose levels in the milk can also be affected by energy balance and feeding so again, changes in lactose levels in the milk can indicate issues with negative energy balance or nutritional management of the herd.
These abnormalities can be used to identify metabolic issues early, ensuring timely nutritional or management interventions.

 

Johne’s Testing:

Johne’s disease, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, is a disease of cattle for which there is no cure. Animals are usually infected early in life, but it may take several years for infected animals to show signs of disease. Testing animals for Johne’s disease is challenging, as animals in the incubation period very often test negative. Infected cattle may not test positive until they are close to showing clinical signs of disease. As such, the most effective method of identifying animals which are infected with Johne’s is repeated testing at regular intervals. Milk recording provides a convenient way to perform ELISA testing for Johne’s disease on individual samples. The convenience of this testing method makes repeated herd testing for Johne’s very feasible and practical.

 

Pregnancy Testing:

Milk samples collected at a milk recording may also be used for pregnancy diagnosis of individual animals. This test is known as the PAG (Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins) test. Pregnancy associated glycoproteins or PAGs are very specific for pregnancy in cattle as they are only produced by the embryo and the placenta. These PAGs are at a sufficient level to accurately diagnose pregnancy from 28 days post breeding.
Used strategically at key times during lactation, PAG testing provides valuable information regarding the pregnancy status of your herd.

1. Identify early in-calf cows: A herd test 10 weeks after the start of the breeding season will tell us which cows became pregnant in the first six weeks for the breeding season. At this 10-week mark, any cow that has become pregnant in the first 6 weeks of the breeding season will have reached the 28-day threshold for pregnancy diagnosis using the PAG test.
2. Post-breeding pregnancy diagnosis: A whole herd PAG test, at least 28 days after the end of the breeding season, will identify pregnant animals and cows which have failed to go in calf.
3. Pregnancy confirmation: A PAG herd test can be carried out later in the year to confirm pregnancy. Early pregnancy losses can and do occur and this confirmation test can identify those cows which have suffered an early loss of pregnancy.

 

Milk recording is a core service provided by Munster Bovine for its farm customers. There is effort and time involved in collecting these individual milk samples but the payoff in terms of the data these samples provide far outweighs any effort required.