AG SCIENCE

Tevez101

Introduction

There are approximately 1.4 million cows in the country and these in turn produce 6 billion litres of milk per annum. About 10% of this is sold through out the country for direct consumption. The remaining 90% of the milk is processed in creameries and manufacturing plants into, butter, cheese and a wide range of other products.

Dairy farming is practiced in all counties but the greatest concentration of dairy herds is found in the south of the country with almost 70% of milk being produced in Munster alone.

The Farm, which I have chosen to study, is “Ger Keane’s” farm. The farm is primarily a dairy farm. Ger usually keeps his bull calves until they are 24 months old, he then sells them.
He owns 440 acres of land and is currently milking 100 cows per day and has 40 sucklers.

Ger owns 173 acres of land on his farm in Coolderra Ardnacrusha Co. Clare and owns a further 40 acres of land in Ballyneety Co. Limerick.
Out of the 40 acres in Ballyneety he rents 30 acres of it.




Principles of Dairying

Birth, growth rates, puberty:
At birth a female calf should weigh 40 kilogram’s for a place in the dairy herd. If reared properly, she will reach puberty at about one year. She usually weighs 250 kilogram’s at this stage in her life.

Oestrous, gestation period:
The length of the oestrous cycle is around 21 days and the average duration of oestrus is 18 hours. The gestation period is around 283 days, which is the equivalent of 9.5 months


Breeding Programme
v The aim of breeding is to produce high quality milking cows for the Dairy enterprise.

Heat Detection: At the beginning of the breeding season i.e. late May/June all cows are tail-painted. This allows for easy identification of cows in heat. Cows are serviced after 12 hours i.e. increased conception rates. A second insemination is used if necessary and insemination stops in August, at this stage most farmers would hope to have at least 85% of their cows in calf.
Scanning of cows is carried out in August to select cull cows, identify cows carrying twins (for additional feeding) and confirm calving dates etc.

Bulls: Dairy Bull – Beef Production Bull.
A.I.: Semen comes from recognized sires.

Ger has 2 bulls and thus does not use A.I. (Artificial Insemination)
v For dairy cattle he uses his Friesian Bull.
v For beef cattle he uses his Herford Bull.


Lactation
A cow commences to milk immediately after calving, if the cow is suckled and does not become pregnant, she will continue to milk for up to two years, if she becomes pregnant, she goes dry about two months before calving, as her system prepares for calving.

In commercial milk production the aim is to have the cow calving once per year at as near as possible to the same date each year. This means that the cow will be milking for ten months of the year. The standard lactation period is 305 days.

Lactation Yield
Lactation yields achieved by individual Friesian cows, vary from 15000 kilogram’s to 23000 kilogram’s.

While cows produce their first calf at 2 years of age they do not reach their maximum yield until their fifth lactation. From this age onwards the lactation yield increases.


Frequency of milking, milking interval
Frequently milked cows have the highest lactation yield: twice daily, milking is normal procedure.

* Ger Keane milks his cows twice daily, with a milking interval of 12 hours. He milks them from 6:30am – 7.00am and then again at 6.30pm – 7.00pm. At the moment, he has 100 cows milking and 40 cows being suckled.

What effects composition of milk yield:
1. Age
2. Breed
3. Disease
4. T.B.C. (Total Bacteria Count)

· Milk composition varies with the breed, ‘Jersey milk’ having the highest amount of fat and total solids.
· Milk from old cows and from early lactation milking, tends to have slightly lower fat content.
· The first milk removed from the udder can have as little as 1% fat while “strippings” (last milk) has as much as 8-10% fat.






















Management of Milking Cows

Planning Production
Milk production in Ireland is a low cost system, based on producing milk on Summer grass.

* When it comes to managing the Spring-calving dairy herd, Ger Keane takes two main items into account.
· Calving dates
· Balancing grazing and grass conservation

1. Calving Dates: Ger aims to have all of his cows calve during the January/February period so that they can make full use of the Summer grass, as it is a cheap source of feeding.

2. Balancing grazing and grass conservation: Ger carefully calculates the amount of land (allocated) he will allocate to Summer grazing and what land he will allocate to conservation for Winter feed.


Good management reduces feed bills


















Calving

* January and February are a critical time of the year for Ger. The sale of calves accounts for approximately 30% of Ger’s annual income of his dairy farmers income.

The care of the cow immediately and during calving, together with the care of the calf at birth and especially the first 24 hours of life is of great importance.

Calving Management:
One or two days before calving, the cow is removed to the calving box.

* Ger keeps careful breeding records so that the calving date is shown.
Ger regularly inspects the cow, day and night. Three years ago Ger had a camera installed in the calving box so that he could monitor the cow and it’s progress from his own home.
Generally the cows calve without any difficulties, however the Vet had to come out to the farm once to perform a caesarian section last year.

Management in Early Lactation
After calving the cows produce colostrums, which is vital for the calf to consume in the early stages of life. The creamery does not accept this milk.


* Ger feeds his cows concentrate rations, as well as silage, as the daily milk yield varies over the lactation period.

It is very important that the cow is fed sufficient nutrients to ensure that she achieves her full potential in the period leading to and including the lactation period.

Podge2k7

WTF?

Fad

Podge2k7 wrote: »

WTF?

I second that.

OP what you're saying is a bit too concise for my liking

Jello

Yeah, that made sense...

All i got was cows and FONT FONT FONT.

Piste

Might want to edit that a bit OP...

Fad

Piste wrote: »

Might want to edit that a bit OP...

NeVeR!

Its FAAAAAR too coherent as it is.

CaoimH_in

what do you want feedback on your ag work is it?
it is actually really strong ag science work, how many experiments have you done along side this?
but.. your from clonmel? did you really visit this farm or is this a knock off?

you only need factual work, you can leave out the ger does this and ger does that malarky

We

bb code fail

unknown13

Can someone tell me if Ag Science is possible to do in one year.


Tevez 101, no need for the rant.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

another reason why farmers shouldnt be allowed at a computer.

Tevez101

unknown13 wrote: »

Can someone tell me if Ag Science is possible to do in one year.

yeah without a doubt

CaoimH_in

very very easy, but only if you've a strong teacher.. so I dunno, suppose everyones different, im sure you'll be fine tho.