How does the future look for the raw milk testing laboratories?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
19-May-2011
Blog post by Tove Asmussen 19-May 2011
This question we have asked two dairy farmers who have already entered the future. They have now benefitted from on farm milk analyses to assist them in managing their herd for two to three years and are ready to come up with their bid for the future.
Both Jørgen Clemmensen (JC) from Denmark and Rinse Wassenaar (RW) from the Netherlands state that their approach to herd management have changed significantly since Herd Navigator was introduced on their farm. They massively benefit from the information made available to them on their cows by the system. This information to some extend replace some of the information they still get from their milk recording association and breeding organization, - but on the other hand the new information also raises new questions!
We challenged the two dairy farmers on the question:
Which services will dairy farmers with extensive on farm analyses need from the milk laboratories in the
future?
What does Herd Navigator do?
Herd Navigator analyses milk from the cows while they
are being milked, and based on these analyses and the general knowledge about
the cow it will offer the herd manager recommendations for actions.
RW put it very simple by stating: Herd Navigator has helped me to move
from managing my herd, trying to have focus everywhere, into managing my herd having main focus on alert cows which need special attention. Now I can increase my herd without stress. The herd size is not so important, -only the number of alert cows matters.JC states: Herd Navigator gave me a good reason to enter the IT world. Now it certainly saves me time observing for cows in heat. Instead I turn my focus to monitoring alerts on my PC and more intense surveillance in the barn of these cows.
Major benefits with Herd Navigator are listed by both dairy farmers as:
- You move focus from the entire herd to monitoring those cows and groups pointed out to be critical
- You do not spend time finding cows in heat, and you do not need to check cows for pregnancy any longer!
- It assists you to take preventive measures. Both dairy farmers have by finding ketosis cows (which they to some extend did not know they had in their herd) improved health and reproduction in the herd. At the same time the change in management procedures is part of the reason for the increased yield in both herds
The future for Jørgen Clemmensen and Rinse Wassenaar
RW states that at present his need for somatic cell
count on individual cow level has disappeared. The cell count on herd level is
130.000, and the correlation between cell count and lactate dehydrogenase is
good enough to give him a clear picture of which cows are having problems. He
uses fat and protein results intensely to monitor if the feeding ration works
correctly, but if these parameters become included in the Herd Navigator
concept then he does not see a need for traditional milk recording any longer
on his farm.
Both RW and JC readily admits, however, that getting some
information easily creates new needs for further information, and the new way
of managing the herd by partly analyzing curves and graphs in front of the PC
creates a wish to know more about what goes on in the herd.
J C: In the future we may have 500, 1000 or even more
cows. You must maximize the benefits from the milk samples which are taken
anyway! I would very much like to get information about the nutritional status
of groups of cows in my herd. Early lactation,-
am I pushing them too hard? Mid lactation, - are they fed too well? A
robustness index, A mastitis index? I think the idea from Herd Navigator,
issuing risks and tendencies is good. It can also be used at group level. Give
me indexes based on the milk samples as guidelines. I also believe it must be
possible to extract more information from all the data gathered by Herd
Navigator which can be used on herd level. Right now we mainly look at single
cows with Herd Navigator!
Both RW and JC readily admits, however, that getting some information easily creates new needs for further information, and the new way of managing the herd by partly analyzing curves and graphs in front of the PC creates a wish to know more about what goes on in the herd.
J C: In the future we may have 500, 1000 or even more
cows. You must maximize the benefits from the milk samples which are taken
anyway! I would very much like to get information about the nutritional status
of groups of cows in my herd. Early lactation,-
am I pushing them too hard? Mid lactation, - are they fed too well? A
robustness index, A mastitis index? I think the idea from Herd Navigator,
issuing risks and tendencies is good. It can also be used at group level. Give
me indexes based on the milk samples as guidelines. I also believe it must be
possible to extract more information from all the data gathered by Herd
Navigator which can be used on herd level. Right now we mainly look at single
cows with Herd Navigator!
The two dairy farmers, already having Herd Navigator installed list their future needs:
- Frequent
screening for various diseases (i.e. BVD salmonella)
- Specific
nutritional values (fatty acids, cheese parameters). This would allow dairies
to optimize the use of incoming milk.
- Specific
bacteria, like Pathoproof. Analyses costs up to 20 Euro was acceptable on
selected cows. (option in DK already)
- Analyses
on all collections for SCC and TBC for monitoring purposes.
- If TBC is
increasing, further analyses to find the reason (option in NL already).
- If samples could be made automatically, preordered before or during milking, they also see a growing need for taking extra samples for various purposes. But only if sampling is automated. The major hurdle for sampling, for regular milk recording is not as much price as it is the extra work.
While waiting for on farm equipment:
Both JC and RW foresee that on farm analyses will not take over the market in the near future. They therefore strongly urge the labs to assist their customers in solving some of those problems which Herd Navigator solves on their two farms:
Both put main focus on pregnancy checks. Right after conception but also for monitoring whether the cow stays pregnant. Manual control is extremely time consuming and expensive. Detection of empty cows late in lactations is also costly. JC keeps insist that he is so pleased to get rid of all the manual checks.
- Both points out that the ketosis model has been an eye-opener for them and showed that they lost more money than anticipated by having more subclinical ketosis. JC mentions that the incidens in his herd was 15-20 % off all early lactation cows, and RW states that even if the frequency in his herd was lower the loss per case often is up to 1000 kg of milk! JC insistss that even a less precise “ketosis index” would be of value in most herds!
- RW also lists detection of cysts as very useful and of big value!