Only in my dreams Dick!!!
Hypothetically there is no reason why it cannot be done.
But first we need to look at the NZ dairy industry, which is primarily
manufacturing. For years our cows have been breed for milk solids
production, not milk volume. In fact high volume cows (low milk solids)
get penalized as we pay a per litre cartage fee. As a ball park figure
the NZ dairy cow has a average milk solid test of 8.7%. If your average
is under this then it is costing you money. Anything up to 2 or 3 cents
a litre. The second thing to look at is stocking rates. Using us as an
example we have 69 hectares of pasture on which we milk 200 cows, graze
50 odd rising 1 year replacements, make all supplements (hay and pasture
silage). For parts of the year we bring home the small beef herd to
calve and raise their calves for a few weeks. So as you can see with all
feed pasture based (no grain etc) and all made on the grazing area it is
reasonably intensive system. NZ goes for per hectare production, as that
is where our costs are. Northern hemisphere, because of housing etc,
look for per cow production. If we were to drop numbers considerably,
then it is realistic to see production figures comparable to yours.
Through as much of the year as is possible we aim to feed our cows 16 -
18 Kgdm per cow per day of pasture, and all being equal they will
convert this into 2 kg milk solids.
I know you have given your fed levels of pasture Dick. If memory serves
me correct it is somewhere round 120lb. I assume this is wet weight as
converting this figure to kg's (2.2lb/kg)we get 54kg which no cow could
possibly eat. So if we convert to Kgdm by a dry matter content of 16% we
end up somewhere around 9Kgdm per cow. So you can see a very big
difference in our systems. We rely completely on grass grown on farm,
where as the you guys do have other options. Yes many (over 50%) of NZ
dairy farms are now using maize (corn) silage and some palm leaf kernel,
but there are conflicting figures being thrown round on the economics of
all these in the NZ system.
I do believe they have a place in the NZ grass based system, but more as
a feed balancer then as a feed.
regards
Ian Buckingham
Richard and Carol Conklin wrote:
> Yes Ian, My visit to Moldova established my respect for the importance of
> geographical impact on grazing strategies and herd management which at
> times, makes me reluctant to answer your few posts Yes, We're worlds apart,
> but do your grazing tactics produce Jerseys that make 17,004 lbs/milk per
> lactation? Dick Conklin
