Re-creating dairy cow management: the 'cow-centric' approach
Published:September 16, 2006
Summary
Imagine a dairy cow that gave 15,000 litres (33,000 lbs) of high quality milk year, after year, after year, at a high level of efficiency; a cow whose milk had health benefits for the consumer; a cow that got pregnant when you wanted her to; a cow that was highly resistant to infections such as mastitis and whose milk had a consistently low somatic cell count; a cow that never suffered from acido...
Our system is more closely aligned with your propsal rather than the traditional cow cycle. We have delayed mating too soon and average calving interval is out to 400 - 420 days. We find this boosts a cows fat and protein production yield over a lactation. In late lactation they are often returning similar kg of milk solids to cows more recently calved and doing it with less stress on their bodies!
The cows are in very healthy condition when dried off and do not seem to need a 60 day dry period. They can calve back in 5 or 6 weeks and not miss a beat in the next lactation. They generally get lead feed for 2 weeks before calving, depending on whether they will eat it as they are on pasture.