Ireland is totally out of step with its dairy competitors around the world when it comes to milk recording.
New Zealand records at least 80 per cent of its cows. Closer to home, Sweden, Norway, Holland record at least 80 per cent of their cows. Sweden took a hard-line issue with milk recording, years ago and in fact, every farmer pays for milk recording in that country whether he decides to milk record or not.
Perhaps we should take similar extreme measures ourselves; milk recording is not just a farmer issue. It is a national issue for our dairy industry. Farmers are losing out as a result of the low level of milk recording on this island. The industry is losing out as not enough bull mothers are being identified for progeny test programmes.
Identifying potential bull mother is a very important element of any national breeding programme. With our low level of recording, we are not identifying enough of these so called elite mothers and if we doubled our cow numbers in milk recording, then we would double the numbers of potential elite dams.
No doubt there are farmers with potential elite dams in their herds and they donÌt even know about them. These elite dams are the foundation stones for a national progeny test programme and the more of them that are identified nationally, the greater the benefit to the industry as a whole, and more importantly, the greater the rate of genetic gain in our dairy herd.
Targeted matings of these elite dams could also take place, another leg to the chair of a progeny test programme.
But what are the benefits of milk recording inside the farm gate?
Firstly, each cow in the herd is identified as to her milking potential, particularly the production of kilograms of milk solids. Every herd has lame ducks. They need to be identified and culled. Ask any dairy farmer who records his/her cows for the first time and he/she will tell you of the surprises they got.
Establishing the good cows in the herd allows one to make informed decisions about which cows to breed from or which cows to cull. It's that simple! Dairy farmers know they should be involved in milk recording, they know it is a good idea. It is time to put this good idea into practice.
