Basil and Christine Foy, who farm 94ha and have 288 cows, have moved to what they call an extended (18-month) lactation period, calving twice in a three-year period. The change was mainly prompted by their not-in-calf (NC) rates. "We were having trouble getting our cows in calf," Christine says. "They're quite high-producing cows and they just couldn't seem to get in calf, every year. We felt they needed more time." The Foys have now halved their NC rate.
The other reason for the change was that they were drying off cows in autumn that were still producing well. "There was an opportunity, instead of drying them off, to just keep milking. That was a little bit unique to this farm, that opportunity."
The move has brought plenty of benefits, and the cost was minimal. "There've been more savings than cost, really," Basil says. "There's no mating, so that cost has come out." Plus, the change has reduced stress on the human side - with six months between calving and mating, the Foys have more time to get their ducks in a row. "Animal health overall has been better too," Christine says. "The cows have more time to recover - it takes the pressure off them."
"The cows have more time to recover - it takes the pressure off them.
- Christine Foy, Dairy Farmer
What's been interesting, the Foys say, is that the cows kept putting on weight. It was an inadvertent positive. "Because we have such high-producing cows, the change suited them," Christine says. "They can go up to their initial production and then we can hold it. They seem to like just chugging along."
Another unexpected benefit was the decrease in non-replacement calves (NRC). "Because we've taken one calving out, that's one lot of NRCs out of the system completely," Christine says. "Now our heifers are calving when they're older. This time they were two and a half, but if we continue with this system they'll be calving as three-yearolds, so we can put them in calf and when we have, we've used the Murray Grey bull, so the calves have more value and people want them."
Switching to the extended lactation period involved some learning; the Foys say there was a lot of information for them to get their heads around. "But you pick it up as you go. What we did at the start of the season was put up a whiteboard with our plan for the three years, how things were going to work That helped us understand things and when major events were going to happen. We also did an extensive three-year feed budget that we monitored closely and updated when necessary. Now we just monitor things and plan ahead every six months."
What advice would they give others considering the same changes? "You have to punch your way through that summer so the cows come out the other side producing really well, so they'll get through that winter and into the rest of the lactation. That's critical. And make provision for winter. Budget carefully and stick to it."
Looking back at the calving schedule changes, would they do anything differently? Not really, they say. "We've done pretty well. It's all gone scarily smoothly."