3 in 4 Dairy farmers are now milk recording in Ireland & the UK but the reasons why differ

A recent survey conducted by Herdwatch, the market leading farm management app in Ireland & the UK found that over three quarters of dairy farmers are now conducting milk record tests across the two islands in order to monitor cow health and improve herd performance.

The survey revealed some big differences between why farmers in either country milk record. Cow performance and SCC are still the 2 main reasons why Irish dairy farmers are milk recording whereas in the UK, SCC tops the chart as well along with tracking Johne’s disease. It is thought that up to 30% of all herds in the UK are infected with Johne’s, causing a huge financial loss to some farmers.

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2022 will see more Irish dairy farmers milk recording than ever before. Since January of this year, under the new Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products, the blanket use of antibiotic dry cow therapy is prohibited in Ireland which means you are no longer allowed to administer dry cow tubes to all cows in the herd by default (blanket dry cow therapy). This is part of a targeted global action plan to reduce the use on anti-biotics in food chains, which have been increasing the levels of anti-biotic resistance in humans. 

Conor Vaughan from Herdwatch commented “We know the importance of milk recording to Irish and UK dairy farmers so we introduced the milk module in the Herdwatch app last year. You can view your Milk Recordings in Herdwatch by Herd Average & per cow in the Performance section of the app. This will help you identify your best & worst performers to make better decisions on farm through easy access to Milk Yield, Proteins, Solids, SCC and more.”

“Interpretation of milk recording data and the information that it provides will have a critical role to play in the development of breeding plans on farms in the future. Its importance will become even more critical as blanket dry cow therapy is phased out.” 

Using the milk recording and performance dashboards in Herdwatch you will be able to easily select best cows for dairy replacements improving the overall EBI on the farm, selecting culls and making sure problem cows are not being bred and ultimately, reducing herd SCC and improving herd perofrmance. Selective breeding will increase your EBI, solids, milk reduction, fertility as well as having a SDCT process. Combining and analysing milk recording information in Herdwatch can easily be done and help to make better on-farm decisions.

Herdwatch is fully compliant with all quality assurance standards in Ireland & the UK and allows farmers to record all remedy usage, register calves, cattle movements, breeding records, map your farm and more on a simple to use app. You can view all these features & more by downloading the app using the button below.