Drystock in Farmdesk
Previously, we sometimes received comments that the VEM and RE ration values were perceived to be rather tight in dry matter.
Perhaps this was because the target values were dynamic across the drystock period, whereas most dairy farmers calculated a drystock ration for a cow in the middle of drystock. This will certainly have been the case on farms with only one drystock group.
We are finding that most holstein farms are continuing to intensify and so are starting to work with even more milky cows, where the protein supply needs to be just a little bit better.
To achieve proper rationing per drystock group, you can now enter the days to calving as a time zone (instead of a single average value) in Farmdesk for the group.
Example:for dry-age cows in a group of 15 to 0 days before calving (green on the figure) the desired VEM will be 875 /kg DS and the desired RE 138 g/kg DS. While for cows in a group of 45 to 15 days (yellow on the figure) the desired VEM will be 800 /kg DS and the desired RE 125 g/kg DS.
By the way, this also plays out for FOS as a nutritional parameter. For cows in the group from 15 to 0 days before calving, the desired FOS will be 488 g/kg DS. While for cows in the 45 to 15 day group we are already satisfied with an FOS of 475 g/kg DS.
Young cattle rearing in Farmdesk
As for drystock, we also sometimes received comments for young cattle groups that the target VEM and RE values were perceived to be rather tight.
To achieve proper rationing per rearing group, you can now also enter age as a time zone (instead of one average value) for young cattle groups.
Example:for pinks in a 15 to 20 month group (red on the figure) the desired VEM will be 839 /kg DS and the desired RE 120 g/kg DS. While for pinks in a group sitting from 22 to 26 months (blue on the figure) the desired VEM will be 822 /kg DS and the desired RE 127 g/kg DS.
This also plays out for RC and FOS as nutritional parameters, by the way. For pinks sitting in the group from 15 to 20 months, the desired FOS will be 477 g/kg DS and the desired RC 200 g/kg DS. While for pinks sitting a group from 22 to 26 months the desired FOS will be 498 g/kg DS and the desired RC 200 g/kg DS.
Getting started in Farmdesk
In Farmdesk, from now on you should indicate the time zone in a simple way.
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- Drystock groups: put the two dots to indicate the max and min days for calving (figure above).
- Young cattle groups: put the two dots to indicate what the min and max ages of young cattle in the group are (figure below).
Farmdesk then automatically calculates the average feed values within the specified limits.
