By focusing on key factors that can influence your herd lifetime productivity and taking a holistic view of your farms, you can identify opportunities to maximize your herd efficiency and the long-term sustainability of your operation.

Productive life can be like a New Year’s resolution. It sounds like a good idea, but often it doesn’t come true. Increasing the productive life of dairy herds needs to be a priority for the dairy industry.

Jon and Julie Patterson are the sixth generation to own and operate Patterson Farms Inc. Their dairy farm is in the heart of the Finger Lakes in Cayuga County, New York where they milk 1,800 cows and crop over 3,000 acres.

Looking at return over feed numbers is an excellent way to get a quick snapshot of how a dairy farm is performing from a production and cost standpoint, however it doesn’t account for and is not impacted by duration of cows in the herd.

If you were in need of replacements, would you be excited to buy your heifers?

“Invited review: Academic and applied approach to evaluating longevity in dairy cows.” Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 103 No. 12, 2020.