Breeding Question

Milked out

I have two cows here that have rolled over, again:mad:. The thing is they are serious milkers with the fert being the only issue. They tend to go from spring to autumn and vice versa. I don't think its a diet issue as particularly the autumn calvers are fed a good diet thru the winter, they just need the 18 mths as opposed to 12 to get back in calf. One in particular I really want a heifer calf off her as she has yet to give one. I know most of you will say she is not a cow to get a replacement from but she is perfect in every way bar going back in calf. The question basically is will high ebi hol with a good fert sub index give a significantly more fertile heifer calf over using a different breed with a high sub index for fert such as NR?? Will the hybrid vigour of a first cross have better fert than using a high fert sub index b&w??
The cows figures are EBI 152
milk 95 (Milk kg 712, Fat kg 24.5, fat% -.04, Prot kg 21.5, Prot% -.03)
Fert 15
Calving 34
Beef 3
Maint -5
Mgmt 7
health 3

The avg completed lactations are Milk kg 12079, F+P kg 883, SCC 88, Days in milk 408
She has never been pared, is classified vg87 and a great cow to lead the rest to the paddocks, Will her positive attributes be carried thru if she was crossbred, fair enough I would lose some milk volume but she has a lot to give to the mix as well, or would I ruin one of the few chances of getting a possibly more fertile hf heifer off her. Fertility is an issue I must work on in the herd going forward but if at all possible I don't want the herds milk yield to suffer too much
Sorry for long winded post

freedominacup

If you are calving in 2 blocks anyway I've never understood the fuss about cows like the ones described in the op. A spring calver like that not in calf now will still be doing 30+litres. Worst case scenario is she's breaking even for the winter having flogged milk out for you all summer. It'd be no harm to put a bull with better fert on her but not at too much cost to her other positives. It's not even worth the bother of presenting those girls for A.I. before 100 days calved.

Milked out

freedominacup wrote: »

If you are calving in 2 blocks anyway I've never understood the fuss about cows like the ones described in the op. A spring calver like that not in calf now will still be doing 30+litres. Worst case scenario is she's breaking even for the winter having flogged milk out for you all summer. It'd be no harm to put a bull with better fert on her but not at too much cost to her other positives. It's not even worth the bother of presenting those girls for A.I. before 100 days calved.

That's the reason she is still there but was just wondering on the off spring side as with her figures she should bring all the milk to the table would crossbreeding solve the fert. issue on a cow like that in one cross, Could get a 1600 gallon crossbred ha

delaval

Milked out wrote: »

That's the reason she is still there but was just wondering on the off spring side as with her figures she should bring all the milk to the table would crossbreeding solve the fert. issue on a cow like that in one cross, Could get a 1600 gallon crossbred ha

I've loads of them

I would milk her ai her to a beef animal. The last thing you need is a heif from her. She's a good milky cow milk away jdon't put a dairy site on her

stanflt

If she was mine I wouldn't be asking this question as she would be burgers years ago-


You say she is 700+ kg of milk
What is your Ebi avg milk for the herd
And what are you delivering to the coop per cow


These answers might turn on a light bulb

Milked out

delaval wrote: »

I've loads of them

I would milk her ai her to a beef animal. The last thing you need is a heif from her. She's a good milky cow milk away jdon't put a dairy site on her

What kind of cow was your base animal when you started crossbreeding?? Did the cross improve the fert of the daughters or is a high fert ebi hf capable of improving the daughters fert as much?? or is it as likely that I would end up with an infertile daughter with less milk??

Milked out

stanflt wrote: »

If she was mine I wouldn't be asking this question as she would be burgers years ago-


You say she is 700+ kg of milk
What is your Ebi avg milk for the herd
And what are you delivering to the coop per cow


These answers might turn on a light bulb

Herd ebi is 127, milk 49, fert 55 with the milk kg at 206. Delivered just shy of 6500 per cow last year. Edited to add that cows only ebi is 108, milk 43 (kg figure of 173), fert 47. The first ebi was for whole herd including young stock

Timmaay

freedominacup wrote: »

If you are calving in 2 blocks anyway I've never understood the fuss about cows like the ones described in the op. A spring calver like that not in calf now will still be doing 30+litres. Worst case scenario is she's breaking even for the winter having flogged milk out for you all summer. It'd be no harm to put a bull with better fert on her but not at too much cost to her other positives. It's not even worth the bother of presenting those girls for A.I. before 100 days calved.

But she'll only calf one in every 3yrs in the spring, every other lactation its autumn, and will need to be fed a more expensive winter diet. This will all throw your milk supply profile also. You can probably get away with a small fraction of the herd calving down every 18 months, but too many and it will surely throw everything, winter feeding, spring grass, winter housing etc.

But anyways, have afew simular 18month ladies, however none are high production, the max kg would be +250, up to now my dad has just ai'd when bulling, disregardless of time of yr, moving forward I definitely am going to have just 2 calvings seasons. I take it I'm wasting my time trying to milk likes of them for 18months?