Veterinary session

Profitability of the milk production can be mostly increased by the improvement of health status of dairy cows and by economical use of feedstuffs. It is of high importance to supply the animals with optimal amounts of nutrients, otherwise the useful milk production level life span, the reproduction parameter can decline.

We performed a comparing analysis of the data in milking diaries and daily nutrient intakes in “Csorvási Gazdák” METÉSZ Ltd. in Csorvás, Hungary and in Holstein-farm Ltd. in Gerendás, Hungary. In both farms, the dairy cows stocks were composed by pure breed of Holstein-Friesian cattle and monodietetic feeding technology, during the whole year. The compositions of daily diets of the relevant cow groups were quite similar in the two farms.

It can be concluded that there were deficiencies of nutrients in the daily rations (in average of 46.6% and 62.5%, respectively) in both of the farms. The produced milk reflected fluctuating quality and the reproduction parameters were neither satisfying. Service period took 456 days and insemination index was 2.86 in the “Csorvási Gazdák” METÉSZ Ltd. The same relevant parameters were of 477 days and 5.57 in the Holstein-farm ltd., respectively. Beside these problems, mortality rate was also high in the Holstein-farm Ltd. (12 cows) in the examined period of six months. During our survey, we detected that by the analysis of data found in the milking diaries those cows can be easily selected, which have been pregnant for a long period or which suffered of infertility or had low milk production.

We examined also the nutrient contents of milk on both of the mentioned farms and we observed that milk fat and protein contents were at the highest level, meanwhile those were at the lowest level at late spring. The peak milk yield was reached in March and in April and the minimum milk production was shown in the winter months. That observation supports evidently that well-known fact that the nutrient content turns to be of lower concentration when the quantity of milk arises.

We found the highest number of the cows, which were supplied by low-energy diet in January (67 cows) and the urea content of milk samples were the highest (21.33 mg%) in that month at the “Csorvási Gazdák” METÉSZ Ltd. We could observe similar tendency at the Holstein-farm Ltd as follows: 92 cows suffering of lack of energy in their daily diets in March and the highest urea contents of milk samples of 23.6 mg%. According to the relevant data, the positive protein balance of diets increased the urea level of milk.

All the observations above show that following of the urea content of milk is essential in the judgement of the protein supply for the dairy cows. The regular monitoring of milking diaries plays a significant role in the control of daily diets and the maintenance of proper nutrient supply for the animals.