11/08/2005, Most modern cows lack strength and capacity
WAIKATO dairy farmer Victor Kooter runs 250 Holstein
Friesian cows in a high input farming system and has
used Samen genetics since the company first opened
its doors in New Zealand.
Mr Kooter says that when stacking up the common New
Zealand dairy cow against the aAa system, most modern cows
are lacking strength and capacity.
“By the time they are getting to 4-5 years old a lot of these
cows have burnt out, they’ve got no capacity in them, and their
legs have given out,” he says.
So Mr Kooter has bred stock using bulls ranked with numbers
four five and six on the aAa system to successfully bring
strength and capacity into the dairy herd.
“We are not using BWs. We are purely trying to breed cows
with the strength to fit into our system so they can eat a lot and
produce heaps of milk.”
The cows are fed roughly 5kg of maize silage, 2kg palm kernel,
and 2kg brewers grain twice a day on a feed pad designed
by Mr Kooter.
“All our young stock are fully fed. From the day they are born
to the day that they die they will never be hungry.”
The result of Samen’s system to increase overall strength of
the dairy herd was proven last year when Mr Kooter used some
cows from outside herds.
“We brought in 15 cows from different farms just to top up
the numbers. Of the 15 cows,, half of them disappeared in the
first winter because their hooves couldn’t handle the system.”
Mr Kooter has also found that since switching to Samen, he
has experienced a very low drop out of cows. Only 12-15 percent
of cows on the farm are replaced on the farm instead of
the average 20-25 percent rate.
“And we have got the first cows in the herd producing 10,000
litres in one season so I think that’s quite an achievement. I
think that shows something of the production ability of the
cows,” he says.
