Seasonal Milking= Induced Calving?

[Ben H]

I have often cited New Zealand as a leader in the dairy industry, one thing they do is seasonal milking. I had no idea they used induced calving to sometimes achieve those goals.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Induced-birt..._medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+3news/Farming

 

[Denny]

I know guys here that seasonal milk but more so they can have some personal time with their children dureing the summer months plus have time to put up hay.They dry them up in may/june and are just now calveing them for the next 45 days.They don't induce anything though.

 

[Ben H]

Maybe I'm a little misleading, I have no idea how many people do it or how common it is. I always figured you watched your breeding, sold cows out of sync and bought ones that were in sync. That's probably what happens the majority of the time, but it looks like induced calving has been a management tool used by some.

 

[Anonymous]

I am just now getting into a few dairy cows and having never been around dairies much so I've had a lot of questions. Bear with me on this if I ask some dumb questions please. I'm pretty sure I understand why they do this, but it seems this would have an adverse affect on future herd numbers for one thing. Another thing I'm not really getting is to what purpose would this be advantagious? I can see the guy Denny spoke of wanting to spend time with his kids. But the article made it sound as if it were an industry wide practice in New Zealand. Do they just completely shut down for a couple of months before they start inducing? Wouldn't it be better to just synchronize at breeding time to have more cows milking at the desired time thus having live healthy calves for either replacements or market? It seems like just the simple act of getting the cattle in synch would save them a lot of headaches as far as perception is concerned.

 

[TexasBred]

BarBar that's how I would do it anyway. Not to many in the US do the seasonal dairying....most want those barns running 24/7 if possible. Dowtime could be a great time for haying operation as well as barn repairs and other maintenance things that often are put off. And all the cows get their dry period during the hottest time of the year which might even add one lactation to the life of a cow.