Eugene Rea’s approach to breeding dairy cows changed with the click of a button.
Well, perhaps to be more specific, it was the downloading of a report – but that all began with tapping the computer mouse.
Eugene and his wife Chantelle milk 300 registered Holsteins, under the prefix of Childers Cove, across 150 hectares in south-west Victoria.
The Mepunga dairy farmer started using the new dairy industry herd improvement and breeding website, DataVat, earlier this year.
DataVat is a web portal that allows farmers access to customised reports and tools based on their own herd and business records.
A Holstein enthusiast, Eugene was looking forward to viewing all the information of his 300-head herd.
He called it a “herd snap-shot”.
What he didn’t expect was to rethink his breeding philosophy.
“It was quite obvious on the Genetic Futures Report that the cows in our top 25 per cent for BPI [Balanced Performance Index] were producing 66kg more milk solids and their calving intervals were 33 days less than those in the bottom 25pct,” he said.
“It’s pretty obvious those cows are the profitable ones. You suspect that, but to see the actual figure – comparing the top 25pc to the bottom 25pc – I guess the proof was just there.”
Eugene’s breeding philosophy had concentrated on type, but more recently he started looking for bulls that enabled him to breed for this and health traits.
“We don’t show, but we’ve imported some embryos into the herd from high type pedigrees, that’s where my interest lies, and trying to breed a cow with good confirmation certainly helps her longevity,” he said.
“The longer we can keep them in the herd the more they make, but the other side of that is if they are not going to get in calf, they are not going to stay in the herd. It is trying to find that balance.”
Building on the strong foundation from the imported embryos, Eugene will use Australian Breeding Values (ABV) and BPI ranking as another tool when selecting his bull team.
“I can see now that, by looking at these figures, that the proof is there,” he said. “The BPI is a profitable index.”
An early DataVat adopter, Eugene mostly analysed reports about his herd, concentrating on the individual cow breeding information.
When it comes to selecting bulls, he anticipates spending a few hours using DataVat to filter bulls best suited to his breeding goals. Daughter fertility, feed saved and reducing the herd’s average stature will be his main priorities. The need for these improvements was confirmed by the information generated by the Genetic Futures Report.
“Type, longevity and mastitis resistance were well above average,” Eugene said. “Fertility was below average, and our fat and protein were about average but heading-up at a fairly sharp level. I think the last couple of years we have probably turned things around a bit for type and production but fertility hasn’t improved so much.”
Eugene and his wife Chantelle milk 300 registered Holsteins, under the Childers Cove prefix, across 150ha in south west Victoria. With an average weight of about 600kg, the herd’s diet includes pasture and grain, while during winter it’s supplemented with corn silage grown at the Reas’ outpaddock.
Average production is about 9100 litres/cow/lactation or 640kgMS/cow/lactation.
Eugene expects the Genetic Futures Report will help improve his knowledge about individual cows in his herd, how his herd ranks compared to others and the bulls suited to his operation.
“You can see what bulls have worked in the herd because it ranks your top cows, you see what bulls have worked, those which are continually throwing animals up the top of the list,” he said. “Conversely, it goes the other way too, which ones aren’t working.”
Eugene’s been investigating individual cows and discovering what makes up their BPI but has enjoyed comparing his herd to the rest of the database.
“The Genetic Futures Report gives you a herd level base of many different traits from production through all management traits and every type trait as well,” he said. “Because we classify every animal as well, we have a lot of information at our fingertips now to make breeding decisions.”
Looking ahead, Eugene would like to explore genomic testing as a way to generate more data about his herd and increase the reliability of the information.
“DataVat has changed our thinking about breeding and what the profitable cows are,” he said.
For more information, visit www.datavat.com.au or contact DataGene on 03 9032 7191 or abv@datagene.com.au
