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Keeping Production Records on Dairy Farms Is the Key to Greater Efficiency and Profits

Dairy Husbandry Research Branch, Agricultural Research Administration, U. S. Department of Agriculture

ABSTRACT

Milk production efficiency can be improved and costs lowered when the farmer has the necessary information at hand to guide him in feeding, breeding, and management practices. A record of production on each cow in the herd is the key information needed. The availability of continuous lactation records is the most important tool with which to effect more efficient milk production, and can be the most important guide in proper feeding, breeding, and culling.

Studies of production records and related information on cows in many herds show repeatedly that milk is produced more efficiently and at lower costs by high-producing cows, as compared with low-producing cows. This is illustrated in a 1954–55 DHIA summary:

Records of production can be obtained in various ways and may include milk yields alone, or milk and butterfat production. It has long been known that recording the production of the milk and butterfat content of the milk of a cow on one day each month, and totaling the monthly production for the months in milk, give an accurate estimate of the lactation yield.