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VikingNews UK 01 2015
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e verything the glass family does in their
dairy
is focused on prof- it. their
farm
is part of the fo- cus
farm
project which is administrat- ed by murray
dairy
, the regional
dairy
industry board in this part of victoria. a ?focus
farm
? is not a ?demonstra- tion? or ?best practice?
farm
. it is an or- dinary commercial
dairy
farm
coping with the day to day challenges of the
dairy
industry. over the next two years a support group of
dairy
farm
ers, the
farm
?s agronomist, vet, banker and ac- countant along with department of en- vironment and primary industry (depi) staff, will meet every six weeks on the glass
farm
with a clear purpose. they will assist the glasses to achieve their stated personal and business objectives. the name of the
farm
is ?kerrick park?, purchased in 2004 and covering 269 ha with an additional 328 ha leased land. according to the group the
farm
performance is already in the top 20% from an economics perspective. wants healthy and fertile holstein
cows
the foundation for profitable milk pro- duction is
cows
with good genetics. ?our ideal cow is medium-sized with a production of high milk solids and structurally sound udders. fertility and herd health are equally important so the
cows
breed back and get into the next lactation with ease and without mastitis. the
cows
must perform well in turning grass into milk solids be- cause that?s how we get paid?, brendan glass says. with seasonal calvings, good repro- duction is extremely important. ?
cows
need to calve easily and in sync with nature to take advantage of the growth curve of the pastures. this result in many calvings in a relatively short peri- od of time so a live and vigorous calf that gets off the ground is a must. we breed
cows
80 days after calving using prostaglandin injection after a week of natural heats for eight weeks then we turn bulls out for two or four weeks. heifers are bred according to size and usually we start at the age of 14 months with a pregnacol program which heifers get three injections and ciders then blanket ai. bulls are put out for eight weeks?, brendan says. ntm makes profit easy in the recent years brendan has been using sires from the scandinavia based cooperative vikinggenetics. ?in scandi- navia they have a unique indexing sys- tem and collect extensive data on very important traits like health, fertility, calving ease, hooves etc.the amazing thing is that in scandinavia they have collected this type of data for more than 30 years and included all economically important traits into a total merit index called ntm. this makes it easy to se- lect the most profitable genetics for our
dairy
?, brendan highlights. maximizing profit from pasture management by poul bech sørensen the glass family owns 500 holstein
cows
producing 8,500 liters of milk primarily on pasture in victoria, australia. the aim is to improve the bottom-line via optimal use of knowledge, science, genetics and pasture management. ?we currently milk daughters by d odder, rakuuna and d sol and calves by d onside, vh miracle and vh bento. the results so far are really promising and we will definitely use more vikinggenetics sires in the future?. brendan glass brendan & sarah glass run kerrick park holsteins. 18 vikingnews | february 2015
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