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VikingNews UK 02 2015
9 / 24
facts ? owners:
elin
& patrik johansson ? 400 cows
, 50% holstein, 50% srb ? 7 employees ? 600 ha, incl. field work ? 11,400 kg ecm, the goal is 11,500 kg for 2015. ? 4 delaval robots ? calving age: 25 months ? calving interval: 11.7 months 25% of the cows, a good milking group of app. 50% of the cows, and a group to inseminate with beef breed semen or to use as recipients. many requests from vikinggenetics at the moment we have a flush contract for four heifers
, and the flushings will take place during the spring for 1707 (vr solero) gntm +24 and 1842 (vh everest) gntm +28. there are also con- tracts for two heifers; 1899 (vh ronal- do) gntm +30 and 1903 (vh everest) gntm +29. ?this is a confirmation that you do well when the request comes from vikinggenetics. i always run to the mail box on fridays ? that is usual- ly the day the letters from vikinggenet- ics arrive?, elin laughs. two et bull calves await genomic re- sult; 3438 (fageno) and 3443 (vh rey- nold). the dam 1490 inga (vh op) was flushed in contract, gave five embryos and two bull calves. now they hope for high genomic proofs for both bull calves! the bull vh mace (d mason) with gntm +26 is from this herd. he was on the list of recommended sires earlier and at the moment he produces for china. heifers in heifer hotel the heifers will be moved to a heifer hotel when they are 12-13 months old and they will return home as soon as ?it is fascinating to see how the heifers? indexes correspond with their phenotype as cows!? this is the reason that we will test all heifer calves to really focus on the right animals!? elin johansson 1088 (d onside x d banker) dam of vh mace. a high-producing cow that has calved three times. last year she milked 13,423 kg ecm. they are pregnant to get used to the ro- bot. ?the heifer hotel is a good solu- tion. then we can focus on the milk production?, elin says. they always have app. 80 heifers in the heifer hotel during a year. sweden?s highest producing cow important traits are milkability, feet & legs and udder. today there is no major difference of conformation for the red and the black cows. ?the red cows have actually become better since the start of genomic selection?, patrik says. at present most cows are culled be- cause of low return. the cows in the robot herd are in two groups with 150 cows in each group. in the barn is cow no. 2627 inga, fifth lactation cow by v excess produ- cing 20,800 kg milk in last milk recor- ding year, and was the highest produ- cing cow in all of sweden. advantage with good staff both patrik and elin are competitive and have many plans and this affects the staff in a positive way. they all fo- cus on the result and motivate each other. a constant search for improve- ment. in the herd are many routines. e.g. animals are always moved on tues- days, and it will be on that day it is planned for so that the staff knows what to do ? even if they had a couple of days off. at the torp farm they con- sider to join the trends and buy embry- os from other highly tested heifers in the vikinggenetics area. show room for delaval with large and fine facilities on top of the newly built barn, it is a perfect show room for delaval, and they have many visitors from e.g. china. ?show- ing the farm and talking about our pro- duction spices up life. and having the many visitors makes us realize the swedish welfare. in addition we learn english.? elin says. elin & patrik johansson run the torps farm in sweden with more than 400 cows. patrik took over the farm by his par- ents in 2002 with 90 cows in a tie-stall barn and in 2010 they built the new barn. 9 june 2015 | vikingnews
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