Dairy cow calves cattle beef projects
Project photos of team lead, advise and restructuring of the cattle herd management operation
of an agricultural investment group in the Romania, Eastern Europe
Responsible lead, advise and restructure dairy calf operation management
breed Fleckvieh-Simmental in Romania
I had to restructure and manage as a trouble-shooter a farming group investment of a Fleckvieh dairy cow farm and another heifer rearing farm in Romania. Fundamental issues I had to adapt for the dairy calf rearing husbandry, feeding, veterinary treatment also by intensive training the management team staff.
Over 100 calves receive milk per day, milk feeding up to 3 times milk per day, in problem cases 4 times, up to 4 liters of milk per meal. This breed Fleckvieh shows calves with strong gain weight male and female not like skinny Holstein calves. Starting the first week calves get offered a hay-concentrate-molasses mixture and fresh water, both changed and documented daily. Involvement of external specialists in agricultural advice and practice on detailed questions. The challenge was to develop a coherent and manageable concept with a clear protocol for the farm management team. A lot of construction was ongoing too.
Success is an enormous improvement of the rearing performance, also in the sense of the physiological programming of the later Fleckvieh dairy cow. Above all, there was an extreme reduction of the "losses", of the many calves and young cattle that had died weekly, if not daily in the past. The staff did not believe such an improvement being possible. Today they are very proud and horrified when they come back from companies in the region ;)
Restructure, lead and advise dairy cattle herd management operation
of 450 dairy cows Fleckvieh Simmental in Romania
As trouble-shooter overcoming big problems I had to manage, consult, and most of all to restructure the herd management team of the dairy herd of a farming group investment in Romania. The herd was taken over by me at a 19 liters of milk per dairy cow and day, extremely long calving interval over 450 d, urea in the herd-collecting milk often under 10, sometimes under extreme 5; totally out of date, hardly any progeny to move up, extremely high number of germs and cells, holes in the concrete were filled with silage, feed residues everywhere, a lot of mold, barn dark, closed, high ammonia concentration, several breeding bulls with no pedigree data in non-pregnant dry booths running, several cows more than 10 AI approaches, milking and barn-stall technology outdated, wrong or under-rated and defective, far too little background and knowledge about professional herd management by staff.
A lot of adjustments of the dairy herd had to be changed for the management team supported by selected external experts such as veterinarian, breeding advice with animal evaluator, insemination breeding station, strict selection, artificial insemination of self-selected and imported bulls in a targeted combination, milking technology specialists, high quality forage silage making, feed specialists, feed-mixer technology specialist, and renovation of the farm buildings and inner farm roads of the entire facility over several years with an own construction team unit.
Success: After 5 years the herd output is constant at 29 liters milk per dairy cow and day, of which about 80 dairy cows in a group at the beginning of lactation with an average of 42 liters of milk per day per dairy cow, milk cell count below 200,000, germ count below detection limit, further key data significantly improved.
Documentation and joint intensive work with herd management software is the central component also for interacting with external advice.
Restructure, consult and farm operation management of 230 suckler cows and offspring beef cattle
of breed Limousin in Eastern Europe
Manage and restructure the beef cattle production and its farm management team using low quality summer pasture and winter indoor feeding in Romania. We followed a long-term improvement in breeding and selection, significant improvement in daily weight gain from less than 500 g to over 1 kg, sometimes 1,500 g per day and head particular fattening bulls. Calving I switched to seasonal calving over winter solely due to low feed quality and feed quantities in dry hot midsummer.
Breed suitability: Simmental did not work well due to lacking mother instinct and, as one employee put it: "They do not go to the water points, but want to have brought the water, then it must even be mineral water". Charolais was less able to cope with the extensive straw-like old grass that was dry in midsummer, that breed need more intensive feeding. For me Angus is too small and therefore not profitable in terms of price level of the general market. Thus Limousin of the common breed in use in southern Europe fit best.
Let us clarify objectives, approach and options to fulfil your R&D project, farm management, and consulting need.
I look forward to working with and for you!
Best wishes, Guido Haas
g.haas@agrarhaas.de
