Cost of an extra 1000 litres on herd average

[multi power]

Can anyone suggest what it might cost to increase herd average of 6000 litres by 1000 litre per cow

 

[upnortheast]

Depends how you plan to do it ?
Better grazing
Better silage
More concs
Milk more frequently
Better genetics

 

[More to life]

£0-100

 

[frederick]

When most people try 1200 litres times your milk price.

 

[Bald Rick]

Depends how you plan to do it ?
Better grazing
Better silage
More concs
Milk more frequently
Better genetics

Combination of all those plus comfort eg feed space, adequate (&clean) water troughs and correct cubicles (or sufficient lying space/cow on a straw yard)

 

[buffalo_soldier]

The person doing it is also a factor.

 

[upnortheast]

Can anyone suggest what it might cost to increase herd average of 6000 litres by 1000 litre per cow

Robots will add 20 % to your yield

 

[Rossymons]

How much is a tonne of concentrate worth these days? Probably the same as the amount of milk coming out the end.

 

[pappuller]

How much is a tonne of concentrate worth these days? Probably the same as the amount of milk coming out the end.

If your feeding cake to return anything less than a 2/1 ROI leave it in the mill

 

[multi power]

Robots will add 20 % to your yield

Is that 20% more litres or solids ?

 

[Beef farmer]

Can anyone suggest what it might cost to increase herd average of 6000 litres by 1000 litre per cow

Your organic arnt you?

 

[upnortheast]

How easy to get the extra milk will depend on your cows potential - if they are currently at 75% or 90% of potential.
Old rule of thumb was 0.4 kg concs to get 1kg milk
Assume £250 /tonne that is 10p of conc for 1 litre milk so 400 kg for your extra 1000 litres
But lots of other options as above

 

[Will Blackburn]

In reality it’ll be 0.6 to 1.0kg per litre.

 

[multi power]

Your organic arnt you?

The herd in question is conventional

 

[multi power]

How easy to get the extra milk will depend on your cows potential - if they are currently at 75% or 90% of potential.
Old rule of thumb was 0.4 kg concs to get 1kg milk
Assume £250 /tonne that is 10p of conc for 1 litre milk so 400 kg for your extra 1000 litres
But lots of other options as above

Are there not more costs than just the extra cake ?

 

[More to life]

In reality it’ll be 0.6 to 1.0kg per litre.

At 6000-7000 I can’t see but as some have already stated genetics will be the overriding factor

 

[dowcow]

Are there not more costs than just the extra cake ?

Of course there is. Some systems you just can't feed more cake, such as if you were self feeding silo with cake in the parlour twice a day. It might be necessary to change the system with something like Out of Parlour feeders, or by dividing the cows into more groups and using a mixer wagon. The costs will be completely different for a herd of 100 cows compared to one with 400 cows that already has the setup that just needs tweaking.

It's quite easy to make a cow give a lot of milk, but what brings the average up is not having cows keel over and spend half the lactation being nursed back to health, having fewer cases of mastitis, milk fever and twisted stomaches. There's an awful lot of things to get right with correct management that will then allow you to feed more cake to the cows that have the potential to milk off it. In fact more cake without the other things being right might just lead to a higher rate of attrition. I think it's usually better to address the problems that are holding back the bottom end of the herd, rather than making the better cows do more.

 

[dinderleat]

Drop your calving index by 20 days will make a fair difference

 

[Shann_mann]

Drop your calving index by 20 days will make a fair difference

We went from 7500litres to 9000litres by dropping the calving index’s by 40 days. It’s the cheapest and easiest way of getting more litres out of a herd.

 

[pappuller]

Drop your calving index by 20 days will make a fair difference

It all depends on the present situation, just how to add 1000 litres is too broad a question without more information