Use of Records in Managing for Good Lactational and Reproductive Performance

Abstract Profitable dairying is dependent on good lactational and reproductive performance. The specific management and selection goals that optimize yield per day since 2 yr of age, potential long life, and reproductive rate to maximize profit need more study. Effective dairy herd management requires skillful decisions that combine husbandry, biological, and economic facts and principles. Reliable information provided by records reduces the risk of choosing a faulty course of management action. Records provide management with facts to assess goal progress; to design, monitor, implement, and evaluate the management plan; and to detect and diagnose emerging management and health problems. A well-designed dairy herd record system provides the needed up-to-date information and is simple and convenient to use. The type of record system is not as important as the information contained and consistency with which it is used. The record keeping task should be shared by all: manager, labor force, veterinarian, AI technician, and DHI supervisor. Computers provide valuable and efficient assistance in organizing, summarizing, analyzing, and legibly putting the facts at the finger tips of dairymen. Identification, health and reproduction, and production information are fundamental record requirements for effective large herd management. Dairy herd improvement records have traditionally provided identification and production information for the milking herd. Trends to incorporate health, reproductive, and young stock information are desirable. Greater efforts should be exerted to completely incorporate health and reproductive information requirements for both the milking herd and young stock into the DHI system. Greater ability to relate management results and alternatives to economic consequences also will be desirable. The future will undoubtedly bring demands for improved and more sophisticated management information systems from large herd dairymen. The future will bring continued increase in herd size and the number of large dairy herds. Researchers and extension specialists have an exciting challenge to utilize emerging technology to meet these needs. Large herds of the future may either have their own computer system or direct access to one that contains a complete data bank of health, production, feeding, breeding, and eeonomic information for their herds and markets. There may also be a reference library of production principles. At the press of a button any desired information could be printed or displayed on a cathode ray tube. With the development of computer software dairymen could find the computer a valuable tool to evaluate alternative day-to-day management decisions in terms of future economic consequences. This same computer may also be used to control the automated milking system, control feed inputs on an individual cow basis, make breeding recommendations, and signal potential problems on a day-to-day basis. Successful development of electronic animal identification devices and sensors, automated milk metering and recording devices could potentially provide the means to input automatically some day-to-day events into the data bank.