Liam Ryan might be running against local convention when it comes to lactation periods, but his new system is hitting its goals.
A change from 300 to 400-day lactations has helped the Grassmere farmer to improve fertility and herd management efficiency.
Liam has also moved from split calving in February-March and July-August to batch calving, that moves back three months each year.
While he isn’t aware of any other local farmers using 400-day lactations, Liam says the changes are working.
The Ryan family has been farming in the Grassmere area since 1942, with Liam starting in 2004, and converting the current home farm in 2007.
In 2013 Liam took over the business, Numeralla Dairy Co, and the following year bought his uncle’s farm, reuniting the original family property. He milks 650-700 cows on the main 404 hectare farm, supported by another 200ha for young stock and cropping.
Liam came up with the new lactation system combined with a big increase in sexed semen as part of an overhaul to improve fertility and time management.
“We were having trouble getting cows in calf, particularly the spring-calving cows. They were working really hard doing a lot of milk and we were trying to join them but we were getting really poor results,” he said.
“The 400 days gives the cows more days open between calving and joining,” he said.
“It’s better for the cows and increases their opportunity to get in calf. It means the days open between calving and the mating start date for my last cow calved is the same as the early cows on a 300-day lactation.”
The change has led to a significantly better in-calf rate, a much lower replacement rate, more calves for the export market and greater genetic gain.
Liam has extended joining from 10 to 14 weeks and is achieving a 95-per cent in-calf rate, a substantial improvement on 80 per cent in the previous 10-week joining.
“On sexed semen, we’re getting better conception rates on the extended lactation than we were on conventional semen on a 300-day lactation.”
This year they are calving together for the first time and Liam expects the cows will peak higher because they’re better rested and carrying better condition, although there may be a trade-off with a slight reduction in the last 100 days of the lactation.
The herd previously averaged 9500 litres and 670kg/Ms in 300-day lactation. Liam is targeting 850kg/Ms under the new 400-day system.
Liam says the better in-calf rates make the change worthwhile.
“On a 300-day lactation, any cows that calve outside the first three weeks have a significantly reduced chance of calving back in that period the following year, she is effectively on her way to being carried over or sold,” he said.
“When our in-calf rate goes up, our replacement rate drops because we’re not selling cows because they’re not in-calf, and the number of replacements we can breed is massive because we’ve changed over to using three-quarters sexed semen.
“Instead of getting 25 to 30 per cent of our herd numbers in replacements, we’re getting two-thirds which means there are lots of excess for the export market.”
This year they had about 350 heifers born but only needed 120.
“There might be 50-80 that I know I don’t want, the rest get genomically tested,” Liam said.
“We go through that information and match that against what I know about the cows and then decide what I’m going to keep and the rest go to export.
“It can be a problem, because some of the heifers I’m selling I would really like to milk but it has definitely created more options for me and as Dad likes to remind me — you can’t milk them all.”
And it’s not only about numbers; Liam says the genetic gain is huge because he’s breeding from what he wants to breed from.
“We’re getting better cows.”
Previously a mixed herd, it is now totally Friesian for their ability to put milk in the vat. The herd is ranked in the top two per cent in the country for BPI.
Liam said he chose 400 days because it would reset every five years and was easier from a management perspective.
“By doing it the way I have, the heifers calve at two-and-a-half years. If you extended it further, they would be older when they calve or if you did it shorter, you would have to calve them at less than two years of age.
“I’m not aware of anyone else doing 400-day lactations locally, though anyone who calves year-round would be pretty close to it, maybe 380,” he said.
“In US free-stall barns, the average lactation is 400 days.”
Liam, who has four full-time staff, says the new system is easier to manage.
“From a management point of view, it’s chaos when you’re calving for six or eight weeks, but then you get a six-month period from when joining finishes to when the first group of cows are due to be dried off so you can roll cows around the farm and get other things done.
“With split calvings, we were always calving, joining, drying off.”
They calved together for the first time last July. Because Liam had two herds, one herd had to be carried around to catch up with the other.
“We had a pretty good year so they have peaked really well and this will be a good production year. In two years, we’re going to calve in January so if we get a hard summer and ordinary autumn, production won’t be as good, but because we’re not juggling two herds, it will be easier to plan for.”
In 2021 the farm was running up to 730 cows in two herds. Liam says the extra work and extra complexity wasn’t worth it.
This year they peaked at 680.
“I think one herd is better for us. It was interesting to try two herds for three seasons, but it just wasn’t efficient.”
Liam has loved cows all his life and admits nagging his father Basil to register the herd.
Liam has recently achieved a life-long goal by having a bull selected for the Genetics Australia team, and he hopes for big things for Numeralla A2P2 Illuminator.