Hi,
Welcome to the third edition of the Wingman NOTAM!
I hope this finds you all well and having made it through the Winter relatively ok. I know it hasn’t been an easy Winter for most of you, and I can still remember sleepless nights with rain hammering down at 3am thinking to myself “****! Now what? Cows on? Cows off? Let cows over? Pick up my little Jersey calves and chuck them in the shed? etc. etc.” The mental gymnastics associated with Winter management can be all-consuming, sometimes even soul destroying when you see animals making a mess of the break you put them on only 2 hours ago! So if you’re feeling under pressure and like things are getting on top of you, then please pick up the phone and ring someone. Doesn’t matter who, just reach out and ring someone because in the words of the Rural Support Trust – “You are rural support. We are rural support.”
On a different note, Louise and I would like to extend a warm welcome to the farmers’ who have joined us since our last NOTAM – whether you’ve booked your herd in for a WoF with us, or are going ‘All In’ and doing the whole nine yards – thank you inviting us to be a part of your business and herd improvement journey.
There are two things I’d briefly like to touch on this NOTAM – the ‘Base Cow’ change and Capacity/Rump Width/PW.
‘Base Cow’ Change
For those of you who have checked their herd records lately, you will have probably noticed your BW drop by 185 points. This occurred as a result of NZAEL updating the ‘Base Cow’; “[the] yardstick to measure how much genetic progress is being made with each passing generation” (source: DairyNZ). This Base Cow is now based on 2015 born animals instead of 2005 born animals. Theoretically, the quality of our herds improved over the 10-year period between 2005-2015, and
we were comparing herds in 2024 against an animal born 19 years ago in 2005. So it made sense to update the Base Cow to something a little more relevant. We’re now comparing our herds to an animal born 9 years ago, as opposed to 19!
What does this mean on farm? Two things. 1. “The relative ranking of animals will remain largely unchanged, and the actual genetic merit or production potential of animals has not diminished” (source: Andrew Fear, GM – NZAEL). 2. Animals which probably looked ‘ok’ when
evaluated against a 2005 Base Cow have now been found wanting after the upgrade to a 2015 Base Cow.
Looking at herd records since the change took place, gut feel says everyone now has more negative PW animals as a result. Given that the 5 traits that make up PW (Fat, Protein, Milk (l), Liveweight and SCC) are also included in BW, its was probably always going to happen; any reset to BW values would automatically flow through into PW values. I’m not sure if this point was well made (if at all) in any comms you might have received. Regardless of that fact, the point is this –
maintaining pressure on PW where possible is incredibly important to the long term production/efficiency of your herd. How you chose to do this is up to you (yearling AB based on dam’s PW, culling low PW cows and their daughters, and mating the bottom 20% of your herd on PW to beef are three ways to achieve this).
Capacity, Rump Width and PW
One of the coolest nuggets we’ve uncovered in the last 3 months has been the relationship between Capacity, Rump Width and PW. It appears that animals who are above breed average for BOTH Capacity and Rump Width BV are likely to be the higher PW animals in your herd. When you think about it, it makes sense. Those cows will have ‘heart room’ and strength through the middle created by the Capacity BV, which then flows through into the back end and udder created by the
Rump Width BV.
This phenomenon has occurred to one degree or another in most Jersey and XB herds I’ve analysed. The change to PW is especially profound in Jerseys given they have such a small rump width to begin with (-0.28 breed average). However, in Friesian and Friesian X herds, the Capacity BV is a better indicator of PW. This is because chasing Rump Width becomes a law of diminishing returns after a particular point in time – big doesn’t need to get bigger, if that makes sense?
Excessive Rump Width then becomes a proxy for increasing LWT without increasing production, which is not what we want!
If you’re one of our Wingman farmers, can you please find 5 minutes in your already hectic day to click on the hyperlink below and give us your feedback about how you found your Wingman experience. These reviews are pretty important to us as they help to build trust and credibility for people who might be future ‘Wingman-ers’ when they Google us and look for our website.
Tell us what you think – Wingman
And finally, thank you for your support – Louise and I are very grateful to have made it through the first 12 months of Wingman. You’ve all contributed something to our business and how we’re shaping it for the future has been a reflection of your support.
All the very best for calving,
