Farmers have made significant improvements in dairy herd fertility, production, and somatic cell counts (SCC) according to the latest report from National Milk Records (NMR).

The report on NMR’s latest Key Performance Indicators (KPI) revealed annual trends in herd health from 2010 to 2023 and found that 70% of herds had a SCC below 200,000 in the year ending August 2023, an improvement from 44% in 2010.

In 2023, 52% of all cows in the 500-herd sample completed lactations without recording a single high SCC above 200,000 cells/ml. This figure compares to 35% of cows in 2010.

Mastitis

Mastitis incidence across a 242 sample of the 500 recorded herds averaged 22 cases per 100 cows per year – down 14 cases per 100 cows per year since 2016.

Furthermore, in herds with mastitis records, which is about half in the sample, 85% of cows recorded no mastitis in completed lactations – an increase from 79% in the same period.

Fertility improvements continued too. Since 2010, the mean age at first calving has decreased by 89 days to 804 days (2.2 years), although it has increased by five days since 2022. The median calving interval is also 30 days shorter than in 2010 at 394 days but remains unchanged since the last report in 2022.

Conception rates increased by 1% compared to 2022 to 39% and, during the past 14 years, they have increased by 7%.

Heat detection

However, the variation remains high between herds, from 32% in the bottom quartile of herds to more than 45% in the best quartile. Heat detection has also improved by 11% since 2010 and is now 41%.

Milk yields have remained stable for the past five years, averaging 8737kg in 2023, up slightly from 8708kg in 2022 and by more than 1000kg on 2010 data. Lifetime milk per cow per day increased by 25% from 10.5kg in 2010 to 12.7kg in 2023.

The most significant improvements have been in milk fat and protein in the 13 years that the report has been published. Milk fat has increased from 3.35% in 2010 to 4.26% in 2023 and is up from 4.18% in 2022. Protein has risen from 3.33% to 3.36% since 2022, up from 3.27% in 2010.

“The report’s latest results show the UK dairy industry is moving in the right direction when it comes to cow health, fertility and production,” says NMR’s Ben Bartlett.

Benchmark

“Farmers, vets and advisers who make good use of milk records and take advantage of this valuable data to benchmark their herds against the top 25% for key parameters can make informed decisions and monitor progress in the herd. This will underpin the business’s sustainability.

“Dairy management software systems such as InterHerd+ have made this easier through functionality that allows vet practices and consultants to compare the performance of their dairy clients as a group and individually alongside the 500 NMR herds in the report and identify weaknesses and where improvements can be made.”

The NMR 500-Herd report was produced by Dr. James Hanks, Dr. Emma Taylor, and Dr. Mohamad Kossaibati from the University of Reading and can be found on NMR’s website: www.nmr.co.uk