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02-24-2012, 07:02 PM

#132

QuiltE

Power Poster

Join Date: Apr 2011

Location: Ontario, Canada

Posts: 17,705

Hip Hip Hooray for the OKSGlad Guernsey Herd!!!!
What an awesome day today for you folks ... I'm so PROUD of you!
I too know the excitement of a good classification. And too, the disappointments.

When we received our first Excellent cow, a few nights later we had an Excellent Party ... inviting our many dairy farm friends (and OK a few family too) to come and celebrate with a corn roast and summer party!! A lot of intended puns were part of the night ... and of course, the official dress of the night was B&W!! (at that time we were only Holstein, so no brown!) A few years later when we received our first Excellent for a Jersey ... yes, we had another party!

A few extra notes from the Canadian perspective ... our classification system is very similar, as there are a lot of animals marketed cross-border (and around the world) for their genetics, our breed associations, genetic organizations and dairy events work very closely together. Also, semen and embryos are marketed cross borders. Our classification scoring system is slightly different Excellent (90-100), Very Good (85-89), Good Plus (80-84), Good (75-79), Fair (70-74) and Poor (under 69).

An animal may be classified at one score, and can move upwards within the class to a higher score, and eventually onwards to the next level. However, she does need to have another calf before she can be "shown" again for those considerations. Even if she declines in appearance, she will never lose her status.

As OKSGlad mentioned ... the traits are more than just the "beauty" of the cow but the likelihood that she can produce larger volumes of milk. Important too, is her "spring of rib" ... meaning that barrel like gut! Not that she is fat, but that she has the "capacity" to eat lots particularly a high forage (hays) diet, process it, maintain good body condition (here's where the earlier discussion crosses paths!). That good body condition is important as a "fat cow" (poor body condition) will be just that, fat and not produce those large volumes of milk that the dairy farmer is looking for, to make his income!

Like OKSGlad, our farm was very reliant on a skilled Dairy Nutritionist. All our home grown feeds were sent to the lab for analysis and then rations were developed to ensure our cattle were fed well, and that it was done the most efficient and economicaly manner. Those records that GGal mentioned are used to determine the quantity and quality of feeds each of the cows received. Eg. a cow producing 70 lbs per day, does not need the same amount of feed as one producing 100 lbs; and one producing 5% Butterfat, needs a different ration/proportion than one only producing 3%. (again, part of the earlier discussions!)

Dairy Farming has become very scientific ... no longer do you just toss some feed to the cow!

GGal ... Yes, sometimes people seem to refuse to use the best info available to them. As you identified ... there are good producers, and some are not the best. Just the same as we see in most walks of life, right? There are some great herds in Indiana! We often sold cattle into your area .... also OKSGlad's ... actually to most States at some point, and many countries around the world.

And now our dear friends ... you have heard more about Dairy Farming from OKSGlad and myself, than perhaps you ever wanted to read!

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