Benchmarking

Our practice has been compiling a dairy herd benchmarking spreadsheet every year for nearly 15 years. We use DairyComp 305 data from most of the farms we work with who utilize the program on-farm for management. All farms included this year are freestall barns and include rotary parlors, robots and more traditional parallel/herringbone parlor setups. Some farms utilize a heifer grower to raise youngstock and others raise their own youngstock. This article will present averages for a few of the 79 parameters we measured. When the term average is used, both the mean and the median will be listed unless they are the same (mean listed first, median second). This dataset represents Midwestern dairies only.

Herd demographics:

The average size of the youngstock herd was 85% of the cow herd, though we see some farms with youngstock inventories as low as 60% to control the costs of rearing heifers. Culling rates for the adult cow herd averaged 33%. Culling rate in this dataset is calculated by dividing the number of total culls by the average 12-month herd size. Culling includes all cows sold and died, including animals sold for dairy purposes. Adult cow death rate was 4%, which is down from 5% in 2019 and 2023. Stocking densities based on freestall numbers averaged 133%, with a range of 71%-210%.

Reproduction:

The average 21-day pregnancy rate was 31%, with a range of 21%-44%. In 2019, the average pregnancy rate was 28%, with a range of 10%-45%. This year, the average conception rates were 46% and 45%. Conception rates for first service specifically were 48% and 49%. Nearly all the herds in the dataset utilize a synchronization program for first service with double ovsynch and presynch ovsynch programs being the most common. Broken down by lactation, pregnancy rate for lactation one was 35% and 34% and for lactation greater than one was 28%. The abortion rate was 8% (abortion events divided by herd size). Looking back through the datasets to 2007, abortion rates have ranged from 8%-9.5%, relatively unchanged to today. The percentage of stillborns was 4% in 2024.

Replacements:

Approximately 8% of calves died between live birth and calving in. Calf death rate in the first 60 days of life was 4% and 3%. Average heifer pregnancy rate was 33%, with a range of 18%-50%.  Average age at first calving was 24 and 23 months.

Udder health:

The average herd linear score was 1.9 and 1.7, compared to 3.0 and 2.9 in 2007 and 2.1 and 2.0 in 2019. The average somatic cell count in thousands (Dairy Herd Improvement) was 168 and 147. By lactation, the average DHI SCC was 121 and 105 for lactation one, 135 and 114 for lactation two, and 232 and 200 for lactation three and greater. The average new infection risk based on SCC was 6%. For chronic infections based on SCC, the average was 9% and 8%.  Many of the herds in the dataset utilize mastitis culturing either on farm or in our clinic lab and input these results into DairyComp. However, our dataset does not distinguish between cows cultured for clinical mastitis, subclinical mastitis or for for a fresh cow screen. Our results are as follows: (1) no growth – 29% and 31%; (2) Staphylococcus aureus – 2%; (3) Prototheca – 4%; (4) E.coli – 9%; (5) Klebsiella – 6%; (6) Coagulase negative staphylococcus – 8%; (7) Streptococcus uberis/Enterococcus/Lactococcus – 25%; (8) Streptococcus dysgalactiae – 7%.

Health:  

Cow health data can be somewhat unreliable in dairy herd records depending on how the dairy records disease and how they define the disease. Nevertheless, we reported an average rate of displaced abomasum (calculated as number of DAs divided by number of freshenings) as 1.0% and 0.5%, with a range of 0.1%-4%. Retained placentas were 2.5% and 2.0%, milk fevers were 1.2% and 1.0%, and metritis was 5.2% and 3.1%.

Production:

Herds included are both twice and three times daily milking, with no recombinant bovine somatotropin use. Average DHI milk production was 93 pounds per cow. Average fat was 4.38% and 4.32% and average protein was 3.28% and 3.29%.  Energy corrected milk was 104 pounds and 103 pounds, with a range of 87-119 pounds.

I recommend using benchmarks to set goals for your dairy and to measure your own progress from year to year. It can be helpful to compare yourself to your neighbors or industry standards to see what is possible, but ultimately I find the data most helpful to monitor progress within a herd over time.

Megan Weisenbeck is one of six veterinarians at Northern Valley Livestock Services in Plainview, MN. She practices primarily dairy production medicine in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Megan can be reached at [email protected].