THE DAIRY HERD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND FARM PRODUCTIVITY

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Abstract
A study, based on a series of three questionnaires covering calf management, mastitis control and land and crop management, was conducted from 1975 to 1977 on a random sample of 640 dairy farms on the Dairy Herd Analysis Service (DHAS). Information on dairy cow nutrition, farm production efficiency and farm productivity, as measured by herd average production of 4% fat-corrected milk (4% FCM) and income overfeed costs, was obtained from the 1975–76 DHAS annual data files for these farms. Analysis of the complete information on all factors concerned was done on 216 farms. In a multiple regression analysis, 37 farm management factors accounted for 79.9 and 69.5% of the variation in herd average production and income over feed costs, respectively. Levels of meal and succulent (silage) feeding accounted for the largest amount of the variation in production and income. Significant simple correlation coefficients indicated that the land and crop management factors had an important influence on herd nutrition.

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