Livestock Improvement : How a herd testing routine is helping the Koning Family

Francis and Lea Koning have been dairy farming in Lincoln for over 10 years. They initially milked 450 Holstein Friesian cows but have recently reduced their numbers to 400 as they relinquished the lease of a lifestyle block which was sold for development.

Production ranges between 1500kg and 1700kg per hectare and they aim for around 460 kilograms of milk solids per cow. For the last seven years they have been on an efficiency and profitability drive and they rear about 25% replacement calves.

The Koning's relationship with LIC goes back almost 32 years - ever since they started sharemilking north of Hamilton. Herd testing has been a constant throughout those years with four herd tests per annum but it wasn't always that way.

"Coming from Raglan we never herd tested back in the 60's and early 70's. When my brother started, my Dad had tears in his eyes when he saw the cows getting herd tested…because he was frustrated he couldn't afford it," says Francis.

Through the good times and the bad.

Today, the Konings know the value of herd testing. Even in the toughest times when the milk payout dropped to $4 for a couple of years, they still maintained three herd tests before going back up to four as Francis explains.

"I strongly recommend herd tests. Cows can be deceptive…there might be a fatter looking cow that the farmer thinks is no good and wants to offload and low and behold she's doing 550 or 600 on solids and doing it efficiently.

Francis and Lea also believe herd testing is a great asset to keep their somatic cells counts down which average around 75,000 through calving which is really pleasing for them.

They have also taken up pregnancy testing with herd test milk samples.

"It's one less time you have to bring the cows into the shed and they're not getting poked about or anything, so from that point of view it's really good," says Lea.

The Konings are also big supporters of GeneMark and were one of the earliest farmers to get into DNA parentage testing some 14 years ago. Francis had read that some 30% of calves were not properly matched to the dams and really wanted to ensure they had accurate records and good strong bloodlines with no inbreeding.

Of course, today when they start AB mating, the Konings can get the AB Tech to check for inbreeding straight away with the DataMATE handheld giving them total confidence that there's no inbreeding, taking away the guesswork.

In the end, confidence is what herd testing is all about. It gives you the confidence to make the right calls, to know what you're doing is going in the right direction, and it shines a little spotlight on areas you might have missed.

Talk to your Agri Manager today about setting up regular herd testing on your farm.