p.1

How long can a cow live? That's a good question, how long can a cow live? Well, let's have a look. We look at Holland, where we have cows which are living 11 lactations, 11 babies, 11 years of production, with an average production of 9,000 liters. And we had already in Holland 22,000 cows, reaching 100,000 liters. And now my question is, of these top cows in Holland. We have already 2,000 cows on 19,000 farms, so average on every farm we had already one cow, with 100,000 liters. And that's not the case. We have one farm with 45 of these cows, and other farms which never reach it.

p.2

But if you think about all these 100,000-liter cows in Holland, what lactation will be the most profitable, or the highest? So from 11 years of production, where is the peak in the curve? So 11 times 9 is 99,000, okay, so somewhere this is the graph. So now we are checking all of these Dutch cows, and we made a graph. What do you think it is? It's not 1 and it's not 11. It's somewhere in between, the best, most profitable lactation. Any idea? So write down a number, then you will know how right or how wrong you are. Write down a number.

p.3

Okay, you got a number? Okay, I'll tell you, then. You won't believe it. And most of you are wrong, because it's the sixth and the seventh lactation. So 6 and 7 are the very highest. They're equally high, 6 and 7. And we see that 1, 2 and 3 are a lot lower than 8, 9 and 10, and then it goes down. So it looks like this. So what do you see? That cows are culled, by farmers, already, after two and a half lactations. That's the world's average, 2.5. And that is shocking, because cows only get more efficient.

p.4

So if you could keep cows longer, we have a lot more profitable business, and we should aim for six, seven years of lactation for cows, and then we earn a lot more money. So, how old can a cow get? Well, I didn't answer that question, did I? The oldest cow in the world is 47 years old, but she's not giving very much milk anymore.

p.5

But cows can get very old, and I don't want them to be ruined in two and a half years. So I want everybody to go to five lactations, and the best 1% farmers in Holland, they are already on six lactations, and this is reachable. So I want to tease everybody, and to try to get you into my web trainings, because we have very good web trainings and webinars about how you can let your cows live longer.

p.6

There's the secrets of dairy farming, and I'm really happy to share them with you, because I learned them from the best farmers in the world. So we made our program ready for you. Check in if you want to know how you can let your cows live longer.

p.7

Thank you for watching, and thank you for your trust in Cowsignals. My name is Joep Driessen, Cowsignals Training Company, Holland.