As a student, I had a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle. After the first breakdown, I met Werner Alker, who taught me that maintaining the car was cheaper than fixing breakdowns. This is a lesson that can be applied throughout life – maintenance is cheaper than breakages!
On a farm, your breeding herd is your asset. Managing this asset is important, as it forms the foundation of financial stability and your ability to achieve your business goals. You manage your assets by maintaining them and maintenance can be divided into five categories, namely corrective, preventative, adaptive, perfective, and predictive maintenance.
1. Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance is focused on fixing defects or faults in the system after they are detected, ensuring that the system returns to normal. On a farm, this would be if sudden calving problems are encountered after a new bull was introduced and replacing the bull with one that is proven to sire smaller calves. Corrective maintenance is typically done in retrospect.
2. Preventative maintenance
Preventative maintenance is when a potential problem is anticipated, and a change is implemented to prevent failures before they occur. When calves are weaned, they undergo stress that suppresses their immunity. A visual representation of this are the facial warts typically experienced by weaners. Anticipating this reduction in immunity, it would be wise to dose these animals with Zinpro® Profusion® Drench to provide a dose of metabolically available minerals to support their immunity during this transition time. The function of minerals to support immunity is well known and providing a single dose of Zinpro Profusion Drench to calves diagnosed with respiratory diseases has been proven to reduce case mortality by 20%. Another on-farm example is providing CELMANXTM SCP to calves to prevent any anticipated diaorrhea. This is achieved through binding of pathogens (Escherichia coli, as well as Cryptosporidium and Salmonella spp.) and protection of the gut lining to prevent damage caused by the pathogen.
3. Adaptive maintenance
Adaptive maintenance is when modifications are made to a system to adapt to changing environments, including updates to regulations or implementing new technology. Working with nature, farmers know this best and they are highly adaptable in keeping up with nature. With seasonal changes in rainfall, managing grazing would fall in this category, where utilisation, the application of fertiliser, and deciding on stocking density is changed accordingly. Another good example that farmers will be facing in the near future is the implementation of the RMIS Traceability Platform.
4. Perfective maintenance
Perfective maintenance is when changes are implemented to improve performance and efficiency without fixing a specific fault. Increasing output from a base herd will lead to improved efficiency, depending on the cost. One should always search for solutions that are cost effective and that will lead to improved immunity or heavier weaning weights such as when using any of the Zinpro Performance Minerals® in cows during the third trimester of pregnancy. Another example is to make use of Zinpro Profusion Drench when artificially inseminating cows. By using Zinpro Profusion Drench when removing CIDRs, one can expect improved pregnancy rates from artificial insemination.
5. Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance is using data and monitoring tools to predict when maintenance should be performed, minimising breakdowns. Using data to the advantage of the operation should not be overwhelming and could be as easy as keeping proper notes in a diary. Keeping it simple and applicable is key to getting useful data and being able to make decisions from it.
Understanding that the breeding herd is an asset on the farm and managing and maintaining it well will lead to improved production and efficiency. Maintaining this asset is the first step towards happy animals. After all, a happy cow is a productive cow and maintenance is cheaper than breakages!
Anri Strauss is a scientific adviser in the ruminant team at Chemuniqué, holding a master’s degree in nutrition from the University of Pretoria. She grew up on a farm and still lives in the Free State, where she and her husband also farm with Boer goats.