10 Ways to Step Up Your Cow Management - Dairy Herd Management

[Guest guest]

Here's a New Year's improvement list from Dairy Herd Management. Some

of it's geared to a large-scale commercial operation, but much applies

to any size farm. Also, naturally, some needs to be adapted to conform

to Krsna conscious values. Eg., when they say to remove chronic disease

carriers, for us that would mean simply to relocate them so they can't

contaminate others. As usual, one of the most important principles

indicated in this list is the same one advocated by Srila Prabhupada --

to do everything to improve the "comfort of the cows."

 

 

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hkdd

 

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10 ways to step up your cow management

By Dairy Herd staff (Wednesday, January 04, 2006)

 

Take care of your cows and they'll take care of you. That's good advice,

and producers try to do their best to follow it. After all, who doesn't

like to pad their bottom line.

 

However, as much as the industry has focused on improving its

management, there are still things individual producers can always do

better. You can look at cow performance in a number of ways to help

decide if your herd is up to snuff. For instance, you can track

lactation curves or examine cow productivity on a lifetime profitability

basis.

 

Or you can evaluate performance based on a day in the life of the cow.

That is, look at all the factors that affect welfare, health and

productivity on a daily basis -- because every minute of every day, that

cow is doing something.

 

Cows love consistency, says Wayne Weiland, veterinarian and technical

services specialist for Monsanto's Animal Agriculture Group. "Anything

we can do to increase that consistency will increase how well cows

perform for us."

 

Here are 10 areas or practices Weiland says that can be improved on

nearly every dairy. Use this slate as a checklist of things to improve

for increased profitability.

 

1. *Forage quality.* Quality will be negatively impacted by low

silage-pack density, failure to cover bunkers in a timely fashion

and/or poor bunker face management.

2. *Feeding consistency.* Monitor moisture levels and throw out any

moldy or spoiled feedstuffs. Also, make sure your TMR is mixed

consistently in terms of mixing order, timing and revolutions per

minute during mixing. Finally, deliver feed at the same time

every day.

3. *Stall design and comfort.* Make sure your stalls feature a

comfortable resting surface, as well as plenty of lunge, bob and

rising space. (For help in assessing your facilities, link to:

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/5house/stall-flowchart.pdf

4. *Time away from feed, water and beds/stalls.* Make sure your barn

design doesn't require a pen of cows to be locked away from feed

or stalls so that another group can be moved for milking. Also be

aware that long distances to the parlor will have an impact on

this concern.

5. *Pen changes.* Each time a cow experiences a group or

environment change, they undergo physical and psychological

stresses that negatively impact production. Grouping for

production or reproduction, which is commonly done, can mean many

moves over the cow's lactation. Consider grouping by parity AND

"social grouping". This involves moving an animal into a lactating

pen and leaving her there until dry-off.

6. *Stocking density in the pre- and post-fresh groups.* Facilities

are often sized incorrectly to handle transition cows. They need

more space than lactating groups, to assure intakes remain high

during this critical period. Therefore, target your stocking

density for these cows at about 80 percent. Never stock these

pens above 100 percent.

7. *Remove chronic disease carriers* -- particularly animals

persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhea (BVD). These

animals represent a significant disease challenge to your herd, as

they constantly shed disease-causing organisms. As an example,

one 1,000-cow dairy improved its pregnancy rate by 5 percentage

points after a cow persistently infected with BVD was identified

and removed from the herd. In addition to a good vaccination

program, buy only test-negative animals, monitor by string testing

milk and test calves.

8. *Co-mingling fresh cows and sick cows.* Establish separate

facilities for each group so you don't contaminate healthy fresh

cows. Fresh cows are very vulnerable and require extra

consideration, including reduced exposure to disease agents.

9. *Heat detection accuracy.* Are your cows really in heat when

they're bred? As milk production increases, heat detection often

becomes more difficult. Therefore, consider tools like milk

progesterone tests to determine heat detection accuracy. Or, use a

synchronization protocol to eliminate the need for heat detection

on your dairy altogether.

10. *Early detection and intervention of lame cows.* Lameness, or

locomotion, scores of three, or sometimes higher, are often needed

before farm personnel recognize that a cow is lame. Train

employees to spot lameness earlier. And don't wait for the next

hoof trimmer visit to treat. Intervene sooner rather than later.