1. Blanket antibiotic depends on information available
If considering not using dry cow tubes, there a number of criteria you need to take into account: (1) the cow must have had a history of low cell counts on all previous recordings and (2) There should be no hint of mastitis in any quarter. Remember, if a cow has an average somatic cell count of 150,000 cells, there still could be one of the quarters with a cell count of 500,000, so the farmer needs to have a good handle on the individual cow and herd milk quality.
2. Post-drying management
After drying off cows, you need to keep leaking cows separate or they can make cubicles very wet for other cows. Leaking cows need to be resealed after seven or eight days. If shutting down the parlour for a set period of time over the winter then you need to put in a new set of liners at the start of the new milking season no matter how well the parlour has been cleaned. Don’t wait for all cows to be calved to have the first milk recording on the herd – too many farmers wait for late March and at that stage a lot of infection can have passed through the herd. Paddle-test heifers after calving but don’t be surprised if all four quarters fail the CMT test because heifers can be stressed after calving. Cell count will drop gradually in these animals as they get used to the milking process.
3. Heifers need attention
First-calving heifers are vulnerable at calving and just before calving. Some farmers teat-spray heifers five to seven days before calving and this helps on some farms where heifers are bagging up well prior to calving. Some farmers teat-seal in-calf heifers but you have to be very careful and it is dangerous to complete.
4. Match weanling heifers by weight
A top tip for the first winter is to match heifers by weight. Look after parasite control and fluke. Match by weight – aim to pens with 10 to 15 heifers in each pen and feed up to 2kg of meal per head to the lighter pen with good-quality silage. Aim to get the heifers vaccinated pre-turnout and usually get it done before Christmas.
5. Coughing multifactorial
There are so many other issues that cause coughing and hoose is probably number one in my book. If a farmer herd samples for hoose then first calvers are the animals to watch and early treatment can have very good results. Other factors that cause coughing include mycoplasma bovis, RSV, and fog fever, which happens in autumn but is more respiratory and grunting than coughing. Often another issue can be dusty feed when feeding straights like maize meal, etc, in low-roofed parlours.
In Brief:
Hoose could be the cause of a lot of coughing in dairy herds.Match heifers by weight for first winter inside.In-calf heifers need attention before and after calving. Read more
Watch: Calf housing for health or for handiness?
1. Blanket antibiotic depends on information available
If considering not using dry cow tubes, there a number of criteria you need to take into account: (1) the cow must have had a history of low cell counts on all previous recordings and (2) There should be no hint of mastitis in any quarter. Remember, if a cow has an average somatic cell count of 150,000 cells, there still could be one of the quarters with a cell count of 500,000, so the farmer needs to have a good handle on the individual cow and herd milk quality.
2. Post-drying management
After drying off cows, you need to keep leaking cows separate or they can make cubicles very wet for other cows. Leaking cows need to be resealed after seven or eight days. If shutting down the parlour for a set period of time over the winter then you need to put in a new set of liners at the start of the new milking season no matter how well the parlour has been cleaned. Don’t wait for all cows to be calved to have the first milk recording on the herd – too many farmers wait for late March and at that stage a lot of infection can have passed through the herd. Paddle-test heifers after calving but don’t be surprised if all four quarters fail the CMT test because heifers can be stressed after calving. Cell count will drop gradually in these animals as they get used to the milking process.
3. Heifers need attention
First-calving heifers are vulnerable at calving and just before calving. Some farmers teat-spray heifers five to seven days before calving and this helps on some farms where heifers are bagging up well prior to calving. Some farmers teat-seal in-calf heifers but you have to be very careful and it is dangerous to complete.
4. Match weanling heifers by weight
A top tip for the first winter is to match heifers by weight. Look after parasite control and fluke. Match by weight – aim to pens with 10 to 15 heifers in each pen and feed up to 2kg of meal per head to the lighter pen with good-quality silage. Aim to get the heifers vaccinated pre-turnout and usually get it done before Christmas.
5. Coughing multifactorial
There are so many other issues that cause coughing and hoose is probably number one in my book. If a farmer herd samples for hoose then first calvers are the animals to watch and early treatment can have very good results. Other factors that cause coughing include mycoplasma bovis, RSV, and fog fever, which happens in autumn but is more respiratory and grunting than coughing. Often another issue can be dusty feed when feeding straights like maize meal, etc, in low-roofed parlours.
In Brief:
Hoose could be the cause of a lot of coughing in dairy herds.Match heifers by weight for first winter inside.In-calf heifers need attention before and after calving. Read more
Watch: Calf housing for health or for handiness?
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: