Top 8 Things to Discuss on Dairy Farms

Posted by Dr. Sara Barber on March 01 2007 00:00

Mastitis and Udder Health

1. Current SCC
2. Clinical Cases and Response to Treatment
3. DairyComp Report to Look at New Infections, Chronic, Cures, and Clean (based on last DHIA test)
   1. Sum lgscc=4 prvlg=4 for lgscc>0 prvlg>0
   2. Goal is new infections less than 10%

Reproduction

1. 95% of cows need to have been serviced by 85 days in milk
2. Evaluating repro based on preg check results alone can be dangerous—who is open that is not presented for preg check?
3. DairyComp reports for Reproduction
   1. Bredsum\e: This will give you a 12 month average for Preg Rate and Insemination Rate (how many eligible cows were serviced—used to be called Heat Detection Rate but with so many cows on timed breeding, this term is confusing)
      1. The last 42 days will not show up on the preg rate side, even if you preg check at fewer than 42 days.
   2. Bredsum\b: This will give conception rate by service number. A couple of variations of this that I like to use are:
      1. Bredsum\bd180: Whatever number you put behind the d will be the number of days you are looking at. So d180 will be the last 180 days. This is a nice way to look at the last 60 or 90 days to see if a change is showing improvement.
      2. Bredsum\b for lact=1: This will look at just lactation one animals. Lact>1 will give you the older lactation animals
   3. Bredsum\o: Looks at conception rate by the type of breeding (i.e. Standing vs OvSynch vs CIDR)
   4. Bredsum\t: Conception rate by technician
4. Goals for Reproduction Numbers:
   1. Pregnancy Rate>18%
   2. Conception Rate>33%
   3. Insemination Rate>60%

Fresh Cow Issues (Incidence/Response to Treatment)

1. Milk Fever
2. Retained Placenta
3. Metritis
4. Ketosis
5. DAs

Things to observe while on farm/preg checking/etc

1. Feed in bunk?
   1. Consistency?
   2. Can cows reach it?
2. Stall cleanliness and amount of bedding
3. Hock lesions
4. Post-dip teat coverage
5. Cow condition

Preg checking is great time to evaluate manure consistency

1. I try to comment on manure at each visit so the producer knows I am looking at it
2. Loose vs Dry vs Normal
3. Amount of grain coming through
4. We have found a few DAs by the consistency of the manure at fresh/preg check

Dry and Close-up Cows

1. If I walk by dry or close-up cows, I check to make sure they have feed and water
   1. Close-up cows out of feed is a big problem!
   2. Close-up cows should have lots of clean, dry bedding and this is the last pen to crowd on the dairy
   3. Most fresh cow problems start in the close-up pen as decreased feed intake due to various stressors (crowding, feed availability, body condition (too fat or too thin), water availability, too short a time in close-up)

Calves

1. Ask about scouring and respiratory health
2. Note cleanliness of housing and feeding equipment
3. Parasite control tends to slide in growing heifers
   1. I like to have them poured at about 5 months and again prebreeding (or when they are moving them from one pen to another)

Heifer Reproduction

1. Heifers need to be calving at 22-24 months of age.
2. The heifers out of heifers make a large percentage of the herd’s replacements so working out a program to AI heifers IS VERY important to their bottom line and future productivity of the herd.