—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 16. 1977
16
MEDICINE AND
Mini-pasture for calving is ideal
Pasture season is rapidly approaching and with it many
changes in the feeding and management of the dairy herd.
There are many new decisions to be made and there will be
a few of what I would call non-decisions made; practices
which are continued the way they have always been
because that’s the way it has always been done; practices
which definitely could be improved upon; practices which
have never been changed because one has never considered
the possibility that there is an alternative practice to follow.
One of these non-decisions made by default each pasture
season is where the cows are going to calve. Mostly they are
left to calve where they are pastured; a few are put in the
maternity area used during the Winter. Neither way is
ideal. I would like to suggest an alternative.
If cows would never have problems, the pasture area
would be an ideal place for calving. But, unfortunatly, cows
do sometimes have problems. The three most important at
calving time are difficulty calving, mastitis, and milk
fever. And with all three the urgency with which they are
discovered is of the utmost importance. Therefore one will
want his expectant cattle in an area where he can easily and
frequently check on them.lf in a large pasture, usually far
from the buildings and usual area of activity, they are often
neglected between milkings and nothing unusual is noticed
until they don’t come in with the rest of the cows. And as
cows are, when there is a problem, they usually locate
themselves in the most remote section of the pasture, often
inaccessible by vehicle which makes location, treatment,
and consequent aftercare quite difficult, especially if she
cannot move to a more convenient area providing her own
locomotion. It means extra unnecessary efforts on the part
of the farmer and veterinarian, but more importantly,
valuable time has elapsed in discovering that there is a
problem; time which could mean the difference between
routine treatment and recovery or a problem which has
existed for hours and has added new complications and
stress.
So logically one would want his Summer maternity area
to be dose to the buildings, for convenience in checking and
treating, and a confined area to make it easier to locate the
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particular animal several times a day. The Winter
maternity area usually meets these requirements, but it
has other objections. It is often in an area of the bam,
where, on hot Summer days the heat of a closed in area
would be objectionable. But more importantly, it is quite
helpful to let it stand unused for a portion of the year, to
clean out, disinfect, and then neglect for a few months to
eliminate the buildup of disease organisms and disease
cycles which most definitely occur with constant use.
An ideal situation would be a small, grassy, fenced in
area, near the buildings, providing water and shade. If it
could be located near a building or pen where they can get
into out of the weather, so much the better. It should be
located convenient to the milking bam to facilitate
movement to and from the milking area for two or three
days post calving, until most chances of problems are past
and she can join the rest of the milking herd. It'does not
have to be large, 100 foot square would be adequate for
average size herds and on most farms it could be situated
somewhere that the cows can be checked by a glance during
normal travels of the day, without any extra effort.
After a hard day of putting in hay nobody feels like going
on a search of the meadow to look for a cow due to calve, or
for one suspected of coming down with milk fever. And too
often when this is what is necessary, it is neglected. A
Summer calving area could save a lot of time and effort,
and possibly a cow or two. And when there is a problem, I’m
sure your veterinarian will appreciate it also.
Following the last column on milk fever there have been a
few requests for suggestions on providing a calcium
deficient diet the last three weeks before calving. Com
silage has the lowest calcium content of all forages, but
should not be fed to excess. Alfalfa hay has the highest and
should be avoided the last three weeks. Straight grass,
especially oat or other cereal grass hay provide the best
source of low calcium roughage. For grains, com, barley
and oats are low in calcium. And with supplements
monosodium phosphate has no calcium, while dicalcium
phosphate, steamed bone meal, limestone, and calcium
carbonate are all very high in calcium.
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Feeding grass or cereal grain hay plus com silage,would
provide roughage with a very low calcium content. A
seperate grain mix than that provided for the milking herd
should be used to try to keep the total calcium intake below
40 grams per day, but increasing it immediately after
calving to 100-150 grams per day which is sufficient for 60-
100 pounds of milk.
American farmer
(Continued from Page 1]
feed the world. The answer, Jantzen reveals, is helping
others to help themselves.
The goal should be to optimize production in America -
not necessarily maximize it. The same holds true for
poorer countries where just a little could go a long way. Ja
the United States, Jantzen challenges, higher production
goals are requiring greater and greater amounts of
energy and fertilizer. Reducing our intake of raw
materials would not sacrifice all that much production,
that is what Jantzen would like to see the American
farmer do.
The trend to greater energy intensification, bigness,
and mechanization should be stopped, Jantzen suggested.
~‘T’m not sure how to get out of it without asking for big
sacrifices on the part of the fanner, but if we don’t the
number of hungry people in the world will increase. The
point is: slow down energy intensitivity and make
resources more widely available,” Jantzen concluded.
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