HERD HEALTH
When I think of herd health. I
really think of preventative medi
cine. An ounce of prevention isn’t
really worth a pound of cure. I
think it’s really worth 10 pounds
of cure. In particular, when I think
of preventative medicine, I think
mosdy of the dry and prefresh
cows.
Our experience has been that if
we spend a little extra time with
the dry and prefresh cows to make
sure that their ration is balanced
and that they actually get what is
on the paper from the feed man.
we don’t have nearly as many
retained placentas, milk fevers,
cows off feed, and twisted sto
machs. Usually if the cows are
going to get sick, it happens about
the time they freshen. This really
hurts the pocketbook.
Over the years we occasionally
have slipped up a bit, and we
always end up with problems.
About four years ago, we decided
it would be easier to feed the
trough sweepings from the milk
ing cows to the prefresh cows
rather than hauling it out to the
heifers. Guess what happened—
milk fever, retained placentas, etc.
Cows didn’t milk well after calv
ing. So after our vet pointed it out
to us, we decided it wasn’t that
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much harder to haul it out to the
heifers.
We should have learned our les
son, but about two yean ago, we
moved our heifers to a barn about
a half mile away from the milking
herd. We decided that maybe it
wouldn’t hurt to feed a little bit of
trough sweepings to the prefresh
group and put the rest out in the
bunk feeder for some late lactation
cows.
After a couple of months, it was
easier to give the prefresh cows
more trough sweepings and take
less out to the bunk feeder, plus
we were busy in the fields, which
is when things like that tend to
happen. It is bad enough to learn a
lesson the Hard way once, but we
did it twice! Finally we built a cart
big enough to get all the trough
sweepings on one load, but small
enough to push around the cow
stable. Then we hook a mule into
it and haul it to the heifers.
Now that the trough sweepings
were being taken care of, and we
were trying hard to make sure the
prefresh cows get what they are
supposed to, cows were coming
fresh and doing quite well with
almost no health problems. There
fore, the cows were eating better
and peaking higher. Even though I
don’t understand how it works, I
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know it is very important to
balance the ration for the dry and
prefresh cows. If they don't get
started right, we have to wait
another year to get top milk
production.
Besides balancing the ration,
we make sure dry and prefiresh
cows get free choice grass hay
along with the rest of their ration
and never have an empty trough.
When they calve at night and want
to eat later, we want to have some
thing there for them to eat. When
I’m working hard, I sure don’t like
to go 6-8 hours without something
to eat or drink.
Although we don’t do much
grazing with the milking herd, we
do split the pasture up into perma
nent paddocks, including one for
the prefiresh cows. It allows us to
have a good place for them to
calve and not be confined to the
maternity pen or nice spring and
fall days. Having a “hospital
clean” and dry calving area is
another important way to prevent
health problems at calving time.
With grazing we have another
challenge. This summer one night
the cows broke through the fence
and got into some lush pasture.
One cow bloated and then calved
the next evening. Needless to say.
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she isn’t doing very well. We now
have a separate fencer for the pre
fresh group.
There are two other things that
have really helped us. One is to
body score the cows at dry off. I
also score them when they move
into the prefresh group and again
right after they calve. I am more
concerned that the cows don’t lose
body condition at this time rather
than the actual score, although we
do try to get the cows to calve at
about 3.5.
We keep a record of these
scores and compare them with the
body scores of our vet and our
feed man. If we can all see the
same changes, then we can fine
tune the ration atid cow manage
ment a little better. If 'he cows
lose body condition, we know that
we will have fresh cow problems.
The other thing we do is to
write down every incidence of
fresh cow diseases, such as milk
fever, retained placentas, twisted
stomachs, mastititis, ketosis, or
infections. Then we can see how
we stack up to our goals and adjust
our management accordingly. It’s
a lot more work to write all this
i, DRYING AND
ing The Indust
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Saptembar 30H995-A39*
ter talk to our vet and feed man
about correcting the problem. To
me, it’s like milk weighing and
figuring crop yields. When we
measure the result, we can manage
better.
In looking back over our exper
iences, it sure lodes like the pre
fresh group is an area where we
can’t take short cuts. When we do
our homework, the cows do much
better for us. Again, an ounce of
prevention is really worth 10
pounds of cure.
Note: Readers may send any
questions or comments about
these articles to the Lancaster
Fanning office. I received a let
ter flrom a reader who likes
grazing better than convention
al dairying. I will discuss th's
issue in next month’s column.
Thank you for writing—we
want to have an open discussion
going.
* *
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f*
" Jr ! ' 1
down, but when wc do this, we
don’t forget how much trouble
we’re having. We also don't
remember just one cow and think
it’s a hard problem. When we
have the real numbers wc can bet-
mm*