AM-Linoistw Firming, Saturday, November 11, id9s Wisconsin Vet: Cow Comfort Translates Into Improved Production ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff NORTH CORNWALL (Leba non Co.) Inadequate cow com forf comprises one quarter of all problems a dairy veterinarian encounters as limiting factors in herd performance. And making the cow more com fortable can go a long way toward increasing productivity by impro ving overall herd health, according to Dr. Gordon Jones, DVM, Ocon to Falls, Wis. Jones spoke to about 125 live stock managers on Wednesday morning at the annual Animal Housing Expo at the Lebanon Fairgrounds. The Wisconsin veterinarian spoke to producers about the important “covenant" that needs to be kept with cow care, a coven ant that is “sacred to me." Jones held up a little toy cow to those who attended as he spoke about his wide-ranging expertise in cow care. “I brought the cow with me to remind you who speaks for the cow," said Jones. “She can’t speak for herself. You and I have to speak for her.” Jones called the cow. of which there are more than a bilUon on this planet, the most dominant ruminant In his practice, Jones said that he lakes care of nearly 300 dairy clients, which make up about 95 percent of his business. He began his practice in 1977. Many times, according to Jones, farmers get caught up in some of the headaches of the dairy business and “don’t look up from the fog to see what the neighboring county’s done or the neighboring state or what they’re doing across the country, or even around the world." They don’t lake enough of a hard, long lode at what they’re doing to improve milking and overall performance. While helping the farmer with herd health, Jones said it is impor tant to keep the individual goals of the producer in mind. But “we’ve got to come up with a way to mea sure cow comfort," he said. To raise production, the idea is to “coax" the cow into eating more. Each pound of dry matter intake (DMI) translates into nearly 'iiree pounds of milk produced for Gary Halm, attorney with Matte, Evans and Woodtida, canter, and Liz Brown, tax consultant and preparer, left, spoke about some of the strategies farm businesses can use to transfer assets and the business enterprise to succeeding family members. Moderator Is 3ohn J. Mattlllo, agrifinance officer, Core States Bank, right. Housing Expo Examines Stall a typical cow. For every seven cents invested in DMI, the returns range from 35 cents to 42 cents in milk from a cow, depending on genetics and other factors. If you can get the cow to eat one more bite, production rises, increasing profitability. If you can increase the dry mattler intake one more bite, she’ll milk more and it can be more profitable for the dairy farmer, according to Jones. “I’ve never been on a dairy in the United States where I didn’t coax the cow into eating one more bite. I’d raise performance and increase profitability without increasing more expenses beyond the feed,” said Jones. The limiting factor in improving nutrition is, in many cases, cow comfort Jones said that that, according to recent studies conducted in France, the blood flow to the udder of the cow, when she’s standing, is 3.74 liters per minute. When she’s lying down, blood flow is 5.56 liters per minute. That’s an Km Royer, president of Timber Tech Engineering, Womelsdorf, showed a series of slides from the infamous winter of 1994. In many cases, snow load damage caused millions of dollars worth of damage to wood buildings with wide, clear-span-trusses without proper bracing. increase 0f49.67 percent for a cow that’s lying down. “That’s drama tic," said Jones. The key is to “lie the cow down as quickly as you can," said Jones. Increasing blood flow with a cow at full rumen can send 90 gallons of blood per hour through the udder. “Your job as dairy men and women is to lie cows down as fast as possible,” said Jones. Cows will often ‘‘tell you when they’re uncomfortable,” said Jones, because they’ll be ’’stand ing and chewing their cud. ‘‘Something’s wrong with where they want to lie down. If you see cows standing around chewing their cud, it’s a bad time.” Evidence of a comfort problem is bad hocks on the cow’s legs. That tells a veterinarian that there is something wrong with the stall. The swollen hock is caused by the impact against a hard surface, either lying down, standing up, or grinding against the surface. Jones showed examples of cows that had bruised hocks as a result of bumping against too hard a surface in their stalls. For producers using destalls, often there is not adequate space in the stalls on the side for the cows and in the length of the stall to properly lie down or for the cows to get up. He told the producers that a ties tall platform needs to be at least 4 feet wide by 6 feel long to provide adequate room. Jones indicated that in one case, research showed that a 5-7 pound milk increase was possible with cows that arc given more room to lie down in. Also, freestalls completed with out obstructions, including posts and curbs, may be the best answer Buildin Design Dr. Gordon Jones, Wisconsin veterinarian, spoke to pro* dueers about the Important “covenant” that needs to be kept with cow care, a covenant that Is “sacred to me,” he •aid. Jones held up a little toy cow to those who attended as he spoke about his wide-ranging expertise in cow care. for cow comfort "I now think of the best bams, my best perfor mance bams, are frees tails, not destalls,” he said. Jones said that lying down cows make more milk. And lying cows lie down better when there’s more bedding. Jones provided data from research in New York that indi cated the most productive and pro fitable herds are those that spend mote money on bedding. And the best bedding is sand. “I think the gold standard for cows, be they in destalls or in frees tails, is sand,” Jones said. “Sand is the perfect bedding.” Sand is ideal because of its cush ioning and its moisture absorption. According to a display at the expo featuring Penn State recom mendations, if using sand, a mini mum 4-inch to 6-inch layer in the stall is necessary (12 inches or more is preferred). The sand must be free of stones and rocks and have minimum clay and organic material. Typical usage ranges from 20-80 pounds per stall per day. Sand can be stored in a pile near exhaust fans to keep it dry. Sand dries out quickly when spread. The manger should be prepared so that it is four inches higher than the cow’s front feet The manger should be smooth. Also, the man ger should be white because cows shy away from putting their head into a dark cavity. Water pressure to a trough should be adequate. Because of the problems of "boss cows,” more than one water site should be pro vided so that all cows can receive an adequate supply. Jones told the producers that good ventilation is also important Basket fans, he said, are not venti lation they simply take all the bad air that accumulates in the bam and spread it everywhere. Some type of natural or tunnel ventila tion is needed. Jones said that veterinarians have been used to looking at some thing that is abnormal for so long that "we start thinking abnormal is normal.’ ’ Jones said that he started to believe that a calf couldn’t be bom without assistance, even though only three percent of births are assisted. According to Jones, it’s impor tant for producers to learn to “look up from the fog” of the daily work to see what they can do to improve the farm as a business. Avoiding Building Failures “It really boils down to bracing —proper truss bracing,” said Tim Royer, president of Timber Tech Engineering. Womelsdorf, at the Expo. Royer showed a series of slides from the infamous winter of 1994. Snow load damage caused mil lions of dollars worth of damage to wood buildings that had wide, clear-span trusses without proper bracing. “Our agricultural buildings keep getting wider and longer and bigger to do more and at a better price per square foot,” said Royer. “You end up just scraping all the fat out, and there’s nothing but lean left in our building The important thing is that you don’t scrape out what should stay in, in terms of structural integrity.” The design employs “a lot light er construction than we had 200 years ago.” In the past, bam build ing's with bank construction were made with big timber and (com pared to today’s economy) expen sive materiab. Now, the buildings are “stick-built*’ designs. The buildings use two-by-fours or two by-sixes using dimensional wood metal plate trusses. The key element to structural integrity is to examine the load and follow that load path through the structure and into the properly built foundation below. In one example, heavy snows in 1994, some measuring five to six feet, caused a riding arena using 70-foot clear span wood trusses to collapse. The entire side of the roof caved in, leaving tons of snow and rubble on the flow of the building. In other examples, side-sway buckling was caused by the enorm ous snow load. “I spend a lot of time on truss bracing, primarly because that is the number one evil we found in the winter of 1994,” said Royer. In every case, there was inadequate bracing for the snow loads. . The load is going to find the weakest link. And whatever that weakest link is, that’s where the failure is going to start and possib ly take the rest of the building down, according to Royer. In another example, Royer showed that inadquate design of the bracing caused the roof of a building under construction to bow considerably. A rainstorm finally (Turn to Pag* ASS)
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