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)