Proper postpartum care is essential for dairy cows to ensure they return to full reproductive health quickly.

Urine pH testing is an easy way to take advantage of a proven technology to make sure the cows are consuming the diet specifically formulated to meet their requirements. In addition, urine pH testing can be used to help dial in the diet. 

From pre-fresh to post-fresh, data from automated monitoring technology empowers dairies to act earlier, manage smarter and achieve stronger returns – one transition cow at a time.

Even though millions of cows and hundreds of research trials have demonstrated the positive benefits of feeding a negative DCAD diet, there are always those who look for new and better ways to accomplish the goal of reducing incidence of clinical and subclinical milk fever. While those interventions do exist, it is hard to beat the proven efficacy of feeding a negative DCAD diet. 

Managing and achieving a successful fresh-cow transition is a critical component of a profitable and sustainable dairy business. Despite significant achievements through research and improved management strategies, there are still numerous on-farm and individual cow risk factors that come into play, resulting in a fine line between achieving a successful transition and one that always seems to be a work in progress.

Managing cows correctly during the transition period is one of the most important factors for overall farm success. During the transition period, nutrient requirements change to support fetal growth, colostrogenesis and the onset of lactation following parturition.

Most dairy cows have potentially disease-causing bacteria in their reproductive tract in low abundance. Cows develop uterine infection and disease when the pathogens overgrow and become dominant. Cows need to have a rapid, robust and well-regulated inflammatory response in the uterus during and immediately after calving to detach the placenta, keep bacterial pathogens in check and start uterine repair.