The impacts of management during the transition period can make or break future lactations and overall herd health, putting at risk investments in genetics, farm profitability and welfare.

Quel que soit le type de système de traite que vous envisagez d’utiliser, la période de transition demeure un des moments les plus stressants dans la vie d’une vache.

“We know that how a transition cow completes her transition period really sets her up for her entire lactation,” Dr. Erin Horst, Ph.D., said as she began her presentation about the Best Practices for Transition Cow Success at the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference. 

“Shrink, the unpaid loss of weight, is essentially an important cost of marketing,” says Chris Bastian, a professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wyoming.

"Every day, I try to target the small deficiencies and see how I can improve it. In this sense, in 2022, both milk value and longevity were affected by the precision of my transition to an owner, complete investigations with my expert robot nutritionist, and small modifications in our forage harvesting process for an optimal quality." —Isabelle Lasalle

Each individual dairy can work with their crop team and their nutritionist to see if brown midrib is an option for their ration and for their crop system.