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Undercover videos and social media have brought too much focus to poor cow comfort and issues in the dairy industry. However, the industry’s increasing awareness and proactive approach to maximize cow comfort on dairies is what needs to be highlighted and displayed.
Setting a plan, fan selection, applying soaking, evaporative cooling or misting are all critical processes within your heat-abatement strategy, but let’s not forget the important role of system maintenance in a proper heat-abatement program.
Research shows that cooling late-gestation dry cows leads not only to healthier calves but also offers advantages in long-term reproduction and milking performance of those offspring.
Many studies show that heat stress during the dry period reduces a cow’s feed intake and weakens her immunity, resulting in a less efficient transition from gestation to lactation.
Heat stress has a significant negative impact on milk production and the dairy cow’s immune system, weakening her defenses against a myriad of metabolic diseases and infections.
The sooner you begin planning for heat stress instead of waiting for hot, humid summer weather, the better your herd will be prepared.
A 15-year-old building may seem new to some, but for Mike Larson, general manager at Larson Acres, their barn built in 1998 was in need of some updates. “We’ve learned a lot about cow comfort in 15 years,” Larson says.
Regardless of the season, dairy producers are always looking for ways to make their cows more comfortable, but when hot summertime temperatures set in, the holding area can be a particularly stale and sticky place.
If we are going to continue to be a competitive dairy business, what are we going to do about updating our facilities?
That is the question that keeps running through your head. Just coming off a record-setting milk price year, it’s important to have a dream, create a vision and then have a strategic plan in place to move forward.
Each producer has his or her own “idea” of what a dream facility may be. One person’s may be to expand because the next generation is going to enter the family farm, while another may be looking at how to cut a portion of labor out of their everyday routine.
Robot customer Mike Haines’ point of view is one many robotic dairy producers share: “I didn’t put these things in because I have money. I put them in to have a life,” Mike says.
Mike and his wife, Heather, co-own and operate Haines Dairy – a 175-cow operation – with their young family in Sigourney, Iowa. They transitioned to robotic milking in 2013, eager to take advantage of the flexibility robotic milking boasted to spend more time with their family.
Hemdale Farms in Seneca Castle, New York, installed its first automatic milking units in 2007. Two years later, the parlor ceased operation, and since then the number of robots has steadily increased.
