Talking about cow comfort involves listening to and understanding numerous opinions on this issue. Nevertheless, what is real cow comfort? How can it be judged? In addition, maybe even more importantly, how can it contribute to profitable dairy farming?

Rumination, or a cow chewing her cud, is a vital part of a cow’s digestive system. If you examine a herd at any point in the day, you’re almost sure to find a majority of the cows ruminating. With advances in technology, rumination monitoring systems have become a popular way to measure rumination, which means they are also able to give us other information related to the cow’s nutrition, digestion and breeding.

Early detection and prompt treatment of sick cows helps minimize the detrimental effects on milk production, reproduction and overall well-being. Unfortunately, by the time a cow goes off feed, spikes a fever or shows other disease symptoms, she’s already on the path to production losses. Diagnosing health problems earlier can help reduce treatment costs, improve the chances of treatment success and get sick cows back on the road to lactation and reproductive success.

Mastitis has a large economic impact on a dairy producer’s bottom line. Research indicates the direct and indirect costs, which include veterinary, discarded milk, extra labor, cow mortality, repeat cases and milk losses, amount to $1.7 - $2 billion per year.¹ Preventive protocols are the best option to curb 50-60% of all new cases that occur during the dry period.² Dry cow antibiotic therapy has been the most widely used method until recently. With the movement to reduce antibiotic use and regulations preventing organic dairy farms to use dry cow antibiotic therapy, teat sealants have been added to protocols or even used exclusively.

Ask any producer who consistently feeds close-up dry cows a negative-DCAD diet if it makes a difference for transition cows, and the answer will be yes. Producers routinely report that when cows are metabolically acidified, they have strong labor and calve quickly with fewer problems.

“Implementation of best management practices for transition cows will plausibly improve metabolic health, immune function and regulation of inflammation,” says Luciano Caixeta, DVM, Ph.D., and associate professor at the University of Minnesota.

As dairy producers seek more ways to sharpen the pencil on profitability, they are examining each area of the farm budget for cost-saving opportunities. This leads some to ponder the pros and cons of contracting with a professional hoof trimmer versus training an employee to do the job.

The best action plans for hoof health and digital dermatitis prevention call for consistent footbaths, and dairy farmers have the choice between manually filling and draining the bath or using an automated system to deliver protection.