Advances in genetics, nutrition and management have led to larger increases in milk production per cow over the past 40 years. These production increases have also led to growing heat stress problems for lactating and close-up cows in warm weather.

In his fifth edition of Dairy Cattle and Milk Production published in 1939, Dr. Clarence Eckles reported that the “ratio between the human population and the number of cows in the United States had remained essentially the same since 1850.” At that time, there were 36 million dairy cows in the U.S. producing an average of 8,700 pounds of milk per lactation.

Dairy cows need water to turn feed into milk – a product that is already nearly 90 percent water. Achieving ideal water intake comes down to two criteria: quantity and quality.

Bedding choice directly influences cow comfort, but the decision on which material to put underneath cows must consider several other factors, such as cost, availability, ease of handling, udder health, pathogen growth and more.

Nuisance flies are a vector of disease and an irritant to cattle and workers on a dairy operation. Because of the confined nature of a dairy, it is important to use an integrated pest management (IPM) program for effectively controlling fly populations.

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.