A well-managed footbath is an effective line of defense against digital dermatitis and foot rot. “You can get yourself out of a bad situation with a footbath,” Roger Olson, dairy specialist with Zinpro Performance Minerals, says.

Digital dermatitis (DD) infections are a common sight on confinement dairies, often ailing more than 20 percent of cows in a herd, but there are ways to reduce the incidence of these painful lesions that lead to limping and lameness.

Digital dermatitis (DD) goes by many different names: Mortellaro’s disease, strawberry foot rot and hairy heel warts. But the one thing everyone can agree on is how frustrating it is to see on your farm, over and over and over again – especially among heifers.

Proper hoof care management during the dry period is crucial to the cow’s ability to recover and replenish body condition. After a long, productive and taxing lactation, it is imperative that the cow is able to restore its nutrient reserves and recuperate.

Hoof problems are the bane of many producers’ existences. Lame cows eat less, fail to achieve optimal production and are more prone to other issues, such as ketosis and reduced fertility.

Your cattle’s milk production can plummet when heat and humidity rise. Depending upon cattle heat stress level, milk production can drop by 10-35%. That can equate to a loss of up to $4.55 per cow per day.  

Rumination, the cow’s ability to turn food over and over in the stomach in order to digest it, is by far one of the most telling signals the animal has in conveying health status and well-being. However, most dairy producers don’t have time to watch each and every cow “chew it over” after the TMR mixer wagon passes.

Successful milking involves multiple parties. A triad of machine, cow and employee has to be in synch for efficient milking to occur.

During the first 30 days of lactation, cows are at high risk for both infectious and metabolic disease issues such as hypocalcemia, ketosis, retained placenta (RP), metritis and abomasum displacement (DA).

When temperatures and humidity rise, often milk production falls. What about the other repercussions of heat stress in dairy cattle? Just like milk production, reproduction rates can drop as temperatures and humidity rise.