We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Don Spiers, professor of animal sciences at the University of Missouri, talks with PD Editor Dario Martinez about the Thermal Aid app, its development and plans to make the app available to producers later this year.
Teat dips are complex chemical formulas and all the ingredients hang in a delicate balance. The correct amounts of each ingredient are important to keep the teat dip stable, effective and safe to use on your cows’ teats.
In my article, which can be found by clicking here, I discussed popular germicides often found in teat dips. Germicides, however, are just one aspect of teat dip chemistry. There are many other aspects to formulating a good teat dip.
It never ceases to amaze me how some dairy farmers treat their dry cows. I mean, they build these incredible palaces to house their milk cows, feed these cows diets balanced to the fourth decimal point and worry and fret on how they are performing.
But dry cows are second-class citizens on many farms: stuck in sub-par facilities, overcrowded and fed rations that are neither balanced nor high-quality.
“You cannot get out of trouble using the same thought process that got you into trouble.”
—Albert Einstein
Over my 28 years as a hoof trimmer, 23 have been dealing with digital dermatitis and its effects on my clients’ cows. For the international dairy industry, digital dermatitis (DD), more commonly known as strawberry foot, is one of these disease problems that has gone from a nuisance on a few cows in the late 1950s and 1960s to becoming the leading cause of lameness in dairy cattle in the world.
An on-farm assessment program developed by Novus International Inc. and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Animal Welfare Program, led by Drs. Marina von Keyserlingk and Dan Weary, is cracking the code in measuring, tracking and improving animal welfare.
The acronyms in C.O.W.S. stand for Comfort, Oxidative Balance, Well-Being and Sustainability. Those performing the assessments look at a number of factors including facility design, lying behavior, stall maintenance and the health of hocks and knees.
Imagine taking a cow’s temperature simply by snapping a picture of her head.
Want an early warning system to detect hoof disease or mastitis? Just snap a picture of the cow’s foot or udder.
These and other scenarios may be possible someday with digital infrared thermography.
It’s never difficult to spot a healthy, content cow. She’s the one chewing her cud after eating comfortably at the feedbunk. For generations, dairy producers, veterinarians and nutritionists have relied on the visual observation of rumination as a monitor of dairy cow health.
There’s good reason for this. Rumination is needed for further chewing of hastily eaten food at the feedbunk and for the constant buffering of rumen content. Inadequate rumination will lead to reduced ration digestibility and, consequently, reduced profitability.
Editor’s note: This is the final article of a three-part series.
With traditional mastitis detection methods, complex media are used for the growth and isolation of bacterial organisms. On-farm preparation, storage and proper incubation of the medium is a tedious and time-consuming process.
As summer fades to a close, take steps to help prevent the costly effects of bovine respiratory disease (BRD). Changing weather conditions can create respiratory challenges for calves. Cooling temperatures in fall and big temperature swings between day and night can lead to stress on calves’ immune systems.
Colder weather requires closing windows and doors of calf housing, creating an environment at more risk for improper ventilation, minimized air exchange and, potentially, a buildup of BRD-causing pathogens – all contributing to a utopia for BRD infections.
It was a hot sunny day in southern California when I received a phone call to do a field postmortem.
I immediately said yes – I like to do those farm visits because they give me a chance to see the surrounding area and to meet local producers and veterinarians.
RSS
