The transition to lactation is a metabolically challenging time in the life cycle of a dairy cow. Nutrient requirements to support milk production exceed nutrient intake, and the cow is at increased risk of metabolic and infectious disorders.

Often, when I visit a farm to troubleshoot an incident of poor transition cow performance, I hear the comment, “Things had been going so well until now. What might have changed with my anionic supplement?”

“My dad taught me that if we take care of the cows, they take care of us,” says Chris Heins, sixth-generation dairy farmer in Lafayette County, Missouri.

Paying special attention to transition cows from the close-up or maternity pen to the fresh pen usually pays big dividends for the dairy producer. During no other time in a cow’s lactation cycle will she be more prone to diseases and setbacks than this short window. The big dividends paid to the dairy producer include higher milk production, maintain/minimize loss of body condition score, low incidence of metabolic disorders, minimize loss of immunocompetence, control/decrease days to first ovulation and maintain/enhance fertility after the birth of a healthy calf.

In the world of dairy nutrition, new recommendations are continually being made. An important area of focus in which new advances are being made is dry cow nutrition, especially the close-up dry cow period, as it is a crucial time.

If you already do a good job with feeding management and monitoring pre-fresh cows, then implementing a moderate negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) diet is just adding some minerals. Cows on a moderate DCAD diet are mildly metabolically acidified with a urine pH of 6 to 7, which gives you a little safety measure if DCAD drift occurs.

Nutritional management during the transition period is very important, as it affects health, milk production and reproductive performance of dairy cows.

For many years, the expectations for high milk production along with excellent herd health and reproductive performance were considered at odds with each other. It was believed you should not and could not expect to achieve high milk yields without compromising herd health and reproductive performance.

Lameness continues to increase on dairy farms as more tools are available to monitor and evaluate, consumer groups raise lameness as an animal welfare issue, and cost of treatment can be $498.