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There are enough teat dips and different teat dip formulations on the market to make your head spin (and kudos to whomever can pronounce the names of all the ingredients listed on a teat dip label).
All the different active ingredients, skin conditioners and varying percentages of both can make choosing the right teat dip for your farm a daunting task.
In some cases, the CIP system isn’t the only culprit when PI and standard plate counts are high. So it was with a Utah producer who called, desperate for help, because high PICs and SPCs were robbing him of his bonuses.
This dairy milks 1,500 cows in a 72-stall rotary parlor and had been experiencing problems since the system was built three years ago.
The CIP detectives went to the scene to investigate and identified likely suspects in both the milking system and CIP system.
Scientists at the USDA have found that a commercial vaccine is effective against leptospirosis in cattle.
A widespread zoonotic disease, leptospirosis is transmitted naturally from domestic and wild animals to humans. The contagious disease, which is caused by Leptospira bacteria, is spread through contact with food, water or soil contaminated with urine from infected animals. It can affect all farm animals, rodents and wildlife.
Left abomasal displacement (LDA) is a common and economically important disease in high-yielding dairy cows. Since the first description of LDA in 1950, many techniques for surgical correction of this disorder have been developed.
At Giessen University in Germany, the standard procedure to correct LDAs is the minimally invasive repositioning of the displaced abomasum according to the Janowitz method, first described in 1998.
Cattlemen and veterinarians primarily use commercially licensed vaccines to immunize livestock against common diseases. These commercial products are manufactured in USDA-licensed facilities, have been shown to be relatively safe when used as directed and have demonstrated some level of efficacy in controlled studies.
Once a bacteria or virus is isolated, modified and approved for use in a licensed vaccine, the vaccine may occasionally be updated with more recent strains from the field. Often vaccines continue to use the original isolates for several years without being updated.
After more than 28 years working as a hoof trimmer in the dairy industry and, like many others, seeing the many changes within the dairy industry, a simple question must be asked: “Why is lameness increasing as an issue?”
The answer is the modern dairy industry still has not recognized the requirements for the hoof to function “normally.”
When the Professional Nutrient Applicators Association of Wisconsin (PNAAW) formed a decade ago, it identified road and bridge issues as one of its top three priorities. The problem is that all types of farm equipment are getting larger and larger, while town roads are not designed to handle large and heavy loads.
To find out what was really happening to the roads, PNAAW initiated a four-state, four-year $630,000 study. Partners in this endeavor included the state Departments of Transportation for Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin; Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin; Minnesota Pork Producers and other agribusinesses and associations.
When it looked like electricity prices were about to skyrocket in 1985, the Hurst family of Lititz, Pennsylvania, decided to manage that risk by installing an anaerobic digester.
Agricultural equipment manufacturers have risen to meet the needs of today’s growing industry; however, local town and county roads where this equipment travels have not changed.
Based on the results of a four-state, four-year study (click here to read Lee's article in the March 21st issue of Progressive Dairyman and more about this study), Kevin Erb, conservation professional development and training coordinator with the University of Wisconsin Extension, has identified a few short-term and long-term solutions.
“There are several key steps the farm community and town board can take to minimize damage potential,” Erb says.
According to the U.S. EPA’sAgSTAR program, anaerobic digesters are technically feasible at more than 2,600 U.S. dairy operations, but many early adopters of methane digester systems find they are not supported by the current market conditions and energy policies.
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