The sun is shining, and the air is hot … summer is here. Although we as humans appreciate the warmer weather, our cows do not. Because ventilation and cooling is so important to cow comfort and minimizing heat stress, let’s take a moment to focus on simple fan maintenance and ways to increase their overall impact.

Established in 1967, the 450-acre, second-generation Mor-Dale Farms in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, has been owned by Ralph Moyer and his wife, Crystal, since 1991.

Think about your most stressful day. Now imagine that day lasts for several months. How productive would you be? How hard would you work? How much harder would you work if you weren’t stressed?

Compost-bedded pack barns are a relatively new housing system of interest globally.

Consumer demands may be fickle and often are not based on a realistic view of livestock production. Yet today’s consumer focus on animal welfare should factor into dairy producer decisions. While market demands have to be taken into consideration, farm management decisions must be based on the science behind animal health and welfare.

Heather Dann of the Miner Institute defines cow comfort as being “a function of the cow’s management,” which has both social and environmental components. Comfortable cows are able to naturally balance their basic needs for rest, rumination and feeding. When these needs are met, cows are healthy and productive.

Cow brushes for grooming and comfort are becoming an increasingly common sight on American dairy farms. Dairymen agree that these types of brushes provide enrichment through grooming and fly control.

Similar to how humans use crutches to limit the use of an injured foot in order to heal, cows rely on a similar approach called blocking to allow abscesses, claw injuries or other conditions to heal. Blocks are applied to a cow’s healthy claw to elevate the injured one off the ground so that it can heal and avoid lameness.

Maier Dairy in Waunakee, Wisconsin, has transformed their hoof health program with a systematic, team-based approach that includes scheduled trimming, lameness prevention and routine monitoring.

When talking about hoof lesions, stop using the “a” word. On many hoof trimming records, the term “abscess” is a catchall for just about any insult to a dairy cow’s foot, but according to University of Minnesota’s Dr. Gerard Cramer, “That doesn’t tell us anything.”