There is “tremendous marginal value in getting cows to eat more,” Albert De Vries, department of animal sciences, University of Florida, said during the 2017 Cornell Cow Comfort Conference, hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension North Country Regional Ag Team.

Dr. Gordie Jones, an independent dairy performance consultant and partner in Central Sands Dairy in Wisconsin, is a recognized expert in freestall facility design. Ironically, he began his career as a fierce supporter of tiestall facilities, believing freestalls were detrimental to cow comfort and health.

Dairy farmers today are looking for options to diversify the farm income stream. With labor costs and milk pricing often squeezing most of the profitability from the dairy, staying in business can mean finding new ways to utilize the skills and resources you already have.

Good management requires good observational powers. You’ve got to see and hear, and sometimes even feel, taste and smell, to ascertain whether or not things are going as planned. Technology makes it possible to move beyond the limits of your own five senses and incorporate data – collected from cameras, ear and leg tags, and robotic milking equipment – into your management plans.

Today’s technology is offering ways to enhance cow comfort using labor-saving robots, automated equipment and computerized health monitoring systems. With such a wide array of options available, selecting those that fit the individual needs of your dairy can be challenging.

Producers should consider maternity care, dry cow health, overstocking and social stressors when looking for ways to improve cow comfort.

According to one study, activity and rumination monitors have the potential to accurately detect fresh cow diseases like ketosis, metritis, displaced abomasum and even mastitis days earlier than clinical signs can be detected.

Not only are dairymen interested in raising their own bull calves for the beef market, many are interested in expanding into a secondary, complementary beef enterprise on the dairy farm and are purchasing Holstein calves for this purpose.

“The turnout is incredible. It shows there is a definite interest in this,” said Jayne Sebright, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence, addressing the crowd at the On-Farm Processing Forum held in Harrisburg in late 2016.