Dairy conference

Makin’ Me Dizzy – Pen Moves and Facility Designs to Maximize Transition Cow Health and Productivity

Nigel B. Cook MRCVS
Clinical Associate Professor in Food Animal Production Medicine
University of Wisconsin-Madison
School of Veterinary Medicine

Introduction

The success of a particular dairy herd’s transition cow program is the sum of the strategies used by the herd to preventsub-clinical and clinical disease and the ability of the health workers in the herd to identify and successfully treat the clinical disease that occurs, so that future production and health of the treated individual is minimally affected. Across the dairy herds that we visit, we will see success resulting from effective prevention, effective treatment, and a combination of the two.

This paper willexamine current thoughts on the prevention of clinical and sub-clinical disease through grouping and housing.

The Importance of Change in DMI

Much attention has been focused upon the nutritional needs of transition cows over the last few decades, with the majority of dairy herds in North America following programs aimed at maximizing dry matter intake (DMI) at calving time. These programsrevolve around feeding energy dense rations in the last 10-21 days of gestation, in the belief that this approach will enhance milk production and prevent metabolic disease in the early post-partum period. However, despite these apparent ‘improvements’ in dry cow nutrition, information from multiple sources suggests that peri-parturient health has not improved.

On average, 9.5% of cows in each herdwere sold or had died by 60 days in milk (DIM) in 268 Wisconsin dairy herds over 200 cows in size, with a mean turnover rate of 37.9%. This is used as a crude monitor of fresh cow health. Field data from 95 herds visited by our group, averaging 680 cows herd size, with a 38.3% turnover rate, have 7.0% of cows in the herd found dead on farm and a 9.3% rate of displaced abomasum (DA). These numbersfar exceed what we should be able to achieve as an industry and raise questions about the effectiveness of current management practices.

Interestingly, UW researchers have recently made the case that it may not be the absolute level of DMI at calving which is important for the prevention of metabolic disease, but the change in DMI during the last few days of gestation (Figure 1). This will beaffected by a range of animal, dietary and management factors. The magnitude of the reduction in DMI is greater in mature cows, but the rate of change is faster in heifers – making them particularly susceptible to sudden changes in management at the point of calving. This paper will focus on recent findings from our field investigations that shed light on some of the management factors which mayinfluence change in DMI.

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Figure 1. Predicted dry matter intake (DMI) of heifers and cows during the final three weeks of gestation (from Grummer et al., 2004).

Management Factors that Influence Transition Cow Health

We have focused on the interactions between three main transition management factors:

1. Duration of exposure to the close-up ration and to the herd-mates withina group

2. Movements between pens

3. Overstocking within these pens

Large free stall housed dairy herds have developed a system of management that involves moving animals between groups to facilitate feeding, breeding and health management. Moving cattle between groups brings about a considerable change in behavior and a period of increased interaction for about 48 h before socialstabilization and the development of a stable hierarchy. These changes may have a negative effect on milk yield and health in the moved individuals. Effects on milk production for mature cows moved after the transition period are small and short-term in nature. However, not all movements between groups should be considered equal, and the effect on individuals; first lactation animals and...