Vaccines are a vital part of maintaining the health and well-being of a dairy herd, but have you ever wondered about what makes them work? Grooms covered some of the basics of vaccinology. He included basic immunology and how vaccines work, as well as the different types of vaccines and important considerations for designing and implementing a vaccine program for your farm. During this presentation, Dr. Ray Sweeney discussed some of the big questions people have about bovine leukosis virus. Lameness is a painful, costly, common and complex problem - a problem with which too many dairies struggle.
Dealing with a lameness problem not only involves identifying and dealing with lame cows in the herd, but trying to prevent new cases from occurring in the first place. This webinar is focused on a number of best management practices that farms can utilize to try to minimize the number of cows that become lame - even when milk prices and profit margins are low.
Ketosis is the most common metabolic disease in dairy cattle, and it's important to be able to identify individual cows with ketosis as well as monitor herd prevalence. Oetzel discussed the testing process, including which tests can be used, the pros and cons of different tests, and testing strategies you may be able to use. LeBlanc discusses various aspects of metritis in dairy cows. He discusses some of the contributing factors, such as lowered feed intake, bacteria loads, and various stressors, as well as diagnostic methods.
He also covers the impact of metritis and efficacy of some of the available treatment options. A successful lactation starts well before calving. Going back to the completion of her previous lactation and entry into the far dry cow pen, how we manage and feed the cow well before she approaches calving contributes to the likelihood of her achieving a high level of milk production and conceiving in a timely manner. In this presentation Dr. Overton walked through the opportunities and challenges in the far dry, close-up, and fresh pen, including nutritional and housing management, and discuss a few of the key monitoring approaches for evaluating performance.
McArt discussed common treatments, including:. Herd-level testing and treatment strategies were presented as well as action recommendations following herd prevalence estimation. Ernest Hovingh's PowerPoint presentation: Part 1 and Part 2. Jan Shearer will walk you through how to create a standard operating procedure for non-ambulatory dairy cattle. In this session Dr. Proudfoot discussed why using appropriate animal handling practices is so important for dairies!
She talked about cow memory and how that can influence fear responses to handlers, as well as how you can determine whether your farm or your client's farm could benefit from a handling training program. The space a dairy cow lives in can have a significant influence on her health and performance. During this webinar, Dan McFarland discussed dairy housing features that can influence cow comfort, methods to evaluate critical areas, and suggestions for improving those areas.
The handout referred to in the webinar can be found here. Cooling dairy cows is the most important strategy to improve both milk production and reproduction during summer months. During this session, Dr. Hansen discussed opportunities that dairy farms can utilize to evaluate the effect of heat stress on their dairies. He also covered various environmental modifications that can be employed to improve cow performance.
Heat stress costs the American dairy industry approximately 1 billion dollars annually in production losses. Novel economic evaluation and approaches were discussed to educate producers on cost effective strategies to improve summer fertility. Proper dietary programs are essential to cow health and performance during heat stress. Understanding what dietary changes can be made prior to and during summer heat stress are important for assisting thermoregulatory mechanisms of our modern high producing lactating dairy cows to aid in reducing the negative effects of heat stress.
During this session, nutritional changes were presented for producers and consultants to make informed decisions on the proper dietary changes necessary to reduce the severity of summer heat stress.
INTRODUCTION
Reproductive failure is the number one reason dairy cows involuntarily leave the dairy farm and summer heat stress amplifies this costly issue. However, managerial, hormonal and novel reproductive technologies are available which will reduce the severity of summer heat stress on reproduction. Mastitis is one of the biggest chronic problems facing the dairy industry- it is ever present. Ron Erskine discussed how to better identify cases of mastitis through tools such as milk culturing, somatic cell count records, and treatment records.
Ruegg joins us to discuss selective dry cow therapy. Learn about implementing and evaluating a program, as well as how to decide whether selective therapy might be a good fit for your operation. Nickerson discusses the prevalence and treatment of mastitis in bred heifers, as well as several strategies for prevention. Learn about using teat seals, controlling horn fly populations, vaccinations, and feed additives that might help reduce the incidence of new infections.
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This webinar deals with somatic cell counts: View and download Ron Erskine's PowerPoint presentation. View and download Larry Fox's PowerPoint presentation. View and download Jeff Reneau's PowerPoint presentation. The milking system is the heart of any dairy operation, and requires a lot of consideration! Thomson discussed the design and analysis of a milking system, including some reasons a producer might consider changing the milking system, frequency of evaluation, and basic system design. He also covered regular maintenance concerns and discussed the National Mastitis Council's analysis fundamentals and goals.
Christina Petersson-Wolfe joins us to discuss on-farm milk culturing from deciding which cows to test to using results. Learn about collecting and plating samples, identifying types of pathogens, and treatment recommendations for different types of infection. Nickerson discussed the keys of proper dry-off procedures for dairy cows, including:. Erskine joins us to discuss selective dry cow therapy. Learn about some of the research around selective and blanket dry cow therapy. He also discusses tactics for implementing selective therapy, from identifying and monitoring candidates to ensuring a clean environment.
Watch as Penn State's Dr. Robert VanSaun uses dissection to show the physical anatomy of the mammary gland and how mastitis comes about. During this session Dr. Frank Mitloehner discussed scientific findings as they relate to the impacts of dairy industry on environmental quality.
He also summarized national and regional efforts to quantify and mitigate emissions, as well as developments in air quality regulation and litigation. John Fiscalini, a California dairy producer, discussed the more practical aspects of these issues. View and download Frank Mitloehner's PowerPoint presentation.
View and download John Fiscalini's PowerPoint presentation. How Low Can We Go: Nitrogen in Dairy Rations. Mike Van Amburgh of Cornell University discussed how low we can formulate dairy rations for nitrogen, and what this means for the cost of the ration and for environmental impact.
We also heard from Mike McMahon, a dairy producer, on the practical side of on-farm nitrogen management. Precision Phosphorus Feeding for Dairy Farms. During this session, Katharine Knowlton of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Jimmy Huffard, a dairy producer in Virginia, discussed recent research into phosphorus requirements for dairy cattle, the bioavailability of different phosphorus sources, and how these impact the dairy farm and the environment.
View and download the PowerPoint file here. In this session held on November 11, , Dr. Goff defined subclinical hypocalcemia and its causes. He also discussed the implications of subclinical hypocalcemia on cow health, with some emphasis on immune suppression. There are numerous points in a nutrition program where problems may arise, especially when you're dealing with transition cows. In this webinar held on November 20, , you can learn how to use records to track performance of transition and early lactation cows to diagnose problems in your nutrition program. Unsure of where your dairy's feeding program might be leaking money?
On November 7, , Dr. Brouk discussed how you can do a little detective work to identify some common sources of unseen feed costs in a dairy herd. Just a few areas he covered included commodity shrink, mixer errors, refusals, and expense of inventory. Heather Dann on the importance of transition cow management, and how feeding lower-energy transition diets could benefit a herd. From monitoring intake to coordinating various diets, Dr.
Dann offers insights into setting cows up for success in their next lactation. With so many variables affecting the quality of silage, it can be difficult to manage the fermentation process to produce an optimal feed. Kung covered the general factors which affect forage quality, the basic types of silage fermentation, factors that affect fermentation and silage stability, and some management practices to help in attaining high feeding value. Formulating accurate diets for lactating dairy cows requires users to input body weight, milk production, milk composition and perhaps other factors such as days in milk and parity.
If you are only feeding one cow, those numbers are easy to get, but if you are formulating for a group of cows, what numbers should you use? St-Pierre discussed how to control feed costs using various methods. He covered what a TMR audit is, as well as factors that affect TMR consistency such as bunker face management, overfilling, under-processing of hay, improper loading of liquid supplements, worn equipment, and under-mixing.
View and download Dr. Despite many advances in the nutritional management of dairy cows, we know that dry matter intake is not always maximized, nor is the way feed is consumed always ideal for the cow. In this dairy video, you can learn about the role that feeding behavior has on ensuring dairy cow health and productivity, including how, when, and what cows eat of the feed provided to them.
DeVries will also discuss how we use that knowledge to evaluate feeding systems, including the management of feed and the feeding area. Strategies may then be implemented that allow cattle to have good access to the feed provided to them, and consume it in manner which is conducive to good health, productivity, and welfare. Wiltbank discussed some studies on the effects nutrition can have on reproduction for high-efficiency dairy cattle.
He talked about some important time periods to focus on, the effect of vitamin E on reproductive performance, dry period nutrition and post-partum body condition, and more,. Oetzel covered various aspects of treating and preventing subclinical hypocalcemia. In addition to the efficacy of dietary means of prevention, he discussed oral calcium supplements and how the calcium source can affect response.
Many dairies experience difficulty in their reproduction programs, and a wide range of factors can affect reproductive success in a herd.
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In this session, Ray Nebel took a look at some of the factors that affect reproduction on dairies, including labor, nutrition, environment, and the cow herself. He also discussed how you can find and fix problems that could be affecting the success of your reproduction program. Cabrera and Fricke of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed some new economic analysis tools for dairy reproduction programs. These tools are openly available at http: Fricke covered two areas of reproductive research that have investigated new tools for reproduction and conclude each with an economic analysis of the data.
The first new tool will be the use of accelerometer systems combined with various levels of synchronization for submitting cows for first AI service. The second tool will be new methods for nonpregnancy diagnosis coupled with strategies for resynchronization of ovulation. Try asking one of our Experts. This is where you can find research-based information from America's land-grant universities enabled by eXtension. View publishing information about this page. Dairy Video Archive Dairy September 17, Foot Rot and Digital Dermatitis Dr.
Preventing Lameness in Dairy Cattle Dr. Ernest Hovingh, Penn State University Learn about lameness prevention in dairy cattle with a focus on footbaths! Nutritional Causes of Lameness Dr. Robert Van Saun, Penn State university Nutrition affects lameness and hoof health in a variety of ways.
Recognizing Lame Cows Early Dr. Defining a Compensation Structure for the Dairy Workforce Felix Soriano, APN Consulting In this video, Felix discusses both the importance of having well-defined compensation packages and how you can achieve this for your farm. Economic Benchmarks for Dairies: Employee turnover rate and employee engagement Management makes a difference Focus employees on achieving performance standards Providing opportunities to learn and develop Language and cultural barriers View the recorded webinar.
Alison Van Eenennaam, UC Davis The use of social media in public engagement and extension is a relatively new phenomenon, and many scientists are cautious about using it professionally. The correlation between these variables was moderate; the adjusted R 2 was Scatter plot of the incidence rates of the first case of clinical mastitis in the first 30 d of lactation for cattle at pasture during the dry period IRCM-Pasture; cases per cow at risk and cattle housed during the dry period IRCM-Housed; cases per cow at risk.
As well as variability between farm-years and farms in the underlying rate of the first case of CM, additional variability in first-case CM was identified between farms for first-parity cows and this term was incorporated in the final models. For housed cows, explanatory covariates that were correlated with significant covariates in the final models but that could not be fit because of collinearity were routine body condition scoring of cows at drying off protective , good drainage in the early dry-cow cubicle accommodation protective , mattresses used on dry-cow cubicle surfaces protective , disinfection of the close-up cow cubicle beds protective , and housing the transition cows with the milking cows increased risk.
One covariate was correlated with significant covariates in the models for cows at pasture; this was ensuring that cows stood for 30 min after administration of the dry-cow treatment protective. Parameter estimates from the multilevel Bernoulli model with first case of clinical mastitis within 30 d of calving as the response, for cows housed during the dry period model 1. Parameter estimates from the multilevel discrete time survival model with first case of clinical mastitis as the response, for cows at pasture in the dry period model 4.
Two cow-level covariates were associated with an increased risk of a first case of CM in all models; parity and SCC. No effect on CM was identified from cow yield before drying off either the last recorded yield or d lactation yield. At the farm level, factors associated with altering the risk of a first case of CM could generally be grouped according to the timing of the event: An illustration of the main significant risk factors and correlated covariates, to summarize all models, is provided in Figure 6.
Summary of the major cow, farm, and management factors associated with a significantly reduced risk of clinical mastitis. Omission of outlying individual farms or farm-years did not have an important effect on any model parameters or overall biological interpretation. The equivalent positive and negative predictive values for farm-years when cows were at pasture were This is the first study to examine concurrently, and on a reasonably large scale, cow characteristics, farm facilities, and herd management strategies during the dry period that influence the rate of a first case of CM in the following lactation.
A range of factors were associated with an increased risk and it is notable that they encompass a variety of times and events throughout the dry period, from the time of drying off to just after calving. The cow characteristics associated with an increased rate of CM were not surprising. Because some of these infections may remain from the end of one lactation until the start of the next failure to cure during the dry period , this group is likely to be at increased risk of CM during the following lactation.
Increasing parity increased the risk of CM and this has been noted previously Green et al. It may be that there are anatomical changes in the teat over time that cause disruption of the natural defense mechanisms or there may be a systematic reduction in immune capability associated with aging Paganelli et al. There may also be a risk that chronic infection survives through lactations as well as dry periods and results in an accumulated risk of recrudescence of clinical disease with increasing age. This consistent finding warrants further investigation. Of the herd management factors associated with an increased rate of CM, many were related to hygiene; thus, the increased risk of CM probably resulted from increased pathogen challenge from the environment.
Hygiene measures associated with the administration of dry-cow treatments, management of the early and late dry-period accommodations, and the calving area were all associated with an increased rate of CM.
What are dairy farmers doing to ensure cows health
It is probable that attention to these practical procedures would have real benefits for mastitis control. Some other herd management factors are worthy of more detailed consideration. Cows at pasture during the dry period and vaccinated with a leptospirosis vaccine were at reduced risk of CM compared with nonvaccinated herds. Bovine leptospirosis is not recognized as an important cause of bovine mastitis National Mastitis Council, ; Bradley et al.
It is possible that the vaccine confers some direct or indirect protective effect for mastitis, and this is worth further investigation. Leptospirosis vaccination was not associated with a reduced risk of CM when dry cows were housed; thus, it seems likely that any effect differs for cows housed or at pasture. Interestingly, some Leptospira serovars have been reported previously to have seasonal differences in infection patterns Ellis et al.
It is also possible that leptospirosis vaccination is a confounding covariate; administration of the vaccine could be associated with other unidentified farm factors that reduce the risk of CM. Another herd management policy associated with reduced CM for cows at pasture during the dry period was the application of different dry-cow regimens for different cows within a herd. The principle of selecting different dry-cow products for individual cows within a herd has been described for circumstances in the United Kingdom Bradley et al. The results of this study are of interest because they indicate that this slightly more complex approach to the application of dry-cow therapy does have a clinical benefit.
In the current study, no individual pharmaceutical product was associated with a reduced rate of CM; thus, the principle of selecting an appropriate treatment for cows within a herd was more important than choosing any particular product. It is unclear why the application of different dry-cow regimens for different cows within a herd was beneficial only for cows at pasture, and more research in this area would be enlightening.
Cows that were at pasture for the dry period had a lower rate of CM when farms had a pasture rotation policy of grazing a piece of land for a maximum of 2 wk before allowing it to remain ungrazed for 4 wk. Many dairy herds in the United Kingdom prefer to keep dry cows at pasture in the belief that conditions are cleaner. These findings indicate that pasture contamination may occur and that this rotation policy might reduce challenge. Ecological issues surrounding mastitis pathogens that survive predominantly in the environment are not well defined.
Although these pathogens are considered to prefer warm, wet, organic conditions Hogan and Smith, , exact survival times and infective doses under different conditions of temperature, humidity, and sunlight, for example, are poorly characterized. Further understanding in this area would help to improve environmental management for mammary health, particularly for cows at pasture. Cows that were at pasture for the dry period, and that were on farms that carried out routine body condition scoring at drying off or that fed the same forages for the calving cows as for lactating cows, experienced a reduced rate of CM compared with herds that did not follow these policies.
These farm policies may be beneficial to mastitis control indirectly, through limiting of negative energy status, a link that has previously been reported Suriyasathaporn et al. Cows that were on farms with a policy of foremilking cows within 6 h of calving had a reduced rate of CM compared with farms that foremilked cows later after calving. The reason for this is unclear.
Similarly, cows had an increased rate of CM on farms where calves had access to suckle from cows other than their dam. A hypothesis in this case could be that access to suckle from more than one cow allows pathogens to spread between cows. The use of a California Mastitis Test in cows after calving is commonly recommended in the United Kingdom. In this study, cows on farms that used this practice had an increased rate of CM. This may be a result of improved mastitis detection, reverse causality an increased rate of CM after calving resulting in a greater probability of use of the test , or it is possible that over-diagnosis occurs with this test; that is, cows that may self cure are treated as clinical cases based on a positive California Mastitis Test.
Alternatively, it is possible that the test was not always conducted with adequate hygiene procedures and thereby caused an increased risk of new IMI. This finding is worthy of further investigation. One herd management practice that was unexpectedly associated with an increased rate of CM was the general policy of reducing cow milk yield before drying off.
An increased milk yield at drying off has been previously reported to result in an increased risk of CM Dingwell et al. Furthermore, in the current study, both individual cow yield at the test day before drying off and d yield during the previous lactation were tested as possible risk factors, but neither influenced the rate of CM.
It may be, however, that the magnitude of milk yield at the point of drying off is important in increasing the risk of subsequent CM, and such an effect has been reported recently in a single-herd study of IMI after calving Rajala-Schultz et al. Because milk yield at the point of drying off was not measured in the current study, firm conclusions about milk yield and CM are difficult to draw.
It would be of interest to conduct further multiple-herd studies to assess the extent of between-herd variability in the effect of milk yield at the point of drying off and subsequent mammary gland health. An aspect of herd management that did not have a measurable effect on rates of CM was straw yard management, despite the fact that more than half of cows housed during the dry period were kept in straw yards.
A variety of issues were considered including cleaning out times, bedding management, and stocking density. Therefore, hypotheses for improving yard management cannot be generated from these data. The predictions of rates of CM made from the final models indicated a good model fit and are encouraging for model interpretation. The relatively high correlation between predicted and observed rates of CM for each farm-year indicates that the variables incorporated in the final models were useful to explain differences in mastitis incidence.
A plausible link between many of the risk factors identified in this study and the rate of CM is through an effect on the probability of infection during the dry or calving period leading to an increased risk of CM Green et al. Direct paths of causality between explanatory and response covariates, however, can only be inferred cautiously from cohort studies of this type.
Susceptibility of the bovine mammary gland to infection during the dry period is considered to be greatest in the days after drying off and in the 3 wk before calving Bradley and Green, , and results from this study indicate that the probability of infection can be influenced by cow and farm factors during this time. Thus, there seems to be a complex series of interrelationships; cow infection status at drying off, individual cow tendency to cure and to new infection, the influence of farm facilities, farm practices, and treatment strategies, as well as the probability of CM conditional upon infection status at calving.
Therefore, to weigh decisions on prevention of CM from the dry period, probabilities and costs need to be attached appropriately to all these events so that farm-decision models can be developed. This would be a useful area of further research. Combinations of cow characteristics, farm facilities, and herd management strategies during the dry period were associated with an increased rate of CM in lactation. Models incorporating these factors made a good prediction of the incidence rate of CM in the first 30 d of lactation for different farm-years.
The research indicated that dry-period management influences CM in the next lactation and has highlighted areas important for mastitis control. Parameter estimates from the multilevel Bernoulli model with first case of clinical mastitis within 30 d of calving as the response, for cows at pasture during the dry period model 2. Parameter estimates from the multilevel discrete time survival model with first case of clinical mastitis as the response, for cows housed during the dry period model 3. We are also very grateful to Laura Green, James Breen, and Katharine Leach for data collection, James Booth for his support, and all the farmers and their veterinary surgeons for their participation and cooperation.
National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Author manuscript; available in PMC Aug Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at J Dairy Sci. See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. Abstract The purpose of the research was to investigate cow characteristics, farm facilities, and herd management strategies during the dry period to examine their joint influence on the rate of clinical mastitis after calving.
Open in a separate window. Description of the Data Data were collected from all farms by trained researchers over a 2-yr period from May to May Statistics and Analysis Cow and farm data were transferred to a database Access , Microsoft Corp. Model specifications were First case of clinical mastitis within 30 d of calving: Discrete time survival frailty model time from calving to first case of CM during lactation. RESULTS A total of 8, cow-dry periods 6, cows were used in the analysis of CM in cows housed for the dry period and 9, cow-dry periods 7, cows in the analysis of CM in cows with dry periods at pasture.
Table 1 Parameter estimates from the multilevel Bernoulli model with first case of clinical mastitis within 30 d of calving as the response, for cows housed during the dry period model 1. Table 4 Parameter estimates from the multilevel discrete time survival model with first case of clinical mastitis as the response, for cows at pasture in the dry period model 4.
Table 3 Parameter estimates from the multilevel discrete time survival model with first case of clinical mastitis as the response, for cows housed during the dry period model 3. The effect of an intramammary teat seal on new intramammary infections. A study of the incidence and significance of intramammary enterobacterial infections acquired during the dry period.
An investigation of the impact of intramammary antibiotic dry cow therapy on clinical coliform mastitis. The importance of the non-lactating period in the epidemiology of intramammary infection and strategies for prevention.
Dairy Cattle Mastitis and Milking Management - eXtension
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