Issue of the Week (Dec. 24-28): Keeping Calves Warm

Posted on December 26, 2012 by steveh

What’s the Issue?

  • Cold calves require more energy to stay warm and they are more susceptible to calf diseases like pneumonia and scours.

What’s the Impact?

  • Calves with pneumonia, scours and other diseases do not seem to thrive and grow as well as healthy calves.
  • Milk production and profit can be affected later in the cow’s life.

ANIMART Solution(s):

  • Use calf jackets for (at least) the first two weeks of life.
  • Keep a deeply bedded hutch or stall so they can make a nest. It’s deep enough if only half the calf is visible.
  • Feed enough calories in the diet. Consider adding products like Super Calf to the milk for added caloric density.
    • If feeding a 20-20 milk replacer the minimum should be 1.5 gallons per day and it has been recommended to feed 2 gallons per day until they’re eating a half pound of grain.
    • Feeding three times daily reduces the risk of Clostridia compared to feeding twice daily at this accelerated level.
Posted in Calf Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Issue of the Week (Dec. 10-14): Pneumonia in Cows

Posted on December 12, 2012 by steveh

What’s the Issue?

  • Pneumonia in adult cows has been on the rise over the past few months.

What’s the Impact?

  • Pneumonia in adult cows can cause a loss in milk production due to the cow not feeling well and going off feed.
  • Financial loss can also occur if you are forced to treat the cow with antibiotics that have a milk withhold.
  • Depending on the causative agent the rest of your cattle could be at an increased risk for becoming infected.
  • If you do not diagnose and begin treatment early, chronic pneumonia could develop affecting the rest of the animal’s productive life. 

ANIMART Solution(s):

  • Prevention is always key. Vaccinating your herd with the appropriate vaccines is one way to prevent most pneumonia.  Check with your veterinarian to see if you are using the appropriate vaccines. Second making sure you have good air exchange by having good ventilation system in your barns will also reduce your risk for pneumonia.
  • Always contact your veterinarian if symptoms do not improve with treatment.
  • If you have death loss due to the pneumonia consider having your veterinarian do a necropsy. Definitive diagnosis of the causative agent with a culture and sensitive will help you determine if your vaccination and treatment protocols are accurately targeting that agent.
Posted in Animal Health Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Issue of the Week (Dec. 3-7): Deciding whether to replace a milk cow with a heifer, sell young heifers or sell bred heifers.

Posted on December 5, 2012 by steveh

What’s the Issue?

  • Producers with good reproduction have an abundance of replacement heifers and are having a hard time deciding whether to replace a cow with a heifer or sell a heifer.  If producers sell heifers, then they have to decide at what age to sell them.

What’s the Impact?

  • Overcrowding dairy cows is counterproductive and leads to inefficiencies.  For example; a barn that’s 150% crowded per bunk space will have the same total milk volume in the tank as the same barn at 120% crowded.
  • The overcrowding is costing dairies additional costs in feed, maintenance and labor.
  • Financial analysis of high producing dairy herds with optimal fertility indicates that the most profitable herd demographic has about 38-40% lactation one cows.  This optimizes total milk production and genetic improvement.

 ANIMART Solution(s):

  • You can’t manage or control your herd if you don’t measure or record certain events.  Record sick events and cull heifers early if they have two or more sick events.  These heifers will be more at risk of not being productive.
  • Consider genomic testing young heifer calves and selling the bottom 10%.
  • Fine-tune heifer reproduction so that they’re bred as soon as they’re ready.
  • With expensive feed prices, each day a heifer is open costs a producer about $3 or more.  It will cost an average producer in Wisconsin $1,600 to raise a springing heifer but if you sell her, the average producer would get $1500.  That $100 loss could be offset by getting her bred a month earlier.
  • Make sure that the herd is about 40% lactation one.  Producers should be labeling older, problem or heavy cows with a DNB before breeding them to encourage culling the right animals.  This will also make them more profitable because pregnancy lowers milk production and components.
Posted in Animal Health Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Issue of the Week (Nov. 19-23): Low Corn Production

Posted on November 20, 2012 by steveh

Low Corn Production, Increase Risk of Health Issues

What’s the issue?

  • With this past summer’s drought, feed production (especially corn) is down for many producers and costs are high.
  • This has been causing many issues making sure cattle are being fed a balanced ration with all the necessary components such as: starches, protein, fats, fiber and Dry Matter Intake (DMI).
  • Due to the shortage, producers have to go to unusual places, like bakeries and candy shops, to find items that can replace low starch levels, however; these places are not always the cheapest or healthiest options.

What’s the impact?

  • If cattle do not have a balanced ration, they can develop acidosis that affects the cow’s reproduction and leads to poor transition, increased potential foot issues and decreased overall milk production; all resulting in profit loss for producers.

ANIMART solution(s)

  • Meet with your herd veterinarian and nutritionist to actively evaluate and determine any changes that can be made to your current protocols.
  • Use the information they share with you to help increase milk production (through higher protein and milk fat content), improve reproduction results and develop overall advanced herd health.
Posted in Animal Health Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Issue of the Week (Nov. 12-16): Coccidia in Calves

Posted on November 15, 2012 by steveh

Coccidia in Calves Being Fed Pasteurized Whole Milk

What’s the issue?

  • Coccidiosis is a common disease of young calves usually between the ages of 1-2 months of age. Coccidia can damage the mucosa of the lower small intestine, cecum and colon. This disease can cause calves to have severe cases of diarrhea and calves can become dehydrated and lethargic.
  • In milk replacers there is an item added called coccidistat that is given to calves to suppress the development of the life cycle of coccidia. When calves are being fed pasteurized milk coccidistat is missing, which has led to an increase in coccidia in young calves.

What’s the impact?

  • Coccidosis can significantly impact your calf’s health. You may see weight loss, secondary issues such as pneumonia or even death. If your calf survives from coccidia they may have a stunted growth and not fluresh as a calf should.

ANIMART solution(s)

  • Isolate any infected calves.
  • Add coccidistat to your feeding regimen. Contact your herd veterinarian for product suggestions.
  • Thoroughly clean affected areas and allow to dry before placing other calves in this area.
Posted in Animal Health Solutions, Calf Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Track a))) Cow Interview

Posted on October 18, 2012 by steveh

Watch as  Joe Stevens, ANIMART Reproduction Specialist interviews A-OK Dairy about why they chose the Track a))) Cow reproduction system and what improvements they have seen since installing it.

The Track a))) Cow heat detection system is an accurate heat detection program that leads to higher pregnancy rates. Higher pregnancy rates result in more pregnant cows, fewer days open and more profitability for the dairy. 

The Track a))) Cow system is radio-telemetric automated and records activities of cows ten times per hour, and transmits high resolution data to the Track a))) Cow software via a receiver.

In the video A-OK Dairy talks about the increase in pregnancies since installing the Track a))) Cow system and how that translates to less labor.

Posted in Animal Health Solutions, Reproduction Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Personal Protective Equipment

Posted on July 13, 2012 by sarahs

Chuck Hutchens, ANIMART’s Milk Quality Manager, talks about the need for Personal Protective Equipment on dairy farms.  

As the scale of dairy farms increase and hire more employees,  the need to follow safety restrictions set in place by OSHA become increasingly important. Under the current Local Empahsis Program, OSHA is inspecting dairies for compliance. Having Personal Protective Equipment for employees to use while handling chemicals is an important area covered by OSHA.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On-Farm Milk Culturing

Posted on May 29, 2012 by sarahs

Watch as Dr.Mike Costin, ANIMART Technical Services Veterinarian explains the benefits, process, and interpretation of on-farm milk cultures.  

Mastitis accounts for 80% of antibiotic usage on farms, but accurate and effective treatment can be difficult without knowing what pathogens we are dealing with. On-farm milk culturing helps identify mastitis pathogens for more targeted mastitis treatments to increase cure rates and decrease costs.

In Part 1, Dr. Mike will explain the benefits of on-farm culturing, proper aseptic milk collection and swabbing the culture plate.

In Part 2, Dr. Mike will explain how to interpret the results and treatment decisions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mastitis: To Treat or Not to Treat?

Posted on April 5, 2012 by sarahs

At PDPW’s Annual Business Conference, Dr. Pam Ruegg spoke on the present challenges against mastitis pathogens, which are vastly different from those 25 years ago. Increasing pathogen diversity changes the criteria for treatments and control programs.

Ruegg conducted a study to identify the mastitis pathogens present in Wisconsin using samples from 51 dairies. Participating farms were required to forestrip during milking as forestripping identifies 50% of mastitis infections. 

The most common pathogens found, in order, were:

  1. No-growth – bacteria not present when the case was found and sampled. This means the cow’s immune response successfully killed the pathogens, or cured the infection.
  2. E.coli – Environmental bacteria, cow’s immune system usually successfully kills, thereby eliminating the need for treatment.
  3. Environmental strep – Requires antibiotic treatment to effectively prevent spread of subclinical cases.
  4. Klebsiella

25% of mastitis cases were no-growth, and therefore non-treatable. 17% of cases were bacteria that don’t respond to antimicrobial therapy. That’s 42% of mastitis cases that don’t need antibiotic treatments. This poses the question, are we over treating cows on our farms?

In order to avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics, we need to identify what pathogen is causing the infection. Aside from ethical issues of overusing antibiotics, there is also the cost issue — keeping in mind that over 80% of antibiotics used on dairies are for control and treatment of mastitis.

Testing is the only way to determine whether or not that cow in your parlor exhibiting mastitis symptoms has a pathogen meriting the cost of an antibiotic treatment. Fortunately we have many testing options, including on-farm culturing. Vet clinics and reference labs also handle milk culturing. 

Proper Sampling Technique for culture or other tests:

  1. Wear gloves
  2. Use a sterile container 
  3. Pre-dip, dry teat, (make sure you forestrip)use alcohol scrub with 2 hands and THOROUGHLY clean  teat end
  4. Take sample without cross contamination
  5. Immediately cool or freeze

If performing on-farm culturing, start as soon as possible. If sending to a lab, cool immediately to prevent incubation of other bacteria.

Testing milk samples to identify pathogens needing antibiotic treatments can typically reduce mastitis treatment costs 40%. How much would a 40% reduction in your treatment costs look like?

Posted in Animal Health Solutions, Fresh Cow Solutions, Mastitis Solutions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Evolution of Mastitis

Posted on March 29, 2012 by sarahs

“Mastitis is really a simple disease,” Dr. Pamela Ruegg stated during her breakout session at PDPW’s Annual Business Conference. “Mastitis is simply a bacterial infection of the udder. It should be really easy to control; all you have to do is keep the bacteria away from the teats.”

According to Dr. Ruegg, the industry controlled mastitis by implementing 5 simple steps:

  1. Effective Teat Dipping: 97% of farms dip, but many not effectively
    • Coverage is 75% of the teat skin
    • Post milking teat dipping
  1. Dry Cow Therapy: All quarters of all  cows at the end of every lactation
    • Treats subclinical infections present at the end of lactation
    • Protects  cow during  vulnerable period when she still has milk in her udder
  1. Appropriate Treatment of Clinical Cases
    • Record and monitor all cases
  1. Culling Cows Chronically Infected: Make a decision early on
    • Remember cows can have a second career as a beef cow
  1. Regular Milking Machine Maintenance
    • Stable teat end vacuum

By following these steps, as well as proactively reducing exposure to environmental bacteria, your dairy should have defeated mastitis, right? Maybe not. Our pathogen targets have significantly changed in an attempt to survive.

When Dr. Ruegg finished vet school in 1984, she had been taught that there were 3 types of bacteria that caused mastitis infections; staph aureus, strep ag, and e.Coli. And that was it.

As dairy producers, we all know that today those 3 mastitis-causing bacteria are not all there is. The combination of bacterial evolution, and the way our cows have changed have resulted in an entirely different and diverse group of mastitis pathogens today, than those present 25 years ago. Bacteria have changed, herds have changed, and the way we effectively manage mastitis needs to change.

Consider your mastitis control program. Has it changed, how? How could it evolve to be more effective?   With the diverse mastitis pathogens present in our herds today, identifying bacteria through culturing before treating is becoming increasingly important for effective treatment.

Posted in Animal Health Solutions, Dry Cow Solutions, Fresh Cow Solutions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment