Dairy Management Chris Ellason

4 groups of dairy cows  Far- off dry cows: Cows from time quit producing milk until 21 days before calving  Close up dry cows: Within 21 days of calving  Fresh Cows: Cows that recently calved  Lactating Cows: Cows that are producing milk in the milking string

Calves  Aloud to get colostrum then removed  Bull calves fed for veal or castrated and fed for beef  Heifers are grown, bred, and milked for at least one lactation  Calves are put into individual pens and fed milk or milk replacer for 4-8 weeks  Given hay and grains to get them to start eating dry feeds

Breeding  Most are bred by artificial Insemination  Sexed semen  Some embryo transfer  Very little natural service

Ration  Far- off: 100% forage  Close up: 75% forage  Fresh: 65-75% forage  Lactating: 50-60% forage

Problems  Dystocia: Problems calving  Milk Fever: Ca deficiency  Retained Placenta: Caused by genetics, dystocia, K overload, Vitamin E deficiency  Cows show to produce 5-8% less milk lifetime  Mastitis: Infection in the udder

Terminology  SCC: Somatic Cell Count  Amount of cells that are in the milk  Max SCC: 750,000 SCC/ liter  Primiparous: Cow that has had only one calf  Multiparous: Cow that has had multiple calves  DIM: Days in milk

Various Milking Parlors  Single side opening  Rotary tandem  Rotary herringbone  Double herringbone  Turnstyle  Polygon herringbone  Trigon