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Keep your dairy herd healthy

Take notice and take action. Once you are able to recognise a healthy and well-functioning cow, you can more easily and often much earlier in the process spot when the cow starts having problems that could lead to disease, which in turn will lead to decreased wellbeing for the animal and decreased earnings for the farm.

Focus on two main things in bringing down the
disease frequency and mortality of a dairy herd:

  • Keep a score of the overall health of the dairy herd.
  • Make and follow procedures on how to spot and treat animals that are starting to show symptoms.

Make sure that your staff knows what a healthy cow looks like and that your staff is familiar with the reference intervals e.g. with regards to temperature, pulse and respiration (TPR).

 

 

The healthy dairy cow

Generally

  • Seems alert and paying attention to surroundings
  • Bright eyes with no discharge and free and frequent flicking of the ears

Nose

  • Frequently licking its nose keeping it clean and moist with no signs of discharge

Skin and coat

  • Smooth with a shine to it

Moving

  • Walks comfortably with no signs of lameness or difficulty with balance

Udder and milk

  • No swelling or discoloring
  • No sign of pain or discormfort when touched
  • No injuries to the teats and milk yield in accordance to the stage of lactation 
  • The milk should have no discoloring or clumb

Eating

  • Good appetite and rumninating when resting 
  • No saliva dribbling or foaming when chewing 
  • breath should be aromatic, but never have a rotten smell or smell of acetone which is a sign of ketosis

Dung

  • Should be a soft pat with a porridge like texture 
  • Watery or dry dung are both signs of digestive problems.

Vital signs (TPR)

  • Temperature: 38-39,3 °C
  • Pulse: 48-84/min. (if no stethoscope is available, the pulse can be felt under the base of the tail)
  • Respiration: 26-50/min. Should be regular and unforced. Observe while the animal is relaxed-

Clear procedure and guidelines
Every farm should have a procedure of what and how to register any signs of declining health and make sure that there are clear guidelines of how to take action and who is responsible.

Register and collect data
This could be done by using the KRUUSE Dairy Cow Health Chart which should hang in the stable at an easily accessible area for all employees.

Learn and improve
Once a week the data/information collected should be recorded making it possible to get an overview over time of which health issues present themselves most often in the herd. Based on the overview from the information collected, it is possible to evaluate and make necessary adjustments for your herd. Once a procedure is decided on and followed by all employees, you should be able to see the need for extra treatments, secondary diseases and mortality rate decrease.


Related products

Thermometer

 

Stethoscope and charcoal

 

Udder accessories

 

Hoof