Protein Producers Winter 2016

Wanted: Comfortable Cows By: Jeffrey M. DeFrain, PhD, DBLACAS, Progressive Dairy Solutions, Inc. Next to forage quality, maximizing cow comfort, regardless of housing system, is critical to unlocking greater levels of performance. Data from Bach et al. (2008) clearly demonstrates the impact of non-dietary/management factors. These authors reported a 29 lb/cow/d variation in milk yield across 47 dairy herds (approximately 3,129 cows) in Spain fed the exact same TMR. Non-dietary factors accounted for 56% of variation in milk yield and was largely associated with age at 1st calving, feeding for refusals, pushing up feed and stalls:cow (pen stocking density).

We can witness this all too often in the field where dairies or feedyards operating <10 miles of each other, fed largely the same dietary ingredients have significantly different levels of animal performance. When you take a deeper dive into how one facility is outperforming another, differences in cow comfort often stand out as the common denominator. In fact, data from Dr. Rick Grant and others at the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute has shown each hour of additional resting time will provide for 2.0 to 3.5 lb more milk per cow per day.

If comfortable cows are “WANTED”, and they should be, one should assess the budget of the three major daily behaviors/activities known to drive performance, health, efficiency and ultimately, cost of production. According to Dr. Rick Grant, these include: 1. Eating – generally around 5 h per day 2. Lying/resting – 12 to 14 h per day (including 6 h of ruminating) 3. Ruminating – 4 h per day while standing 4. Drinking/socializing – 1 h per day 5. Milking/travel/headlocks – less than 3 h per day Research has shown that lying time takes precedence over eating and social behaviors. As we should expect, when rest/lying is limited, health and productivity become compromised. Lying time has been found to be closely related to the level of lameness within a herd. Focusing on management factors which may limit lying behavior will generate improved animal performance and reduce the incidence of lameness in the herd.

The objective of encouraging lying/resting is largely related to management of claw horn lesions, namely sole pacdvms.com 41