Cowsignals Basics East African edition

Then Cow Signals Basics is a must read book for you.

This book is written in simple and easy-to-read language. It has over 200 pictures and drawings, that make the information very clear and practical.

Cow Signals Basics makes any dairy farmer understand the art of managing the dairy cow and young stock, from the cows’ own perspective.

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Jan Hulsen, author and cow expert

East African edition

Do you want to better understand how to take good care of the cows? To ensure that they are healthy, fertile, and growing well or producing a lot of milk?

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Are you interested in dairy cows and perhaps working with them regularly?

East African edition

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A must-read for everybody working with dairy cows and investing in dairy cows

Cow Signals Basics

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East African edition

Cow Signals Basics

Cow Signals Basics

Content editors Cow Signals Basics – East African edition:

www.tomplimited.com

www.roodbont.com

www.cowsignals.co.ke

Cover_CowSignals_Basics_Wire_O_Spine.indd 1

www.vetvice.com

C

Professor Bockline Omedo Bebe, Egerton University Professor Charles K. Gachuiri, University of Nairobi David Maina, Perfometer Agribusiness Ltd Peter Ngure, The Olive Marketing and Publishing Company Ltd

www.cowsignals.com

Understanding what cows need to stay healthy and productive Jan Hulsen

05-10-16 13:42

CO N T E N T S

KNOWING THE COW

Cow Signals Diamond Look – Think – Act General cow signals Choice of breed Air Rest Cow handling

4 5 6 8 10 12 16

MILKING

FEED AND WATER

Feed Digestion Energy Proteins Feeding cows Rumen fill Body condition Dung Water

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HEALTH

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Hygienic milking Cow hygiene Hand milking Machine milking

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Sick cow signals Biosecurity Parasites Hoof health Oestrus signals

20 22 24 26

28 30 32 35 37 39 42 44 46

48 50 52 55 56

BIRTH AND YOUNG STOCK

Calving Monitoring finances Raising young stock Calf condition

58 59 60 63

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

64

3

CO W S I G N A L S D I A M O N D

The Cow Signals Diamond The Cow Signals Diamond summarises the essentials of what cows need to stay healthy, get pregnant and produce milk: feed-water-light-air-rest-space & health.

Water

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Rest

The cow has a comfortable place to lie down. Moving and handling cows are done in a calm and gentle manner.

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Health

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The cow can walk without fear and should be able to socialise and exhibit signs of heat without constraints.

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Light

Light

Space

Space

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Fe

Every cow always has access to fresh water: no smell, no taste, no contaminants.

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Each cow eats 10-14 meals per day.

For at least 21 hours per day she has free access to palatable feed.

Each meal provides a correct mix of energy, proteins and roughage.

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Feed

At least 14 and maximum 18 hours daylight, with enough light for people to see details.

Air

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Health

Air

The cow has no infections, diseases or injuries.

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The cow always breathes fresh, clean air.

CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

LO O K - T H I N K - AC T

Understand cows, act accordingly Cows continuously show what they think and how they feel. You can learn how to better understand the body language of cows and young stock.

The information in this book helps you with reading, understanding and using cow signals: look, think, act.

There are three questions that you should always ask yourself:

Why does this happen?

Identify the causes of the things you see.

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ACT Are things OK and, if not, what should I do?

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What do I see?

Make a specific description.

THINK

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LOOK

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With all kinds of signs and signals, cows give information about their housing, their nutrition, their health, etcetera.

You must read these signs and ensure that the cows get what they need, so that they stay healthy, get pregnant and produce milk.

K N O W I N G T H E CO W

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G E N E R A L CO W S I G N A L S

Signals that a cow is healthy and feeling comforable Before you are able to recognise disease, you have to know what a healthy cow looks like.

Almost soundless breathing

Alert, active attitude

• distracted attitude indicates poor health, low energy status or rumen acidosis

Steady breathing

• normal: 10 to 30 times in a minute

Straight back

Good rumen fill

• cow has eaten enough today

Optimal body condition

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• some flesh cover with a little fat

Closed mouth

Strong chewing activity

• normal: 55 to 75 chews per cud

• normal rectal temperature: 38.0 - 38.5°C

Clean hindquarters

• no dung on both sides of rump: dung too thin • no asymmetrical soiling: environment too dirty

Soft, symmetrical udder

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Clean nose

Correct temperature

Undamaged knees with full hair covering

Sound, fully weightbearing hooves

• no tiptoeing, standing on tips of hooves • no injured or swollen coronary band • no eczema or scabs in interdigital space

Shiny hair all over, no wounds

Full belly

• cow has eaten enough during the past week

Undamaged Undamaged teats and teat hocks with full ends hair covering

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Flat dung, paste-like with circles, about 3 cm high

CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

G E N E R A L CO W S I G N A L S

Signals that a cow is sick or not doing well Of course, no cow will show all the signals you see on the image of this sick cow.

Practice recognising these signals in your cows.

Neck bump

• neck rail feed fence too low

Arched back

• lame

Bump on backbone

• lying against stall divider

Sunken area on

the cow’s left side (empty rumen)

• has eaten too little

Skeleton clearly visible, hardly any flesh (BCS 1-1.5)

• has not eaten enough for weeks

Droopy and/ or cold ears

Sunken eyes

• sick

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• sick

White, yellow, red slime

Dung on pelvis

• diarrhoea

Uplifted tail

• pain in the birth canal

Yellow-red slime on tail

• sick uterus

Uplifted belly

• pain/poor eating for days

• rhinitis/chronic lung problem

Bump on shoulder

• feed fence too small, feed too far away

Swollen knees, bald spots

• stall surface too hard, too little head space

Very long hooves

• hoof trimming too late or not at all

Dirty udder

• dirty resting area, dirty floors

Teat end calluses

• milking machine doesn’t work well

Wound on flank

• wet bed

Swollen hocks, Swollen bald spots coronary band, • stall surface too crusts, leg hard, beds too lifting, shifting hard weight • hoof diseases

K N O W I N G T H E CO W

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AIR

Fresh air Cows, young stock and bulls need fresh air continuously.

When the temperature is over 25 to 27ËšC, dairy cows get too hot: this is called heat stress.

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HOW IT SHOULD BE: No walls nor other obstacles that block the continuous flow of fresh air. Let the wind and outside air flow through your barns and between the cows as much as possible. And keep floors and bedding clean of urine and dung, and dry. (Of course you protect cows from extreme weather, like storm and driving rains.)

extremely hot terribly hot very hot

Build the roof high, far away from the cows. Because of the high roof, the hot air right under the roof is further away from the cows.

Use overhangs and rain gutters to provide extra shade, to keep rain out of the barn and to collect rainwater.

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CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

AIR

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UNHEALTHY SITUATION: If cows breathe in dirty and damp air, they are more likely to get sick. Dirty air can be damp from dung, urine and wet areas. It creates a risk of pneumonia. The air that cows breathe out is also very damp and has little oxygen in it.

Build as few walls as possible. Walls are expensive to build, block the ventilation and reduce space. And walls make the inside of the barn very inflexible: it is difficult to change the sizes of pens etc.

Put the barn on higher ground and away from trees, shrubs and other buildings so that the wind can blow through it and provide fresh air for the cows.

K N O W I N G T H E CO W

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CO W H A N D L I N G

Body language of a cow you approach Interested cow, relaxed

Both ears are pointing at what the eyes are looking at. Both eyes are looking at the same place. This cow is at ease and interested.

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The head is low, the cow looks at what she is eating, at other cows and at the environment. Her ears are listening around. This cow does not react to you, you are outside the flight zone.

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Cow at ease

Cow in panic: head up

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Alerted cow, hesitating

The head is high, to look around, and both ears are not pointing at what the cow is looking at.

The cow has lifted her head up high, with her ears pointed backwards. These are clear signs of distress and panic.

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CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

CO W H A N D L I N G

When you walk parallel to a cow in the opposite direction, the cow will move forward.

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Making the cow move and stop

When you walk parallel to a walking cow, in the same direction, at the same speed or a little bit faster, the cow will stop.

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Let the cow react and walk at her own speed

Do not hit cows and do not scream. This will just make them panic.

Cows that panic are very difficult to handle and can be dangerous.

Do not make cows panic. Make them walk slowly, in a relaxed way. Or make them stop, so you can handle them.

What many people do wrong is to put too much pressure on the cow. This makes the cow panic. She will jump fences or run through people, or she will not move at all.

K N O W I N G T H E CO W

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M AC H I N E M I L K I N G

Correct machine milking

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2 Clean and massage the cow’s udder. Use disposable cloths for each cow or individual cloths (20 x 20 cm) that are cleaned in a washing machine between every milking. Use a dry cloth if the udder is clean. If it is so dirty that wet cleaning is required, make sure you wipe the teat dry after cleaning.

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1 All equipment and tools are at hand and in the proper condition. Wear clean suitable clothing and wash your hands thoroughly before starting to milk.

3 Pre-milk by hand into a test cup. Take a few squirts from each teat and check for milk clots or blood.

4 Put on the milking unit within one minute after premilking. Work exactly the same with each cow at every milking. This ensures good milk let-down, and thus you get the most milk and the least mastitis problems.

5 Take the unit off when the milk flow has ceased or is very low. Check that the udder is empty before you remove the unit by palpating it.

6 Teat-dip the cows within one minute after taking off the unit. This will ensure disinfection and protection of the teat canal while it still is open.

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CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

M AC H I N E M I L K I N G

Common mistakes with machine milking If you don’t pay attention, it is easy to make mistakes when attaching the teat cups to the udder.

Common mistakes are:

Twisted milk and vacuum tubes

Because of the twist, the cow may experience pain and milk does not flow easily through the tubes.

Adjust the milking unit so that it hangs square without twisting the teats.

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Bad

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Good

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Twisted teat cup

Teat cups are not twisted, the cluster hangs in the middle of the udder, there is no tension on cups or teats.

MILKING

There is tension on the teats and some teats are twisted. This can hurt the teats and cause pain.

These teats are more likely to get mastitis.

27

ENERGY

Understanding energy in the feed Energy in the feed for cows mostly comes from so-called carbohydrates: sugar, starch, pectin and cellulose. Green plants make sugars, via a process called photosynthesis, capturing the energy of the sun. This sugar is converted into starch and cellulose, and is used to build proteins.

Digestibility

As a plant grows older, it produces more and more lignin. Lignin provides rigidity to the plant; it makes the stems and leaves hard. Thus lignin reduces a plant’s digestibility and palatability, so cows do not want to eat it. Besides energy from carbohydrates, all rations also contain fats as an energy source. This book does not further explain the role and digestion of fats. However, too much fat will disturb the growth of rumen microbes.

Starch

Cellulose

Lignin

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Sugar

Mostly from grains

In more mature (parts of) plants

In overly mature (parts of) plants

Quickly available energy source

Used to store energy

Gives firmness to the plant

Makes the plant rigid and hard

Digests very slowly

Doesn’t digest

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Mostly in young plants and sprouts

Digests fast

Young maize and napier grass

Digests slowly

Mature maize and napier grass, kernel dry but soft.

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Old maize and napier grass, kernel hard.

CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

ENERGY

Harvest the most nutritious plants You should harvest plants at the stage where they are large but still very well digestible: the leaves must be green and not hard. The older the plant, the more feed, but the less the nutritious value. The amount of feed is not the only thing that counts; quality is also very important.

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1 A young plant contains a lot of sugars (energy) and protein, but too little of the fibre necessary for good rumen function.

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2 When the plant has reached a certain size, the stem and leaves get more firm to keep the plant standing upright. For this the plant makes more and more cellulose – good fibrous material with enough energy and protein available.

3 As the plant gets older, more lignin is produced. Lignin, also called ‘wood substance’, makes the plant very firm and hard. Lignin cannot be digested by cows and reduces the digestibility of the whole plant.

Older plants are often very sharp and unattractive to eat.

F E E D A N D WAT E R

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WAT E R

Why does a cow need water?

Water is very important feed for a cow. Without water, no milk production. When the calf, bull or cow cannot drink, he or she will eat less, and so grow less, get skinny, and produce less milk.

Through milk

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Through sweating and breathing

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An adult cow needs water because she continuously loses water

Through dung

Through urine

No water results in no feed intake and no milk production

When cows or young stock do not have enough water to drink, they will eat little feed even when there is enough feed present.

46

CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

WAT E R

Water consumption Fresh water

Each cow should have unlimited access to fresh water, the whole day. Present water in a water trough. Make sure it is not too high, to ensure that each cow can drink easily.

Fresh = clear, no smell, no taste

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Indication of water consumption on a moderately warm day (30 °C), per day:

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Milking cow: 10–14 buckets of water

Dry cow: 5–7 buckets of water

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Calf 1 year old: 2–4 buckets of water

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Calf 14 days old: 1–2 litres

Bull: 5–7 buckets of water

F E E D A N D WAT E R

One bucket = 10 litres

47

S I C K CO W S I G N A L S

Recognise all signals of sickness

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Head low and ears hanging inactively.

The eyes do not seem to see anything.

The cow has little or no interest in eating and drinking: she has an empty rumen.

The cow has fever.

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Call a veterinarian when you see the following signs:

Fever

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Compare with a healthy cow

When you are not sure about something you see, compare it with what you see on a healthy cow.

A cow has fever when her body temperature is higher than 39.0 °C. Or, on a hot day, higher than 39.5 °C. You can use a thermometer that can also be used for humans.

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CO W S I G N A L S B A S I C S

S I C K CO W S I G N A L S

First aid for a sick cow Feed and water

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Make sure that she can eat and drink as much as she wants. Give clean and fresh water that has no smell. And give fresh feed that smells fresh and contains plenty of energy and protein.

Air and rest

Make sure that the cow has a wide, soft and dry place to lie down.

The area where she is should be well ventilated, with lots of air going through, and the cow should be out of the sun.

H E A LT H

49

East African edition

A must-read for everybody working with dairy cows and investing in dairy cows Are you interested in dairy cows and perhaps working with them regularly?

ed

Then Cow Signals Basics is a must read book for you.

ro te ct

This book is written in simple and easy-to-read language. It has over 200 pictures and drawings, that make the information very clear and practical.

Cow Signals Basics makes any dairy farmer understand the art of managing the dairy cow and young stock, from the cows’ own perspective.

East African edition

op y

rig

ht p

Jan Hulsen, author and cow expert

Cow Signals Basics

East African edition

Do you want to better understand how to take good care of the cows? To ensure that they are healthy, fertile, and growing well or producing a lot of milk?

Cow Signals Basics

Cow Signals Basics

Content editors Cow Signals Basics – East African edition:

C

Professor Bockline Omedo Bebe, Egerton University Professor Charles K. Gachuiri, University of Nairobi David Maina, Perfometer Agribusiness Ltd Peter Ngure, The Olive Marketing and Publishing Company Ltd

www.tomplimited.com

www.roodbont.com

www.cowsignals.co.ke

www.vetvice.com

www.cowsignals.com

Understanding what cows need to stay healthy and productive Jan Hulsen