For your dairy business... 

WHICH REAPS BETTER MILKING RESULTS: MANUAL OR MECHANICAL STIMULATION? A crossover design study looked at the effect of manual stimulation-forestripping and drying-and high-vibration pulsation on oxytocin profiles, milk yield, milk flow rates, incidence of delayed milk ejection causing bimodal milk flow curves and residual milk in Holstein cow (n= 30) milked three times daily. Forestripping involved the manual removal of two streams of milk from each teat and drying of the teats. High-vibration pulsation involved increasing the pulsation cycles from 60 to 300 pulses per minute and reducing the vacuum in the pulsation chamber to 20 kPa. Five treatments were involved in the study: 

1. immediate attachment of the milking machine under normal pulsation; 
2. dip plus forestrip and drying with 30-second lag time; 
3. dip plus forestrip and drying with 90-second lag time; 
4. high-vibration pulsation for 30 seconds; and 
5. high-vibration pulsation for 90 seconds. 

While researchers detected no difference in oxytocin concentration beyond two minutes after milking unit attachments, differences did occur. Check out the results of the study.

BAD ENOUGH ON ITS OWN. WORSE WHEN COMBINED. Anovulation and endometritis. Researchers at the University of Florida recently explored these individual conditions that often go hand-in-hand. While both conditions negatively impact reproductive performance, researchers found that combined effects of these costly issues have a negative effect. The results were published in the September Issue of the Journal of Dairy Science. Analyzing data from 1,569 cows in three different regions of the United States, the researchers found that both anovulation and endometritis had a negative effect on time to pregnancy, and the negative effect was compounded if both conditions were present. In fact, anovular cows with endometritis had

MILKFAT: DROP BELOW 0.3% OF HERD AVERAGE and your herd could have a problem situation. "Monitoring the milk components of a herd can help assess the health and nutritional status of lactating cows. Monitoring fat tests can be accomplished by checking the DHIA test day reports and especially the four monthly tests taken by the milk handler. Two or three consecutive low milkfat tests from the milk handler or from DHIA should be considered a problem," states V. A. Ishler and R. S. Adams with Pennsylvania State University Extension. While Isler and Adams note that nutrition plays a large role in affecting milk composition, they underscore that additional factors can come into play: milking equipment problems, improper handling of milk or milk samples, stage of lactation, season, genetics and mastitis. In their "Troubleshooting Problems with Milkfat Depression," they discuss 11 nutritional and management and management practices as well as seven "other factors." Plus they offer 12 suggestions for control, including "sometimes it helps to go back to basics of dairy cattle nutrition and simplify the rations." You can read the complete article online by clicking here.  

NA-DA. ZIP. ZILCH. Despite BRD being a leading natural cause of death in dairy calves, there is no standardized field diagnostic method that can be used for early identification of BRD cases. Calves with BRD not only present a wide range of clinical signs ranging from severe respiratory distress to asymptomatic, with no clinical signs always present in affected animals. To that end, a team of University of California-Davis animal scientists and veterinarians, UC Cooperative Extension specialists and farm advisors and veterinarians from California Department of Food & Agriculture developed a diagnostic tool for BRD that they call "accurate, rapid, cheap, reliable and simple." The tool, an on-farm scoring system, involves six clinical signs, with each clinical sign categorized as normal or abnormal, regardless of severity (hence its simplicity). The clinical signs include nasal discharge (4 points), ocular discharge (2 points), cough (2 points), fever (2 points), breathing difficulty and rate (2 points), and ear droop or head tilt (5 points). For a calf with BRD signs, the sum of points for any of the six signs observed was used to determine BRD case status. Calves were considered to have BRD if the sum of the scores was greater than or equal to 5. The scoring system developed by the UC Davis team correctly identified 72.2% of calves with BRD and 89.9% of healthy calves in a follow-up validation study. You can dig into this research article and check out the team's scoring system online by clicking here.

SMALL CALVES. BIGGER PROBLEMS? It appears so according to the findings of European researchers who investigated factors associated with birth size of Holstein calves. Using data of 1,594 births, the researchers found that poor prenatal growth resulting in small size at birth increases predisposition to metabolic diseases during later life. In addition to the recognized factors such as calf sex, season of calving, gestation length, parity, length of the dry period and shape of the dam, the researchers discovered that age at calving in heifers and level of milk production during gestation in cows are significant factors that affect calf size at birth. Dairy producers: These findings just might be another reason to make sure first-lactation heifers calve on time-not too early and not too late-and that mature cows have uneventful pregnancies. The information may also provide a basis for developing management interventions to improve long-term health and productivity of offspring. Access the abstract here.

• Once calves' feet were visible, cows previously housed in straw pens expelled their calves faster compared to cows previously housed in freestalls. 
• Compared to first-calvers, multiparous cows stood sooner and licked their calf soon after birth. 

Researchers note that the results also "suggest that a longer period of housing on deep-bedded straw compared with freestalls with mattresses before calving may facilitate the calving process." Access the abstract online to read more.

• In "All Hoofs on Deck," Gerard Cramer, DVM, will focus on how to treat lame cows - everything from the basics of treating foot lesions to techniques for therapeutic trimming and blocking. Participants will use real equipment to practice skills taught in the session.
• Dr. Keith Poulsen, DVM, and Dr. Peter Vanderloo, DVM, will co-lead a "The Anatomy of the Dairy Cow Udder" hands-on lab on Wednesday afternoon to help you understand the "how" of milk production and the "why" behind every day practices with dairy cows. 
• Dr. Paul Fricke, University of Wisconsin-Madison, will lead a hands-on "Is She Pregnant?" lab on Thursday morning using the new IDEXX Visual Read Pregnancy Test. He'll provide training and answers to "How does an ELISA test work?", "What are pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (PAGs)" and "How can I best use PAG testing for reproductive management?"