Focus on comfort, nutrition during dairy cow transition period

ITHACA, N.Y. — Focusing on comfort and nutrition for a few weeks before and after calving will help dairy cows with a smooth transition into lactation.

“A lot of cows produce 100 pounds of milk per day by the end of the first week of lactation and a handful of cows are producing much more than that,” said Jessica McArt, associate professor at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

“They have a massive change in their nutrient demand that we have to support,” said McArt during a webinar hosted by Hoard’s Dairyman.

“Many dairy cows have negative energy balance because their energy requirements for milk production drastically exceed the energy they are intaking through dry matter intake during the six-to-eight-week period,” the veterinarian said.

“Many cows do really well with that, but those that don’t won’t milk as well and they will have reproductive consequences.”

For example, McArt said, prior to calving, dairy cows need 21 grams of calcium per day for normal body functions.

“When they calve, they need 21 grams for their maintenance plus 23 grams of calcium for their colostrum production,” she said. “So, in a couple of days they are doubling their calcium requirements.”

At seven days in milk, a dairy cow needs 21 grams of calcium for itself plus 56 grams of calcium that goes into 100 pounds of milk, McArt said.

“Over a short, seven-to-10-day period, these cows are tripling and some are even quadrupling their calcium requirements,” she said. “If we don’t support them, they may not be able to overcome this large demand for calcium.”

When the nutritional needs of dairy cows are not met, McArt said, the cows will develop subclinical or clinical disease, they will have reduced milk production and poorer reproduction.

For prepartum cow comfort, the veterinarian recommends limiting pen moves.

“A lot of studies show when cows are moved to different pens, there’s social hierarchy rearrangement that causes stress,” McArt said.

“Overcrowding pens reduces lying times and affects their eating pattern, so reducing overcrowding is an important factor to keep cows comfortable,” she said. “Also providing appropriate-sized stalls is really important.”

Heat abatement is necessary since heat stress impacts intake and feeding patterns.

“There are lots of ways to reduce heat stress including fans and soakers work well,” McArt said.

“Fly control is a big one because cows will bunch when there’s a lot of flies which increases their heat stress,” she said. “And there should be shade for cows in dry lots.”

A controlled energy diet is McArt’s diet of choice for dairy cows during the prepartum period since it helps reduce the cows’ body condition increase.

“We need to make sure cows have access to water,” she said. “Feeding Monensin is effective at reducing postpartum disease when fed during the prepartum period.”

When cows are in the maturity and calving pens, it is important to keep them calm by reducing noise, machinery and traffic.

“That will help cows have a faster calving and get them off to a better start,” McArt said.

“Keep the pens clean, because the less bacteria and dirt we have in the calving pen, the less risk of infectious disease when the cows have a low immune response,” the veterinarian said.

“It is important to move the cows to the fresh pen as soon as you are able to provide the cows a lactating diet as quickly as possible,” she said.

The fresh cow protocol to help cows feel better includes providing water and collecting colostrum as soon as possible.

“Vaccinating in the calving pen is probably a suboptimal time for immune response to the vaccine and it’s very stressful for the cows,” McArt said.

If possible, the veterinarian recommends separating the first lactation cows from the heifers in the fresh pen.

“The first lactation heifers are often smaller and more likely to be displaced from the feed bunk,” McArt said.

“If you can’t separate them, keep the stocking density less than 85% in the fresh pen,” she advised.

“The best medicine for fresh cows is feed,” she said. “If we can get well-formulated rations to them, have it ad lib and easily accessible, cows are going to do well, so it is important to have access to feed 24 hours per day.”

Cows drink a lot of water.

“They drink from 30 to 50 gallons of water per day, and if they’re heat stressed, they drink even more than that,” McArt said. “It is really important to have water available to cows all the time and I think we often overlook this.”

The veterinarian encourages dairymen to look at rumination and activity data of their cows.

“You can measure rumination with collars or ear tags and cow movement can be measured with accelerometers,” McArt said.

“Studies have shown the rate of increase in rumination time after calving to four or five days in milk is directly related to peak milk yields,” she noted. “The faster the increase in rumination time after calving, the higher peak milk will be on average.”

“We want to monitor early lactation health and production because these are great indicators of how your management strategies are doing and then we want to assess and adjust as needed,” she said.