Nutrition and feeding
Knowing and understanding the eating and rumination behavior of individual cows and groups.
Research shows that your cows should be spending 3-5 hours eating each day. Dry matter intake directly relates to milk production, and a decrease in intake will lead to a decrease in production. A decrease in intake might be subtle, but it could be caused by anything from changes in artificial lighting, confinement, and reduced availability of space, or timing and frequency of feeding*.
How do you know if your cows are spending enough time eating?
* Brotheras, NA., 2007. The feeding behavior of dairy cows: Considerations to improve cow welfare and productivity. Proceedings from Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference, 29-42.
In the past, you might not know a cow was sick until you saw a drop in her production. What if you could identify a sick cow before this drop? Diseases like SARA, Ketosis, and Metritis are all common in dairy cows, and lead to lower milk yield, and can result in death if undiagnosed. Studies have shown that these diseases could be identified by activity monitoring, before they have a significant impact on milk yield.
In cows with ketosis, lying time is increased by about 40 minutes per day, and rumination time is decreased as well. Your cows should be ruminating an average of 7-10 hours each day. A decrease in rumination can lead to SARA, which can lead to reduced milk production, lameness, mastitis, and reduced fertility. How do you know if a cow is ruminating enough?
There are many reasons why you might make changes in your dairy cow diet formulation, including quality, cost, and availability. Or maybe you’re exploring alternative ingredients or cattle feed rations.
No matter the reason, you can stay in control if you can quickly and accurately measure the impact feed changes have on cow health. If the changes aren’t beneficial, are you finding that out soon enough before they cause health concerns?