Marlee Garner Prevention of Mastitis Foot and Leg Health Manure Management 1
Mastitis is the most costly disease or disorder to the dairy industry. Many cases go undiagnosed because of subclinical signs. Cows with mastitis decrease in milk production, cause producers to dump milk because of antibiotic treatments used, and cause the somatic cell count of the bulk tank to increase. All of these cause producers to lose approximately $200 per cow per year. There are several causes of mastitis including environmental and contagious forms. It can be transmitted by unclean milking procedure, manure, bedding that is not cleaned, air, soil, and water. Those cows that do present with clinical, or visually ill, signs show flakes or clots within the milk, hot and swollen udder, or they decrease feed intake and milk production. However, subclinical, or those that are not visually ill, might only show an elevated somatic cell count. For every one mastitis case that is clinical, there can be between 15 and 40 that are subclinical which can cause a major decline in milk production, if proper management is not put into place. No animals were culled from the farm last year for mastitis, according to the latest 202. This indicates that procedures that are in place are working because mastitis tends to be one of the top three reasons to cull cows. 2
When milking cows, milkers include a predip on every cow. This allows the udders to be cleaned and sterilized before the milkers are placed on, to help prevent any unwanted bacteria lingering on the udders to be pulled up into the teat causing infection. When the milkers are removed, the teats are then postdipped which again helps to prevent any unwanted bacteria from wicking up into the teat ends. The milkers also wear gloves and wipe each teat and cow with a clean towel. This helps to prevent any cross contamination. If not done then a cow that may show subclinical signs could contaminate then entire milking row. UGA has a treatment procedure for all dry off cows that treats them in case they have clinical or subclinical mastitis and to prevent them from getting mastitis while at dry off. Cows are more prone to mastitis at dry off because they move from the comfort of the free stall barn out into the elements, where they lay in the dirt and mud which increases their chances of wicking of bacteria. At the time of dry off, UGA uses a product called Tomorrow which is an antibiotic treatment that helps to combat any infection that is present within the udders. Tomorrow is followed by Orbaseal which does not contain antibiotics or a withdrawal time, but is placed in the teat as a sealer. It seals the teat end to prevent milk from continuing to flow out while keeping bacteria out of the teat. 3
A clean environment is important to prevent bacteria from wicking up into the teat of milking cows. To help with this free stall length must fit the cow appropriately to prevent defecation in the laying area of the stall. This prevents the cows from laying in manure. When walking through the barn manure should be on the outside of the stall and udders should be clean. During herd evaluations in labs the udder hygiene of the milking cows ranges from a 1 to 2 based on the Udder Hygiene Score Chart from Resources Milk Quality. This is what is recommended because the cleaner the udder the less risk of mastitis. Cows in this picture show that the free stalls are long enough so that the manure is placed on the rail and in the walk way instead of in the stall. Feet and Leg health is very important to the overall health of the animal. Cows rely on their feet and legs to travel throughout the parlor, stand for eating, and even when showing evidence of heat like riding or standing to be ridden. Cows that are in any pain, coming from their legs and feet, they will not participate in certain aspect of their daily lives. Cow will be more reluctant to eat because they will have to stand, which decreases their milk production and can also affect different metabolic disorders. Overall this can cause producers to cull animals which can cause a profit decrease in the production. 4
When reviewing the latest 202 there was only 1 animal that was culled because of Feet and Legs. This can be contributed to a well managed system when it comes to feet and legs. Another good management protocol is having a foot trimmer come out once a year to trim all cows at the farm. This allows for any issues to be managed, such as abscesses. While the trimmer was there it was noticed that only 2 animals had abscess within their hoofs and they could then be treated at that time. He mentioned that UGA had one of the best feet in any of the dairies around that he trims. 5
UGA also has a very clean environment that helps maintain good feet and legs. UGA has a flush system that flushes all of the manure in the walkways down to lagoons. This keeps manure from packing into the hooves and keeping them moist, which creates a haven for bacteria. Another feature that is great at UGA s dairy is grooved concrete. Although expensive to put in, it is a great way to keep water off of the walk way because it falls into the grooves, which also helps to prevent bacteria from harboring within the cracks of the hooves, to cause such problems as hoof rot. UGA also beds on sand which acts as an absorbent to help dry off the hooves, to help prevent anaerobic bacteria from growing. Nutrition is essential for many aspects of dairy cows daily lives and feet and legs are one of them. UGA also feeds a TMR, total mixed ration, comprised of both concentrates and forages which helps manage feet and legs. By having a ration that is does no have an incorrect ratio of forage and concentrates and is not too hot, UGA prevents the increase of lactic acid which will ultimately causes the weakening of the hooves leading to lameness, based upon the Zinpro diagram 6
UGA also provides a foot bath for their lactating cows two times per week that every cow will walk through when entering the milking parlor. The solution within the foot bath is a dilution containing formaldehyde. The solution is used only twice a week to prevent over drying of the hooves. The footbath allows for drying of the hooves and destruction of harmful bacteria that can be harboring within the hooves. Manure Management is critical for a dairy farm, not only because you have to maintain environmental awareness but also because there is a lot of manure not matter the size of the farm, and you have to have a place to put it all. UGA does a good job of making sure that all of the manure travels from the barn to the two lagoons, while also preventing solids and sediment from traveling to the lagoons. 7
To get the manure from the barn to different settlers the free stall barn is flushed. There are big tanks at the top of the barn that at certain times of the day are opened and it allows the water to rush down through the barn picking up any solids, including sand, that comes across in the walk ways. It travels down through the barn until it reaches the end. This allows for manure to not pile up in the barn. If the manure was allowed to pile up in the barn, it could cause feet and leg issues. The sand, water, and manure from the barn flows out of the barn and into a sand sifter. One lane is used at a time and the water and solids move across the lane and all of the solids stay on the sand sifter. The water that is left over continues on through the process, but the solids remain and are allowed to dry out properly. When one of the lanes fills up then the drainage can be swapped to the other lane. This allows sand to be filtered out to prevent it rom building up in the lagoon which can cause water levels to rise and less liquids to be placed in the lagoon. 8
UGA has two lagoons, an upper larger one, and a lower smaller one. Once the manure leaves the sand sifter the liquid fraction moves to the lagoons. The lagoon allows UGA to use the liquid fraction for land application. This prevents the manure from building up in the barn and it allows the liquid to have another application and prevents environmental contamination. The lagoon is also cleanly cut, per EPA s regulation to make sure that the lagoon can be evaluated properly at all times to make sure that it does not overflow. Calf Management Reproduction Facility 9
Calves are essential to a dairy operation, unless one is buying outside of the herd, which can be very expensive. Calves are going to be your replacement cows and a lot of money goes into make sure that they grow, survive any illness, and reproduce before they enter into the milking herd. To do this calves must have colostrum, cleanliness, consistency, and calories while also having proper ventilation, isolation, comfort and be economical. UGA has a weakness when it comes to calf management. Calves are not isolated and biosecurity is a major issue. One key factors for calves is isolation. Calves are the most vulnerable animals on the farm because they have a lack of immunity. Calf hutches are located right beside the feed mill equipment which has a lot of traffic coming and going. The increased traffic could be detrimental to the health of the calves because all of the traffic visits other farms where disease, both zoonotic and not, can be transferred to the calves. 10
Sick animals are removed from the hutches to a sick calf barn which is a great management move but sick animals are still being housed together. When sick animals are put together they can continue to cause reinfection of each other. This can cause delayed recovery which can then affect their growth rate, and could even affect when they are able to be bred. So once the sick animals are separated into different corrals then they need to be separated so that they can not touch nose to nose. Right now the sick animals can touch which can cause animals to reinfect each other if the disease can be transmitted through respiratory, which is one of the number one issues that occur with calves. Another issues with calf management is that the sick animals are located very close to the front entrance, so most people would generally walk through the sick barn before going to the healthy calves. This can cause a issue with infecting the healthy animals with whichever disease the sick animals have. By having a clear separation or restriction someone could unknowingly infect your entire calf herd, which could cause catastrophic damage to your replacement cows. This is the sick barn and the barn below the blue gator is healthy calves. Directly to the left of this picture is the parking lot and the milking parlor. 11
Reproduction is a key element to any dairy operation because without reproducing cows do not produce milk. Currently at the UGA dairy they use a Presync, OVSync and resync program which can be seen on the right side of the page. Once artificial insemination is completed then pregnancy checks can be completed via palpation or ultrasound. Day 0: PGF 2 α Day 14: PGF 2 α Day 25: GnRH Day 32: PGF 2 α Day 34: GnRH Day 35: Timed AI Day 56: GnRH Day 63: Pregnancy Check When reviewing the 202 there were 11 cows that were culled last year for reproduction. Reproduction is one of the major reasons to cull cows however, 11 cows is almost 50% of the cows that were being culled (27), which is relatively high. 12
The program that is in place is very expensive. Right now cows are going through 3 prostaglandin injections and 3 gonadotrophin releasing hormones injection for each cow, along with fees associated with labor, semen straws, and pregnancy checks for one cow to be bred. Based on the 202 there are 3.6 services per cow, so this can be become very expensive very quickly. Especially because there is no cherry picking occurring, where if a cow comes into heat they go ahead and breed her instead of finishing the rest of the breeding program. By skipping these heats there is a longer time that she is open and more money is going into her to get pregnant. By skipping these heats it is setting back her being bred up to another 63 days. This could be 63 days where she is pregnant and growing a fetus, instead of being open and increasing her calving interval. Cows are not entering the program early enough in the Voluntary Waiting Period. The VWP for UGA is 60 days. According to the 202 the average days to first service for all lactations is 93 days, which means that cows are starting this program at 30 days in milk. By starting this late the first service is at 93 days, but because the average is 3.6 services, the third service is not until 219 days, which is extremely too long open because ideally you would like to have cows bred back by 82 days to have a 365 day calving interval. 13
The milking facility is the linchpin of the dairy operation because if cows are not happy then they will not produce milk. Cows have to be comfortable with appropriate ventilation, light, and water available but there are issues that affect their comfort. Without cow comfort milk production will decline and adjustments would have to be made to make the dairy stay profitable. The milking cow facility s beds are not groomed, the facility is dark, and the water troughs are dirty. All of these can cause the production to decrease and cows will not produce like what they are genetically capable. Cows at UGA are housed on comfortable sand beds, but if not properly groomed then the beds become useless. The beds need to be raked to allow evenness over where the cows are laying. When the cows lay down and get up then it pushes the sand towards the front and to the rear of the stall which causes a divot in the sand, as show in the picture. This problem can cause cows to not have the necessary depth in their bedding, roughly 12 inches. Cow like consistency, so not having consistent bedding can affect their production. 14
The Free Stall Barn is not very well lit. There are two rows of florescence lights that run the length of the barn but it is not enough light during the day and especially during the night for someone to be able to see throughout the barn. DeLaval says that when cows are introduced to long days of light then it decreases the amount of melatonin released for the pineal gland. This increases the production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which is increased by bovine somatotropin and causes a greater increase in milk production. Also when there is more light there is more feed intake which causes more milk production. Also person should be able to walk through the barn and be able to read a newspaper. You are unable to do this when walking through the barn because there are some very dark spots. Without the proper light cows are not able to reach their genetic potential with milk production. Water is essential to the production of milk. Milk is about 87% water so proper water intake is essential for high production. When water troughs are not cleaned properly then cows will not intake enough water to produce high quantities of milk. Water troughs in the pictures are dirty with either feed in the bottom or algae growing the top or floating. When managing a barn there should be protocols to take care of water troughs daily, every other day, or weekly, although labor intensive, to ensure that there can be proper water intake to ensure that there can be high production. 15
Lighting in the barn Cheaper Reproductive System Separation of Sick Calves Clean out water troughs regularly Calf Location By increasing the lighting in the barn and changing to 16 hours of day light and 8 hours of darkness then there can be an increase in the insulin growth factor-1 which will increase milk production. More milk production will increase profit for the facility. When researched in Maryland there was an increase in Fat-corrected milk production by 4 lbs/day which would be 1,460 lbs/ year. To change the lighting in the barn a couple new rows of lighting could be placed and the lights could be placed on a timer to allow for 16 hours of light throughout the year. 16
Right now each cow is getting 3 injections of prostaglandin and 3 injections of gonadotropin before breeding and it takes 63 days. One way to make the program cheaper without changing the protocol is to begin cherry picking and breeding cows when they show heat, even if they are not at the 63 day mark. Another way would be to start earlier in the voluntary withdrawal period which would allow cow to be bred earlier which would allow them to produce higher quantities of milk before being removed for the dry period. Finally, the heat check lot that is behind the free stall barn could be used twice a day after milking to allow for natural heats to be detected. This would allow cows to exit the Presync, OVSync, Resync program and be bred earlier. Sick cows should be separated to prevent cross contamination and reinfection of the calves. All of the sick animals should be placed in the same area of confinement, but should be separated from each other. This would prevent them from touching nose to nose to spread respiratory and viral infections. Finally, the calves should be located away from healthy cows, especially not uphill from the healthy calves like they are right now. Movement of the calves will help prevent other, healthy, calves from becoming infected. This will increase their growth because they will not be combating infection allowing their body to be more focused on growing. 17
Water is essential for milk production and to ensure proper drinking of water then troughs must be clean. Currently the troughs are not clean, including floating algea and feed at the bottom, so cows may bypass the water and it decreases the water consumption which decreases milk production. By cleaning the water troughs on a regular basis then cows increase their intake which will increase milk production. Increased production will increase profit for the farm. Currently calves are located directly next to the feed mill. There is a lot of traffic in and out which increases the chances that diseases can be transmitted from other farms to the calves, who are the most vulnerable on the farm. By moving the calves to a location that is completely isolated from visitors but is also in a location that allows staff to keep an eye on them there would be less chance of contamination and spread of diseases. 18
Currently on the farm there is no biosecurity protocol. This is a major risk because people freely walk around the farm going from calf to calf and throughout the free stall barn. This causes diseases to be spread throughout the herd which could be catastrophic to the herd and cause the farm to buy outside cows to maintain the herd size. A few measures could be taken to increase the biosecurity on the farm. This includes locking the gate during the day and at night, when milkers are not there. Another option would be have people check into the main office when coming in. Both of these ideas allows managers to know who is on the farm at all times. These visitors should be advised on where the sick animals are and how to avoid them. No one should go visit the sick animals and then go to the healthy animals. Another option would be to have all visitors wear plastic booties. Although it can get expensive it would prevent diseases, bacteria, and feces from other animals begin distributed across the UGA farm. This would help manage contamination from other animals. Biosecurity would be a great use of money because if a pathogen is presented to the farm from a visitor then it could cause irreversible damage to the farm which could possible shut down the dairy by killing off all of the herd. It is better to be safe with preparation. 19
DHI 202 DeLaval Light Handout Udder Hygiene Score Handout Zinpro Lameness Handout Lectures and Labs 20