As drying off time approaches, there are some key areas to focus on to optimise cow health, both over the winter period and at calving next spring.
- Helps to make decisions around selective dry cow therapy (SDCT), but also around culling.
- Very important to get your final milk recording of the year completed close to drying off, so as to have the most up to date information on your herd.
- Identify problem cows first. A cow with greater than 1million of an SCC in 2 consecutive recordings is a “broken cow”. Culling is the only option here.
- Equally, a cow that has shown repeated flare-ups of high SCC and/or mastitis should be high on the list for culling too. These cows will only act as reservoir of infection in the herd next spring.
- A cow must have an individual SCC of less than 100,000 all year as well as having no clinical case of mastitis.
- Younger cows are preferable as they tend to be lower risk. Be sure to get your vet involved who will be happy to look through milk recording data and help you pick out the right cows.
- Strict hygiene protocols must be adhered to in the parlour when using SDCT to avoid introducing any bacteria into the udder as the sealer is pushed in.
- Antibiotics – Analysis of milk samples is a must. Samples from cows with persistently high SCC or samples from clinical cases of mastitis are ideal. Results will detail the bacteria causing the issue as well as what antibiotics work to kill these bacteria.
Length of the dry period –
- 60 days/ 8 weeks is the minimum.
- 90 days/ 12 weeks for thin cows and heifers as they require a longer dry period. The same goes for any cows with SCC issues that you intend to keep. A longer dry period allows the cells in the udder greater time to heal and therefore increases the likelihood that the cow will calve down with a healthy udder.
Body condition of cows at drying off –
- The aim is to have cows calving at BCS 3.25
- Thin cows, BCS <2.5, need extra feeding over the winter.
- Over conditioned cows, BCS >3.75, need a tailored diet.
- With between only 60 and 90 days (dry off to calving) to fix BCS issues, a plan needs to be put in place asap.
- Cows that are either too thin or too fat are at a much higher risk of various different health issues after calving which will severely affect both their fertility and their milk yield in 2027.
Drying off, and the time between dry off and calving, are critical times in the life of a cow. What happens at this time will determine how successful 2027 is, for individual cows and for the herd as a whole.
