COW COMFORT MEANS MORE MILK

COW COMFORT MEANS MORE MILK

PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY NEWS ‘LIVESTOCK MARKETS’ BY MUHLE M. MASUKU 23/10/11

A prominent local dairy farmer, Mr. Petros Malahleka’s concern about the cause of low milk production on a very healthy looking and highly regarded dairy herd affects many farmers. According to Rykie Visser of Agrinet (SA), the most comfortable milking system in the world cannot be efficient if the cows are not comfortable.

A cow gives signals all the time about her health and welfare. She does this with behaviour, attitude, body language, and body condition. The ‘cow signs’ can be used to optimize herd health, comfort and milk production results. Train yourself to observe, evaluate and quickly find solutions for your cows, then smile all the way to the bank. Questions to ask are; what do I see? What is causing this? And what does this mean?

Animal signs;

1)      Performance; an unbalanced walk or curved back could indicate lameness or indigestion problems.

2)      Condition; cow condition says a lot about the ratios the cow has been fed. Cows too thin or too fat will not produce to their full potential.

3)      Temperature; a cow should have a temperature of 38 to 39 degrees Celsius. Cold ears might indicate milk fever or blood circulation problems.

4)      Legs; heel erosion or skinned hills are mainly caused by problems with bedding materials, incorrectly adjusted shed equipment and/or hoof infection.

5)      Ruminating; a cow should ruminate for seven to ten hours per day, ruminating 40 to 70 times on a cud. Taking less time indicates inadequate rations.

6)      Dung; this should not be too thick or too thin, and should never have undigested particles in it.

7)      Alert; a healthy cow looks alert and powerful, with a glossy skin and a full stomach.

8)      Neck; a swollen neck is mainly caused by a fence being too low or incorrectly adjusted shed equipment.

9)      Hooves; healthy cows stand straight and still while eating. Tipping or walking with a lame gait are signs of poor hoof health. This can be caused by bad rations, poor floors or lack of hoof treatment. One should always look underneath hoofs during hoof trimming for extra signs.

10)  Udder; to assess udder health, one should look carefully at the teats after milking. Good teats are flexible and naturally coloured. Poor udder health can be caused by hygiene problems, poor milking equipment installation or inadequate feed rations.

11)  Rumen; rumen should be filled with feed. The left side of the stomach (seen from behind the cow) should protrude. If one presses a fist into the rumen it should contract firmly about 10 to 12 times in five minutes.

12)  Breathing; normal breathing ranges from 10 to 30 breaths a minute for a cow. Faster breathing indicates heat stress or pain and fever.    

Social behaviour can impact feeding time, ruminating time and water intake. Dominant cows may inhibit submissive cows from eating at the bunk, drinking water or lying down. Recently moved cows and first calf-heifers are often the submissive cows. Larger or older cows are often dominant in a group. Social interactions are part of herd behaviour, but it is good to have good conditions in the shed, such as sufficient feeding area, space around water bowls or troughs and enough good cubicles for cows to rest.

Cows like to groom their bodies against a brush, lick and be licked by peers. Cow brushes improve animal welfare by increasing blood circulation while keeping the cow clean, busy and calm. If brushes are not there cows will groom against fences in and around the shed. This may be undesirable as cows can hurt themselves or damage shed equipment. The function of grooming is to remove dung, urine and parasites while maintaining the condition of skin and hair.   

FEEDBACK;

• What has really gone wrong? The country has no proper constitution. Politicians have for a long time taken us for granted.(name withheld)
• You need to say more to these politicians. I am from Ndwane village and the nearest dam is 16km away. How can one improve livestock farming when underground water is hard to get. Only one communal borehole, but we manage to raise that little. How can one say we are lazy?(name withheld)

Masuku: I wish I could do more, but again I am reminded that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. 

Email; muhle.masuku@gmail.com or sms only to 0712 938 659