Herd Health

If there was a way to review your dairy’s results last summer in the areas of pregnancy rates, milk production, feed intakes and lying time, then make proactive changes to your heat abatement program before the dog days of summer arrive, would you do it?

As we entered a new year, with high commodity prices and a recent longer cold stretch, we have begun to see some cow issues. This is not all too uncommon from January to April, as we usually see cowside issues arise.

Pharmaceutical products (vaccines, antimicrobials, other injectable or oral drugs, fly control products, dewormers, intramammary tubes, teat dips, etc.) represent a large investment that helps decrease incidence of disease, mitigate the severity of disease, and improve animal health and productivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into focus what can happen when a population is exposed to a pathogen – in this case, a virus – that has never been seen by that population before.

Warmer weather is nearly here, and with it comes high temperatures, high humidity and increased chances of heat stress. According to a 2019 Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research study, the U.S. dairy industry experiences $1.5 billion in losses to heat stress annually.

While the first 85ºF day is a blessed event for beachgoers and sunbathers, it is equally unwelcome in the dairy production sector. From parlors and pens to fields and farms, heat stress is a major challenge for cattle and the people who work with them. This stress tends to be exacerbated when we see high temperatures dragging on for upwards of five consecutive months.