Herd Health

What if you could know a cow is sick before she shows signs? Well, you can.

As a kid, I remember gathering around the table after morning chores to eat a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. What could be better than a hot breakfast after peeling out of bed at 5 a.m. to help my dad get the cows milked?

“How can I recover more of my lame cows?”

That is a question posed to hoof care professionals by dairy producers frequently.

A lame cow is a drag on the morale and fiscal economy of any dairy farm. Neither management nor employees are happy to see cows that shuffle about the dairy.

Reproductive performance is an important driver of dairy farm profitability and can be impacted by several diseases that occur during the dry period, including mastitis. Mastitis is associated with lost milk production, added treatment costs, inferior milk quality, decreases in reproductive efficiency, early herd removal and/or death.

“What is my somatic cell count (SCC)?”

“How can I lower my SCC?”

“My cell count is going up; it must be the dip.”