HERD HEALTH

Canada’s dairy industry has made great progress in access and usage of data available on-farm in the past years. Information on milk, specifically data on milk component and urea analysis at each delivery, can improve our knowledge of the feed efficiency of our herds and dramatically speed up the response time to a change.

When the dairy economy is suffering, it is only natural and financially responsible to cut costs wherever possible. However, it is important to not make knee-jerk reactions that could potentially reduce income. This would be counterproductive and only set in place a long line of problems and costs to follow.

Consistency is usually a positive term when describing footbath management. However, there are so many footbath management variables that one or more mistakes can easily be made. Without a simple, well-defined footbath protocol, the only consistent result will be poor footbath management and poor hoof health.

As temperatures dip below freezing, and moisture is prevalent, bovine hoof care demands some extra attention. Additionally, winter temperatures can affect common practices such as blocking, impacting the effectiveness and durability of adhesives.

Rob Geier and his hoof-trimming team canvas central Alberta with Casper Trimming Ltd., seeking to solve problems, educate clients and decrease the incidence of lameness among more than 100 dairy herds and 26,000 cows.

By definition, lameness is any abnormality that causes a cow’s gait to change. However, within this broad term are very specific types of hoof lesions and injuries, and each requires specialized treatment for the best recovery opportunity.