HERD HEALTH

At its best, the process of ensiling should retain as much valuable nutrients and dry matter (DM) from the original forage crop as possible. Once the crop is chopped, that’s as good as the silage quality will ever get.

Salmonellosis has the unenviable distinction of being one of the most common causes of foodborne illness and zoonotic disease in Canada.

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is the cause of the infectious disease bovine viral diarrhea (BVD). BVDV is endemic in North America and its seroprevalence at the herd level has been estimated between 35.5% and 56.7% in non-vaccinated cattle in Canada (at least one animal with a titer of 1:64 or greater).

After calving, a cow needs about three times more calcium than before calving. This increase in calcium requirement is in part due to colostrum production, which requires about 50 grams of calcium or 10 times the amount of calcium circulating in the cow’s bloodstream.

Milk fever, caused by low levels of calcium in the blood, is one of those conditions that can be a real pain. Providing intravenous (IV) calcium and managing down cows can be one of the most challenging parts of a dairy farmer’s job.

The “transition period” is the point in time when a dairy cow transitions from pregnant and not milking to milking and not pregnant. It is somewhat akin to launching a rocket from a standstill to orbit in a matter of weeks.