HERD HEALTH

If you’ve heard cow comfort talked about once, you’ve heard it 1,000 times: “If you take care of your cows, they will take care of you.”

Tip 1: More on a brisket locator

The brisket locator keeps the cow from moving forward while resting and helps position the cow in the stall and preserves forward lunge space. It also provides a bracing point for cows as they get up.

Tip 1: Improve the stall surface

When cows are not provided with a comfortable place to rest, they will not use or occupy the stalls well. Hock injuries are commonly observed in situations where cows are forced to lie on a hard surface or when insufficient bedding is provided.

“When we first started talking about cow comfort, about 20 years ago, we were talking about stalls … originally it was meant as a cow lying down in a comfortable place,” said Dr. Don Niles, co-owner and manager of Dairy Dreams LLC.

If you have taken the first step to invest in an automatic ventilation controller for your natural ventilation system, now you need to make sure your settings and sensor placements are optimized to give you the maximum benefit.

Just like thumbprints, no two robotic milking startups are exactly the same. If the technology is the same from farm to farm, then why are there differences?