HERD HEALTH

Fly infestations on dairy operations cost the industry and individual farmers significantly in lost productivity and feed efficiency and increase the risk of disease.

Globally, many family farms fell back on “DIY self-sufficiency” in the wake of infrastructure disruptions of transporting agriculture goods due to COVID-19 economics.

Not long ago, my colleague Chip and I visited a 600-cow dairy farm in Texas that was looking for some help. They were struggling with these things:

Often, when I visit a farm to troubleshoot an incident of poor transition cow performance, I hear the comment, “Things had been going so well until now. What might have changed with my anionic supplement?”

The dry period is essential for dairy cows to allow for regeneration of milk-secreting tissue and prepare the udder for optimal success in the next lactation.

As dairy farmers have likely noticed, long-lasting intramammary antibiotics (also called dry cow tubes) are in very tight supply this year. While not much can be done about the current shortage, it leads to the question of alternatives.