Management characteristics, lameness, and body injuries of dairy cattle housed in high-performance dairy herds in Wisconsin

Cook, Nigel B.; Hess, J.P.; Foy, M.R.; Bennett, T.B.; Brotzman, R.L.

doi:10.3168/jds.2016-10956

Cited by 80 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Hock lesion prevalence in this study was less (17.4%) than previously reported in other studies, where prevalence ranged from 42 to 81% (Weary and Taszkun, 2000;von Keyserlingk et al, 2012). Cook et al (2016) found that the prevalence of all hock lesions in highproducing (>40 kg of daily milk production) herds in Wisconsin was 50.3% and severe hock lesion prevalence was 12.2%. As mentioned previously, 93% of the herds in the current study were housed on deep beds, with only approximately 7% of farms using mattress-based freestalls.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 68%

“…Our animal health assessment indicated that the farms in the current study had lower lameness prevalence (18.3%) than some previous studies that reported 25 to 30% lameness prevalence (also by scoring the high-producing pen on freestall farms; Espejo et al, 2006;Ito et al, 2010). However, some more recent studies (Cook et al, 2016;Adams et al, 2017) reported lower lameness prevalence of 9.6 and 13.2% and severe lameness prevalence of 2.5 and 1.7%. Discrepancies in these values could result from the fact that previous studies included a variety of stall surfaces in their evaluation.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

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Management, operational, animal health, and economic characteristics of large dairy herds in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States

Evink

Endres

2017

Journal of Dairy Science

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Recent trends in dairy farm structure in the United States have included a decreasing number of farms, although farm size has increased, especially the share of milk production from very large herds (>2,500 cows). The objectives of this observational study were to describe common management practices; to characterize labor and operational structure; to measure some aspects of animal health, including lameness, hock lesions, mortality, and mastitis incidence; and to summarize cost of production on farms with more than 2,500 cows in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States. The study included 15 dairy farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota. Farms were visited twice, once each year, and on-farm herd records were collected for those 2 yr. On-farm herd records were used to investigate mortality, culling, pregnancy rate, and clinical mastitis incidence. At least 1 high-producing pen of mature cows and 1 pen of fresh cows were scored for locomotion. Likewise, at least 1 pen of high-producing mature cows was scored for cleanliness and hock lesions. Median herd size was 3,975 cows (range = 2,606-13,266). Milk sold per employee was 1,120,745 kg and the number of cows per employee was 105. Eighty percent of the farms had Holstein cows, 13% had Jersey, and 7% had Jersey-Holstein crosses. All farms used artificial insemination as the sole form of breeding and 100% of the farms used hormonal synchronization or timed artificial insemination programs in their reproductive protocols; 21-d pregnancy rate was 21.7%. Median lameness prevalence was 18.3% and median severe lameness prevalence was 5.1%. Median hock lesion prevalence was 17.4% and median severe hock lesion prevalence was 1.9%; mortality rate was 7.4%. Clinical mastitis incidence was 62.5 cases per 100 cow-years. Feed costs accounted for approximately 53% of the total cost of producing milk, followed by labor at 11%, interest and depreciation expenses at 10%, and replacement costs at 9.5%. Herds in the top 50th percentile for profitability had a net income of $2.40 per hundredweight of milk sold compared with $0.95 per hundredweight for herds in the bottom 50th percentile. Although results of this study were helpful in understanding how large dairy systems operate in the Upper Midwest, more research is yet needed with a larger number of farms and wider variety of management practices to identify factors within these large farms that promote optimal animal health and profitability.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

Management, operational, animal health, and economic characteristics of large dairy herds in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States

Evink

Endres

2017

Journal of Dairy Science

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“…A third possible consequence of being later in the milking order relates to the extra time spent standing in the dairy yard before milking rather than time away from the paddock. The surface on which cows walk can affect the prevalence of lameness and the experience for cows that are lame (Sauter-Louis et al, 2004;Kremer et al, 2007;von Keyserlingk et al, 2009;Cook et al, 2016). Depending on the dairy yard surface and the condition of the paddock, the effect of being at the beginning or end of the milking order might be positive or negative in terms of animal welfare.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Short communication: Milking order consistency of dairy cows in large Australian herds

Beggs

Hemsworth

Fisher

2018

Journal of Dairy Science

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We used on-farm records from dairy infrastructure to examine the consistency of the milking order over 150 d in 5 Australian dairy herds that were milking more than 500 cows as a single group. Within a single day the difference in milking order rank position was less than 20 percentage points for 72% of cows. The correlation coefficient comparing milking rank position in the morning and afternoon was 0.72, with the position of cows at the beginning and end of the milking order being more consistent than cows toward the middle of the milking order. Over a period of 150 d, cows with a mean position in the first and last 20% of the milking order maintained their position more consistently than cows in the middle of the milking order. Milking position of cows between one month and the next was highly correlated (r = 0.88). In large herds, subpopulations of cows are regularly milked toward the beginning and the end of the milking order. It is common for cows to be collected from the paddock as a group, to wait as a group in the dairy yard to be milked, and to return individually to the paddock or feed pad immediately after they have been milked. Thus, cows milked later in the milking order are likely to be away from the paddock for several hours longer than cows milked earlier in the milking order. This may affect their welfare though differences in time available for lying down, equality of pasture eaten, and time spent standing in the dairy yard.

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“…Cattle mobility scoring is becoming one of the widely accepted method of assessing potential welfare effects. But no such tool existed two years ago for finished cattle; however, it is important to mention that several lameness studies have been conducted on farms, showing that it is a serious welfare problem (von Keyserlingk, Barrientos, Ito, Galo, & Weary, 2012;Cook, Hess, Foy, Bennett, & Brotzman, 2016). Mobility scoring is an animal-based measure.…”

Section: Behavioral Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-slaughter cattle welfare indicators for use in commercial abattoirs with voluntary monitoring systems: A systematic review

et al. 2018

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Animal welfare has become an important subject of public, economic and political concern, leading to the need to validate indicators that are feasible to use at abattoirs. A systematic review was carried out, which identified 72 cattle welfare indicators (CWI) that were classified into four categories (physiological, morphometric, behavioral and meat quality). Their validity and feasibility for use in abattoirs were evaluated as potential measures of cattle welfare during transportation to the abattoir and at the abattoir itself. Several highly valid indicators were identified that are useful to assess welfare at abattoirs, including body condition score, human-animal interactions, vocalizations, falling, carcass bruising, and meat pH. In addition, some intermediate valid indicators are useful and should be investigated further. Information along the food chain could be used systematically to provide a basis for a more-risk-based meat inspection. An integrated system based on the use of key indicators defined for each inspection step with the setting of alarm thresholds could be implemented.

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Management characteristics, lameness, and body injuries of dairy cattle housed in high-performance dairy herds in Wisconsin

Cited by 80 publications

References 49 publications

Management, operational, animal health, and economic characteristics of large dairy herds in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States

Management, operational, animal health, and economic characteristics of large dairy herds in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States

Short communication: Milking order consistency of dairy cows in large Australian herds

Pre-slaughter cattle welfare indicators for use in commercial abattoirs with voluntary monitoring systems: A systematic review

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