Transition cow nutrition and management strategies of dairy herds in the northeastern United States: Part I—Herd description and performance characteristics

Abstract

Our objective was to describe management and herd characteristics of the transition period on freestall dairy herds in the northeastern United States using an on-farm survey and prospective cohort design. Enrolled herds (n = 72) had a median of 900 milking cows (range: 345-2,900) and a rolling herd average of 12,674 kg (standard deviation ± 1,220 kg), and 87.2% (n = 82/94) of fresh pens were milked at least 3×/d. The prevalence of herds with ≥15% of sampled cows with elevated concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids prepartum (≥0.27 mmol/L, 2-14 d before parturition) and postpartum [primiparous: ≥0.60 mmol/L, multiparous: ≥0.70 mmol/L, 3-14 d in milk (DIM)], β-hydroxybutyrate postpartum (≥1.2 mmol/L, 3-14 DIM), and haptoglobin postpartum (≥1 g/L, 0-12 DIM) was 51%, 51%, 51%, and 57%, respectively. In most herds, cows were moved to a calving pen when showing signs of labor (73.6%; n = 53/72) instead of 0 to 3 d before expected calving (26.4%, n = 19/72). Cows remained in the calving or maternity pen for a median (range) time of 2 (0-24) h after parturition before moving to the next pen. Primiparous cows remained in the first pen moved to after parturition for a longer period than multiparous cows [median (range) days: 12 (1.5-25) vs. 6 (1. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]]. Approximately 20% of herds had routine vaccinations administered in the maternity or calving pen, first pen after parturition, or both. Almost all herds (n = 69/72) performed fresh cow health checks; however, only 53% (n = 38/72) locked up all fresh cows daily. More herds housed primiparous and multiparous cows in separate pens during the far-off dry (65.3%; n = 47/72) and high-lactation (81.9%; n = 59/72) periods compared with the close-up dry (31.9%; n = 23/72) and fresh periods (27.8%; n = 20/72). At least half of the pens observed during the far-off dry, close-up dry, and fresh periods had a stocking density <100%. Approximately one-third of pens observed during the far-off dry period had feed pushed up ≤4×/d compared with approximately 15 to 20% of pens observed during the close-up dry, fresh, and high-lactation periods. More than half of the total mixed ration samples acquired from the far-off and close-up dry period visits had greater than the recommended proportion of particles in the 19-mm screen of the Penn State Particle Separator. The results of this observational study illustrated the range of management practices used in freestall herds in this region and lay the groundwork for future hypothesis-driven studies using this sampled population.

Systematic Evaluation of Different Fresh Cow Monitoring Procedures

“…For example, infections and inflammations can be detected by measuring the rectal temperature. As part of regular monitoring of fresh cows, between 36% and 89% of farmers reported that rectal temperature was measured daily [ 12 , 19 , 26 ]. In this study and due to the SOP that all cows had to be measured at the initial examination, the measurement of the rectal temperature was also the most frequent procedure (56% of all conducted examinations).…”

Associations of a liver health index with health, milk yield, and reproductive performance in dairy herds in the northeastern United States

“…A more in-depth description of the study population and study design was previously published ( Kerwin et al, 2022b ). Briefly, a retrospective cohort study was conducted from a convenience sample of 72 farms located in New York and Vermont between November 2012 and August 2015.…”

“…Health event records, reproductive records, and milk records were acquired through the farm's record management software program when all sampled cows were at least 150 DIM. A more complete description of health disorder definitions were described previously ( Kerwin et al, 2022b ).…”

“…Covariates were included in the full model if P < 0.20. Covariates considered (described further in Kerwin et al, 2022b ) were parity group (primiparous vs. multiparous), calving difficulty ( CD ; calving score <3 vs. calving score ≥3 or twins), locomotion score at the time of blood sample collection ( LS ; <3 vs. ≥3), calving season [cool (October through April) vs. warm (May through September)], BCS at close-up visit (−18 to −4 d relative to parturition; ≤3.25 vs. >3.25) and fresh visit (3 to 12 DIM; ≤3.0 vs. >3.0), and the change in BCS from the close-up to fresh visit (≥−0.25 vs. <−0.25). Days in milk at the time of blood sampling was forced into the model as a covariate.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study identifying associations between a liver biomarker index in primiparous cows with health, milk yield, and reproductive outcomes. In addition, our study evaluates the LHI on a large number of dairy farms with a wide variety of management and nutritional styles ( Kerwin et al, 2022b ). Our study design aimed to evaluate long-term effects on milk yield and reproductive performance, whereas most of the previous studies discussed evaluated short-term milk yield effects (<60 DIM).…”