Cows 365 Blog

July 2010 - Posts

• Poor pregnancy results due to stressors in the herd

  With a client in county Limerick today. Completed a herd pregnancy scan. 70% of the cows were confirmed pregnant to first 12 weeks of clients breeding programme.  This figure is extremely poor and accounted by the fact that various stressors hit the herd during the pre-breeding programme.  The client had an outbreak of stomach fluke, an outbreak of IBR and also encountered a severe problem with acidemia with cows grazing grass with a very low fibre diet.  All of these factors compunded stress on the cows resulting in poor pregnancy rates to services. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 30 2010, 12:36 PM by cows365 with no comments Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: IBR, stressors, grazing grass, low fibre diet, acidemia [Edit Tags]

• Milk supplied to Jewish Community

  On a farm visit in North Cork- Kanturk  today.  18 eighteen suppliers from the small co-op located are contracted for the supply of milk to the Jewish community in Israel.  A Rabbi visits the farm at the start of milking, a supervisor attends during milking to see the cows being milked.  The milk is then processed and shipped out to Israel.  This contract runs for a 3 week period.  The farmers are getting an extra 10 cent a gallon for the milk supplied.  The farmers only conmplaint is that they are tied to a set time each day for milking.  The Rabbi does not attend the milking on a Friday or Saturday but the farm visits are  on a daily basis otherwise. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com Posted Jul 30 2010, 10:12 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: milk production, Jewish Community [Edit Tags]

• Clinical locomotion issues

  On a farm visit here in county Down today. Over 25% of the cows had clinical locomotion issues in the cows presented.  80% were not cycling or had abnormal follicular function.  This concurs with previous research work indicating abnormal reproductive follicular dynamics in cows experiencing lameness. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 26 2010, 04:55 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: lameness, clincial locomotion, cycling, follicular function [Edit Tags]

• European Directives for quality standards in the dairy industry.

  On a farm visited outside County Cavan earlier today. A representative from Lakeland Dairies visited the farm. He had to carry out an inspection of the facilities on the farm in conjuction with European Directives for welfare of the animals, hygiene environment and collection of storage milk. The farmer commented that he had not had this type of inspection in a few years.  The quality standards set for the dairy industry requires an improvement if overall standards of production and will have to get out of milk production if they cannot meet the standards set. Dr Dan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 23 2010, 12:10 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: animal welfare, Hygiene, quality standards, european directives [Edit Tags]

• Early ovulation post calving and the use of a stock bull.

  Visited a farm in county Cork earlier today where the herd is being managed by a father and son.  The father  removed the stock bull from the herd for a  number of weeks as he did not want the late calving cows bred to a stock bull too early post calving. Unfortunatley, many heats were missed. The father is of the opinion that late calving cows bred too early post calving resulted in  higher embryonic mortality. Early ovulation post calving will result in a higher incidence of uterine infections and delayed evolution. However, the presence of a stock bull during this window does not impair reproductive performance. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 15 2010, 10:12 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: embryonic death, uterine involution, stock bull, late calving cows, early ovulation [Edit Tags]

• Phosphorus deficencies in the herd

  On calls today in County Kerry on 2 farms. Blood tests were taken from the animals due to poor reproductive performance. Results showed that there were severe phosphorus deficiencies.  Clinical science concluded that the animals were eating stones.The advise given was to inject the animals with a phosphorous solution.  Both clients have observed that the animals are no longer eating stones and the phosphorous levels have increased.  Phosphorus is one of the most expensive mineral supplements and the number of the mineral supplements supplied on the market is inadequate form phosphorus concentration to meet animal requirements on a daily basis. For more information on cows eating stones please go to newsletters section of www.cows365.com website and click on June to view.   Posted Jul 14 2010, 01:40 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: reproductive performance, mineral supplements, phosphorus deficiencies [Edit Tags]

• sexing of pregnancies in cows

  Scanned a herd of dairy cows this morning where we sexed 52 pregnancies.  The number of females in the scan was 15. The client was digusted with the result bearing in mind the total cost of using AI and to console the individual I had to explain to him that there is still a probability stastically that this could happen and it is not abnormal.  He went on to tell me that he had used semen which was supposed to give a higher probability of females.  Having borne this in mind, it is very difficult to explain the poor overall sexing ratio. Dr Dan www.cows365.com    Posted Jul 14 2010, 01:33 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: sexed semen, sexing pregnancies, females [Edit Tags]

• Fragmented farms

  visited a farm in county Clare today with a dairy herd of 70 cows. Using two milking parlours as farm fragmentation resulted in cows being walked over a mile morning and evening.  This issue  is one that is quite common in rural parts of Ireland and does not suit dairy farm entersprise.  This has resulted in an increase of farms using zero grazing systems to get grass to cows. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 12 2010, 03:05 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: zero grazing, fragmented farms [Edit Tags]

• Levafas Diamond for the control of stomach fluke.

  With a client in Kerry. He now uses Levafas Diamond for the control of stomach fluke in his animals.This is available from Norbrook Pharamacueticals. He finds it very effective in the control of stomach fluke. His advice being to drench at the time of drying off and 2 weeks before calving. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com Posted Jul 09 2010, 10:47 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: stomach fluke, Norbrook Pharmaceuticals, drench [Edit Tags]

• Grass shortages very profound in Kerry.

  On farm visits today in Couty Kerry.Supplementary feeding has increased on all farms as grass shortages very profound.Farmers realise the impact of these on the overall reproductive performance  and milk production on their cows. Kerry is noted for its variations between dry soils and wet soil types throughout the county. This season has been particularly favourable for farmers  on wet soils while on dry soils the ground has burnt very easily. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 09 2010, 10:40 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: dry conditions, wet soils, supplementary feeding [Edit Tags]

• Make scanning as part of your reproductive management programme.

  Major issues faced this week on farm visits in the south of Ireland where cows presented for AI and AI'd while pregnant to a previous service. This is  creating major problems with embryonic death, wastage of AI straws and inaccurate dry off dates if scanning is not part of your reproductive management programme. Another major issue in herds is low butterfat relative to milk proteins ratio's being incorrect and the long term effect in that fertility is quiet poor. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 08 2010, 02:19 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: scanning, reproductive performance, milk protein ratios, butterfat [Edit Tags]

• The 365-Day Calving Interval Challenge in the Dairy herd.

  Thank you to those of you who have purchased my DVD in the past week. Hope you found the information helpful. There are still more copies available for sale. Dr Dan Ryan www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 07 2010, 12:15 PM by cows365 with no comments [Edit Tags]

• Muscle Index

  In county Limerick today scanning beef heifers. These were chosen on the basis of muscle index and potential dams for the suckler herd.  It was noticeable that the group of heifers which failed to establish pregnancies were those heifers which had extreme muscle index. This is a major issue which I am noticing around Ireland with animals selected for suckler herds. www.cows365.com Posted Jul 07 2010, 12:09 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: suckler herds, potential dams, muscle Index [Edit Tags]

• Deep anoestrus state in cows

  Visited a dairy farm in County Cork yesterday. 15% of the animals on the herd not being detected in heat. All of the animals were close to a deep anoestrus i.e they would not respond to progesterone treatment in synchronisation with prostaglanding treatment. Effectively this has already been tried on these cows but they did not responded. This is why they were presented today. This situation and diet management is critcial to avoid deep anoestrus. The client informed me that the herd had experienced  IBR and this would concur with the observations. www.cows365.com Posted Jul 07 2010, 12:02 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: animal welfare, IBR, anoestrus, diet management [Edit Tags]

• Self Locking Barriers

  Visited a farm in County Laois yesterday where the topic of conversation was self locking barriers.  Recent research has shown that dry matter intakes are reduced among animals fed using self locking barriers if they are not brought up to the barriers to feed. www.cows365.com Posted Jul 06 2010, 05:34 PM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: dry matter intakes, self locking barriers, feed [Edit Tags]

• Dry weather conditions

  On calls in West Cork yesterday, dry conditions pertain.  There is forecast for rain later in the evening. It will take at least 1-1.5 inches of rain before grass growths can begin.  In the short term, there will be grass shortages and supplementation of concentrates of silage are waranted to maintain fertility status for the late calving cows next year. www.cows365.com   Posted Jul 01 2010, 11:18 AM by cows365 with no comments Filed under: concentrates, fertility status, grass shortages, late calving cows [Edit Tags]