Despite being simple to manage, dry cows are frequently ignored. The health of the cow and the amount of milk the holy creature produces throughout the subsequent lactation will depend on how you take care of it during the drying period. However, proper care and management of dry cows can result in increased productivity once they calve. With every dry cow that is managed properly, there could be four additional cows that will be milking more. Actually, the management of dry cows is an investment that will pay off in the prolonged run. All the procedures and methods required for the management of dry cows will be covered in this article. It’s time to read!
In order to maximise milk production during the next lactation, the udder of a dairy cow needs a non-lactating or rest before calving again. The term “dry period” is frequently used to describe this stage of the breastfeeding cycle. In other words, it refers to the time between one lactation’s end and the start of the next one. Dry intervals of 45 to 60 days are advised, and yields of milk are poor if the interval is shorter than 40 days. To promote overall health and repair the tissues that secrete milk, a dry period is required. Due to their significant impact on milk supply and health during the following lactation, care and management of dry cows are now an essential part of overall herd management.
A dry period was once thought to be necessary for dairy cows to restock their nutritional health. It is now understood, nonetheless, that in order to get ready for the following lactation, active milk-producing cells must regress or involute into a non-secretory, resting condition. These cells start to function again when calving gets closer, and milk-producing cells are generated. As a result, the amount of tissue that produces milk increases with each lactation. If proper care and management of dry cows are avoided, milk production would be reduced by 25 to 30 per cent.
The significant modes for the care & management of dry cows are listed below-
One of the most efficient modes for the care and management of dry cows is dry cow therapy. Dry cow therapy is an oil-based, long-acting mastitis therapy and preventative. The goal of drying off is not to treat clinical mastitis. Dry cow therapy is used to treat subclinical mastitis and stop mastitis-causing bacteria from getting into the teat canal and producing mastitis while it is dry. Before drying or undergoing dry cow therapy, a cow with mastitis at drying should first be treated with something like a lactating cow’s therapy till the medical mastitis is resolved. Rather than merely treating cows with a specific condition of mastitis, as some farmers do, all the calves on the farm should receive treatment.
Management of dry cows is a crucial factor to look after. Cows need to be kept in good physical condition throughout the dry period. The best indicator of how to handle a cow when it goes from lactating to a non-lactating herd is how well it is doing while it approaches the dry period. Cows that are too thin will have to be fed enough to recover their body flesh as well as to develop somebody’s reserve. Cows are not required to gain other than 0.25 to 0.50 body weight during their dry period.
Compared to dry cows, lactating cows use energy for body gain 25% more effectively. As a result, late lactation is the best time to add more conditions, if necessary. With proper care and management of dry cows, they are less likely to experience ketosis, udder edema, displaced abomasum, and other chronic health problems than cows that are fed in excess during the dry period.
In fact, it is also not advisable to starve dry cows that are overweight while entering the dry period. According to research, excessive proper diet and poor management of dry cows in an effort to make them lose weight can result in ketosis, fatty liver[1], and other problems.
Working on the bodily conditional according in order to manage a herd more efficiently and lower the frequency of metabolic problems after calving, scoring the dry cows and lactating herd on a regular basis is a very helpful technique.
Probably the most crucial part of the entire dry cow programme is the nutrition and food management phase. The goal is to create and provide a diet that will satisfy the dry cow’s nutrient requirements throughout the dry period depending on the dry cow’s expected dry matter consumption.
Forage and concentrate are the two categories that make up the diet. In order to make up for the forage’s insufficiency in providing the other components the dry cow need, the concentrate part of the diet should be increased. Forage should make up at least 60% of the total dry matter in the dry cow diet. For dry cow rations, free-choice feeding of high-quality, long-stemmed grasses hay is optimal. Grass hay maintains the rumen’s health by increasing rumen fill and volume, rumen muscle tone, stimulating salivation, and helping to repair and restore the rumen wall membrane. To provide proper management of dry cow’s nutritional requirement that is not met by the forage component of the food, a grain mixture should be made. It is preferable to add the necessary minerals with the grain mix rather than giving them a choice in order to ensure optimal mineral intake. Eliminate salt and buffers as they raise the risk of udder edema.
“Steaming up” or transition feeding is yet another method of nourishing during the close-up period. It can be done by creating a diet that contains all of the grass and concentrates components of the lactating cow nutrition. This approach often entails raising the concentrate fraction and reducing the forage part of the diet in comparison to the previous dry cow ration. This results in a decrease in the amount of neutral detergent fibre in the ration and an increase in non-fibre carbohydrates, such as starches and sugars.
Feeding 6–12 kg of grains 3 weeks prior to calving can be beneficial even when no grain is fed for the majority of the dry period in order to acclimatise the gut bacteria to grain digestion. This makes it possible for the cow’s digestive system to respond to increased energy demand after lactation, which will enhance dry matter intake. To include feeds and
grains from the lactation ration, the diet should also be changed. Once more, this will speed up gut adaption and lower the frequency of off-feed issues and related diseases during the first few months of lactation.
Dairy herd management includes the care and management of dry cows, which is crucial. For the successful management of dry cows programmes, the aforementioned factors—length of the dry season, treatment for dry cow mastitis, nutrition, and feed management—are essential. To increase your knowledge about cattle management, A2 milk, desi cows, and other health and wellness trend, keep reading our blogs.
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