Cows

podge 23

Well-Known Member
How long do lads keep dairy cows on straw to dry them off ? I have them on and off with a week and find it hard to soak them up.
 
How long do lads keep dairy cows on straw to dry them off ? I have them on and off with a week and find it hard to soak them up.

Mine go straight onto the dry cow diet of 5kg of straw plus milk cow diet,some can be doing well over 30 when they go dry,the main thing for me is keeping beds clean so they don't pick up infection if leaking milk,also stopping milking is the best way to stop a cow producing.
 
Dry them off antibiotic tube and sealer and straight into cubicle house on ad lib grass silage. We give them the poorer stuff. But that could be 70 to 75dmd. They stay on that till they calf and we generally have few issues. A good antibiotic and a good sealer are most important.
 
I taught straw would be better to dry them ?

Hay is better as full of minerals, low in protein and still has enough energy in it to keep the cows full and content, you don't need to stress them while drying off.

Dry them off antibiotic tube and sealer and straight into cubicle house on ad lib grass silage. We give them the poorer stuff. But that could be 70 to 75dmd. They stay on that till they calf and we generally have few issues. A good antibiotic and a good sealer are most important.

The antibiotic and sealer are only any good to aid in the fight against infection. They'll do nothing to aid in the drying off process, that's down to management. Amuses me to hear of lads running for tubes to 'dry them up'.
Not every cow needs an antibiotic either, only 25% of ours get an antibiotic and I know we can reduce this if we do our job better.
 
I'd disagree while they won't dry them up ours will have full bags for a couple days after tubing and the bags just go down a few days later.
We've tried milking them once a day for a couple days and then every other day over a bout a week. This was before we used Osmonds tubes. Saw no difference in mastitis reduction calving down.
Used Osmonds tubes and we could dry them straight off with no problems.
Had a batch of 20 to a few years ago and had no Osmonds to use so used bovaclox from local coop, used the same system dried straight off and we lost 6 to ecoli over the next 3 days.
Next batch we milked them on and off over a week cause we still had bovaclox and thought we just didnt do our job right. Teats were wiped disinfected whole nine yards. Lost another 6 to ecoli.
Back to Osmonds tubes and we have eventually gotten brave enough to dry them straight off again and we don't even get any mastitis.
A good tube is essential imo.


[/QUOTE]
The antibiotic and sealer are only any good to aid in the fight against infection. They'll do nothing to aid in the drying off process, that's down to management. Amuses me to hear of lads running for tubes to 'dry them up'.
Not every cow needs an antibiotic either, only 25% of ours get an antibiotic and I know we can reduce this if we do our job better.[/QUOTE]
 
I'd disagree while they won't dry them up ours will have full bags for a couple days after tubing and the bags just go down a few days later.
We've tried milking them once a day for a couple days and then every other day over a bout a week. This was before we used Osmonds tubes. Saw no difference in mastitis reduction calving down.
Used Osmonds tubes and we could dry them straight off with no problems.
Had a batch of 20 to a few years ago and had no Osmonds to use so used bovaclox from local coop, used the same system dried straight off and we lost 6 to ecoli over the next 3 days.
Next batch we milked them on and off over a week cause we still had bovaclox and thought we just didnt do our job right. Teats were wiped disinfected whole nine yards. Lost another 6 to ecoli.
Back to Osmonds tubes and we have eventually gotten brave enough to dry them straight off again and we don't even get any mastitis.
A good tube is essential imo.

Well its not an opinion but fact that not all cows need an antibiotic at drying off. I was sceptical at first when trying it, but it's definitely working. Quite a number of my cows have never had a dry cow tube and some have never had an antibiotic of any sort. And no, it doesn't do anything to help them dry off unless there's an underlying SCC issue, which sounds like could be the issue in your case. I've had one case of dry mastitis in 4yrs and that was a high SCC cow that I dried off and culled and put on to slats so can only blame myself for that.
I'm not claiming to be a great farmer on this, I'm far from it, what I'm saying is that with good dry cow diet management, surgical cleanliness at drying off and keeping the cubicle beds very clean married with a stress free dry cow period, antibiotics can be seriously reduced. Consumers want this, processors want this, and tbh farmers should be looking for this also. Selective dry cow therapy is coming down the line so it's best to be proactive on this.
 
Well its not an opinion but fact that not all cows need an antibiotic at drying off. I was sceptical at first when trying it, but it's definitely working. Quite a number of my cows have never had a dry cow tube and some have never had an antibiotic of any sort. And no, it doesn't do anything to help them dry off unless there's an underlying SCC issue, which sounds like could be the issue in your case. I've had one case of dry mastitis in 4yrs and that was a high SCC cow that I dried off and culled and put on to slats so can only blame myself for that.
I'm not claiming to be a great farmer on this, I'm far from it, what I'm saying is that with good dry cow diet management, surgical cleanliness at drying off and keeping the cubicle beds very clean married with a stress free dry cow period, antibiotics can be seriously reduced. Consumers want this, processors want this, and tbh farmers should be looking for this also. Selective dry cow therapy is coming down the line so it's best to be proactive on this.
You're right in what you are saying but fact remains that without blanket treatment when a cow that needed that intervention and doesn't get it she's lost.
I'm not sure how many farms are out there that are realistically clean enough.
It is something that needs addressed but I'm not sure if there is any procedure to date without antibiotics which can guarantee success 100% of the time. And I wouldn't be comfortable with that risk.
 
You're right in what you are saying but fact remains that without blanket treatment when a cow that needed that intervention and doesn't get it she's lost.
I'm not sure how many farms are out there that are realistically clean enough.
It is something that needs addressed but I'm not sure if there is any procedure to date without antibiotics which can guarantee success 100% of the time. And I wouldn't be comfortable with that risk.

My youngstock have cleaner beds than some milk cows,I pride myself on keeping beds clean,everything's bedded daily here.
 
You're right in what you are saying but fact remains that without blanket treatment when a cow that needed that intervention and doesn't get it she's lost.
I'm not sure how many farms are out there that are realistically clean enough.
It is something that needs addressed but I'm not sure if there is any procedure to date without antibiotics which can guarantee success 100% of the time. And I wouldn't be comfortable with that risk.

Ah don't be such a defeatist. Drug salesmen will have the fear of god put in you for not using their products. I haven't lost any cows doing this, nor have I had any ill effects whatsoever. Cows won't be lost with selective dry cow therapy.
Aside from the cows having a better immunity, the waste milk fed to the calves doesn't impact on them having potential microbial resistance to antibiotics that they may actually need one day. There is less risk of antibiotics entering the tank. There is a financial reward in not using the antibiotic tubes. A little bit of organising, good record keeping, surgical cleanliness at drying off and keeping the cubicles very clean and the above advantages are there to be enjoyed.
 
The best thing to stop a cow milking is to stop taking the milk,my mrs said the same after breast feeding,taking a bit of milk away just prolonged the process.
 
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