Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Gawddawggonnit

Grueller wrote: »

Heifer here with chafing on the inside of the leg and the inside of the udder. It's quite sore and raw looking. She is calved a fortnight now and the udder is quite hard. What can I put on it? Udder mint or something to soften the udder? What would be good for the chafing?

Feed gypsum.

Grueller

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Feed gypsum.

Never heard of that

orm0nd

Grueller wrote: »

Heifer here with chafing on the inside of the leg and the inside of the udder. It's quite sore and raw looking. She is calved a fortnight now and the udder is quite hard. What can I put on it? Udder mint or something to soften the udder? What would be good for the chafing?

A solution of warm water and salt.

Grueller

Base price wrote: »

Sudocrem for the chaffing and bathe the quarter with hand hot water. Did you check it for mastitis.

No mastitis. Last collection SCC of 41.

whelan2

I remember milking for a farmer years ago and he was telling me the infection like what your heifer has is herpes and he had a special cream to put on it

Mooooo

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Where do they pick it up from?
How do they carry it?


The weather does have a huge role to play.
We only vaccinate the cows that calve from November to March. We never get it in the months we don’t vaccinate and always get it when we vaccinate..maybe the vaccine is the source! .

Calf suckling can pick stuff up off the external part of the cow.

greysides

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Where do they pick it up from?
How do they carry it?

Cows were calves once.


They carry it in their gut flora.


Dirty cows, bedding are the source for the calves. Communal calving areas would not be a good idea. Essentially, all calves exposed to the dung of all previously calved cows. If cows could be penned a couple of days before calving in a cleaner area than the dry cow house, in order to clean off it might help.
Cutting dags off tails and shaving the udders would push in the same direction.

I don't like the concept, but, snatch calving may help.

whelan2

Had a cow sat on a calf during the night. Always get one or 2 a year. Fooker

jaymla627

Seems an taisce are on a mission to torpedo the dairy industry after achieving it with the forestry sector, when you take into account their court action against Glanbia delaying the Belview development and now this
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/environmental-ngos-resign-from-agri-food-strategy-2030-stakeholder-committee/

K.G.

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Feed gypsum.

Can you explain what the story with gypsum is

Siamsa Sessions

jaymla627 wrote: »

Seems an taisce are on a mission to torpedo the dairy industry after achieving it with the forestry sector, when you take into account their court action against Glanbia delaying the Belview development and now this
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/environmental-ngos-resign-from-agri-food-strategy-2030-stakeholder-committee/

Lots of groups start off with nice ideas and wanting to do the right thing. But after a while the group becomes about individual egos and they forget about why they came together in the first place. Maybe I'm imagining it but a few "environmentalists" on Twitter seem to have made everything very personal recently.

Gillespy

Fed gypsum before for its sulphur in a precalving ration. I was told to go to a hardware store and get a bag of the pink plaster powder stuff.

straight

whelan2 wrote: »

Had a cow sat on a calf during the night. Always get one or 2 a year. Fooker

Are they over crowded. Recommendation is 10m² per cow. Think I read that in the journal the other day.

Castlekeeper

straight wrote: »

Are they over crowded. Recommendation is 10m² per cow. Think I read that in the journal the other day.

Just did my own sums here, it's comfortable at 15m2 , any more is getting crowded.
I'd say 10 or less is mayhem.

K.G.

Gillespy wrote: »

Fed gypsum before for its sulphur in a precalving ration. I was told to go to a hardware store and get a bag of the pink plaster powder stuff.

I m shocked at this be cause i know someone who mixes coarse feed with gypsum and puts it in a bowel for rats with a bowl of water beside it. Theory is the gypsum goes hard in the stomach and kills them

straight

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Just did my own sums here, it's comfortable at 15m2 , any more is getting crowded.
I'd say 10 or less is mayhem.

Just did mine there now too. I've about 70 sq metres of bedding and I'd put in six in that house max. That's 11.6 per cow. But there is another 35 sq metres of feeding/standing area.

whelan2

straight wrote: »

Are they over crowded. Recommendation is 10m² per cow. Think I read that in the journal the other day.

1 cow and 1 calf in a big pen. No way overcrowded.

kevthegaff

Calves are tight this year, had a pi so restricted until herd vaccination

Mooooo

kevthegaff wrote: »

Calves are tight this year, had a pi so restricted until herd vaccination

Are the department covering that? Pain in the ass, were you clear of it the last few years?

Gawddawggonnit

greysides wrote: »

Cows were calves once.


They carry it in their gut flora.


Dirty cows, bedding are the source for the calves. Communal calving areas would not be a good idea. Essentially, all calves exposed to the dung of all previously calved cows. If cows could be penned a couple of days before calving in a cleaner area than the dry cow house, in order to clean off it might help.
Cutting dags off tails and shaving the udders would push in the same direction.

I don't like the concept, but, snatch calving may help.

All stock are spotless here, always!
Calving pens are communal but always deep with fresh straw. No hope of individual calving pens.

Snatching, imho, should be outlawed on welfare grounds. We try to keep things as close to nature as possible...snatching isn’t natural.

Gawddawggonnit

K.G. wrote: »

Can you explain what the story with gypsum is

Gypsum.
30%CaO + 45%SO3 is what we use. Comes either granulated or powder. We use the powder because it’s cheap as chips and easy to fire into the diet feeder.
It’s the ultimate solution for milk fever and counteracts hard springings. Feed from 30-90g/hd/day depending on phosphorus levels in forage. It’s indispensable when/if calving cows off grass.


In the not too distant future ye will all be using it to correct ph when ye’ve to move from prg monocultures to multi species swards...but that’s for another day.

blackdog1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

All stock are spotless here, always!
Calving pens are communal but always deep with fresh straw. No hope of individual calving pens.

Snatching, imho, should be outlawed on welfare grounds. We try to keep things as close to nature as possible...snatching isn’t natural.

technically if you weren't buying in stock you might only have to snatch the calf for 4/5 years until the last cow before you started is gone, I defiantly wouldn't be a fan of it. when I had crypto before I started using parafor I found pasteurising the beestings and milk after made a huge difference. You could always go all autumn calving

Gawddawggonnit

blackdog1 wrote: »

technically if you weren't buying in stock you might only have to snatch the calf for 4/5 years until the last cow before you started is gone, I defiantly wouldn't be a fan of it. when I had crypto before I started using parafor I found pasteurising the beestings and milk after made a huge difference. You could always go all autumn calving

Pasteurising colostrum? Never heard of anyone doing it. Does it cause any problems with the quality of the biestings?
Flying herd here for the foreseeable I’m afraid.

yosemitesam1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Gypsum.
30%CaO + 45%SO3 is what we use. Comes either granulated or powder. We use the powder because it’s cheap as chips and easy to fire into the diet feeder.
It’s the ultimate solution for milk fever and counteracts hard springings. Feed from 30-90g/hd/day depending on phosphorus levels in forage. It’s indispensable when/if calving cows off grass.


In the not too distant future ye will all be using it to correct ph when ye’ve to move from prg monocultures to multi species swards...but that’s for another day.

Is that the dcad type system you're doing with gypsum? Might it be harder to achieve on silage only with high k and varying mineral levels?

K.G.

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Gypsum.
30%CaO + 45%SO3 is what we use. Comes either granulated or powder. We use the powder because it’s cheap as chips and easy to fire into the diet feeder.
It’s the ultimate solution for milk fever and counteracts hard springings. Feed from 30-90g/hd/day depending on phosphorus levels in forage. It’s indispensable when/if calving cows off grass.


In the not too distant future ye will all be using it to correct ph when ye’ve to move from prg monocultures to multi species swards...but that’s for another day.

Yet again after many years in farming i m reminded that i know f##k allgkn

straight

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Gypsum.
30%CaO + 45%SO3 is what we use. Comes either granulated or powder. We use the powder because it’s cheap as chips and easy to fire into the diet feeder.
It’s the ultimate solution for milk fever and counteracts hard springings. Feed from 30-90g/hd/day depending on phosphorus levels in forage. It’s indispensable when/if calving cows off grass.


In the not too distant future ye will all be using it to correct ph when ye’ve to move from prg monocultures to multi species swards...but that’s for another day.

I'm interested in seeing some results from these multi species swards. Am listening to some regenerative agriculture podcasts lately and they make sense to me.

blackdog1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Pasteurising colostrum? Never heard of anyone doing it. Does it cause any problems with the quality of the biestings?
Flying herd here for the foreseeable I’m afraid.

No not that I noticed , calves did very well on it. I would pasteurize the biestings and then store them in one of these

https://www.fanevalleystores.com/categories/cattle/calf-products/calving-essentials/products/68539/Perfect-Udder-Colostrum-Kit-with-50-Bags

after that id keep pasteurizing the milk and feeding it for 14 days. Calves were shining but it was a lot of work because I was only using a small one. also you have to defrost the biestings at a certain temp to not damage them...this goes for non pasteurized too.If you were dumping alot of antibiotic milk I would recommend one if you can afford it as you can then feed the milk to calves without and residues.

Base price

blackdog1 wrote: »

No not that I noticed , calves did very well on it. I would pasteurize the biestings and then store them in one of these

https://www.fanevalleystores.com/categories/cattle/calf-products/calving-essentials/products/68539/Perfect-Udder-Colostrum-Kit-with-50-Bags

after that id keep pasteurizing the milk and feeding it for 14 days. Calves were shining but it was a lot of work because I was only using a small one. also you have to defrost the biestings at a certain temp to not damage them...this goes for non pasteurized too.If you were dumping alot of antibiotic milk I would recommend one if you can afford it as you can then feed the milk to calves without and residues.

A Vet told me many years ago how to properly defrost beastings in a water bath. I defrost 1ltr or 2ltr bottles in the large saucepan that I use to cook the ham for Christmas. I have a milk/water thermometer that I can keep a check on the temperature of the water up to 38C - you need a bit of patience as it takes a while.

I would have thought that pasteurising biestings would kill the antibodies that are necessary for the calf.

einn32

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

All stock are spotless here, always!
Calving pens are communal but always deep with fresh straw. No hope of individual calving pens.

Snatching, imho, should be outlawed on welfare grounds. We try to keep things as close to nature as possible...snatching isn’t natural.

I remember research I noted a few years ago stating that a calf drinking colostrum straight from the cow allowed for the highest level of antibody absorption then feeding the calf colostrum in the presence of the mother and finally feeding the calf alone exhibited the lowest level of antibody absorption.

Say my name

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

All stock are spotless here, always!
Calving pens are communal but always deep with fresh straw. No hope of individual calving pens.

Snatching, imho, should be outlawed on welfare grounds. We try to keep things as close to nature as possible...snatching isn’t natural.

Why are your calving pens communal when you leave the calf with the cow?
You hardly leave the calf on the cow with a group of other calves and cows?

If you do how do you ensure the calf receives colostrum from it's own mother and not another cow that calved days before?
There'd surely be some mismatches.
And where does the teagasc 321 rule come into play?

I suppose ai, calving jack and cesarians are also out? Not having a go but none of farming is natural anyway.