Pre calving dry cow diet

[More to life]

Put them on a diet if really fat .The best cure is to stop serving sooner tho.

 

[dinderleat]

Put them on a diet if really fat .The best cure is to stop serving sooner tho.

Yeah totally agree don't serve anything over 250dim now. When I say fat, condition score of 3.5 at the most.

 

[farmer JD]

So what's everyone's protocol for a cow fat 3-4 weeks off calving ? Do kexxtones actually work ?

 

[dinderleat]

Don't wait until 3-4 weeks just check her when you dry her off or eight weeks before they calve

 

[dinderleat]

Ignore me, it says on kexxtonne 3 weeks before they calve is ideal which then would give 95 days protection.

 

[Clay52]

I'm sorry for trying to help a brother out,il not do it again, death rate 3/4%, 10000 herd, rarely pull a calve, rarely have a hung cleansing,milk fever one every 2 years,35% conception rate, once again I sincerely apologise stating what works for us and could potentially help one person out a wee bit, il definately not be doing that again.

I'm not someone who hides problems, if I feel I have continuous problems I change something, crickey we aren't all as backwards thinking as you @Clay52 !

Im not saying you shouldn't say what works for you, no need to be dramatic. Im saying reccomending changing to someone else's system won't necessarily fix the problem even though it works for another person.

Every farm is individual you have different systems, difference facilities, different people feeding the cow ect. A blanket change to another farms system may not fix the problem and just complicate finding the problem.

Why are you saying I'm backwards thinking?

 

[supercow]

Because I went into a rage cos I felt you were rude in your comment! Sorry about that! I'm only saying I honestly feel nice haylage is the best feed for a dry cow, for every yield. If I were @meekers I'd cut all the expensive stuff ie maize, pre maid blends and whatnot. And make nice haylage. I'm not trying to tell folk what to do but a lot of folk on this thread say they feed haylage and say they get on great. If I were having problems in whatever side of the dairy I would actualy post a thread on here and see what folk think, and if a few folk say they get on great with something iv never tried before I would honestly try it, got to be open minded, which I'm sure u are @clay

 

[Clay52]

Because I went into a rage cos I felt you were rude in your comment! Sorry about that! I'm only saying I honestly feel nice haylage is the best feed for a dry cow, for every yield. If I were @meekers I'd cut all the expensive stuff ie maize, pre maid blends and whatnot. And make nice haylage. I'm not trying to tell folk what to do but a lot of folk on this thread say they feed haylage and say they get on great. If I were having problems in whatever side of the dairy I would actualy post a thread on here and see what folk think, and if a few folk say they get on great with something iv never tried before I would honestly try it, got to be open minded, which I'm sure u are @clay

Do you see where I'm coming from though? Simply saying to "cut maize, pre made blends and what not" isn't finding the problem. There is nothing inherently wrong with those in a pre fresh mix for dry cows. There is nothing to suggest any of those are the issue or that removing them would solve the problem. It will likely just complicate finding the actual issue.

I like simple but first I would try and pinpoint the problem, fix that and then if justified try and make things simpler without harming performance.

Change too many things at once and you have no clue to what worked and what didn't.

 

[Blue.]

I use kextone boluses on fat cows,older cows,cows with known history and anything looking under the weather.

A large herd a relation worked on used them on their heifers,all 600 of them.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

A large herd a relation worked on used them on their heifers,all 600 of them

That would be a good example of a dis-economy of scale.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

I use kextone boluses on fat cows,older cows,cows with known history and anything looking under the weather.

A large herd a relation worked on used them on their heifers,all 600 of them.

How much do they work out each?

 

[Ducati899]

How many on here use calving cameras in dry cow sheds? Slightly off the subject sorry.... @JP1 what's the cost of the ones you sell? Just a rough price will do

 

[JP1]

How many on here use calving cameras in dry cow sheds? Slightly off the subject sorry.... @JP1 what's the cost of the ones you sell? Just a rough price will do

Hard wired bullet (fixed) camera £550 for first camera and £299 for additional cameras (infra red)

With pair of wifi transmitters to transmit from barn to your house / office / broadband source up to 2km £749 and then £299 per additional camera

90 degree splay camera should cover up to 40ft x 40ft pen, typically if there are gates / feeders / other lying cows blocking a view, folks use two bullet cameras in opposite diagonal corners of a shed / loose pen area up to 80ft x 40/50ft

 

[Blue.]

How much do they work out each?

£32 /bolus

 

[Beef farmer]

Hard wired bullet (fixed) camera £550 for first camera and £299 for additional cameras (infra red)

With pair of wifi transmitters to transmit from barn to your house / office / broadband source up to 2km £749 and then £299 per additional camera

90 degree splay camera should cover up to 40ft x 40ft pen, typically if there are gates / feeders / other lying cows blocking a view, folks use two bullet cameras in opposite diagonal corners of a shed / loose pen area up to 80ft x 40/50ft

Is that from agri camera?

 

[JP1]

Is that from agri camera?

Yes

 

[jerseycowsman]

hi just wondered what other people's diets are for cows 3-4 weeks off calving , just I have been experiencing some retained cleansings,the milk fever is ok tested some cows fresh calved and there calcium status was ok ! The cows are looking well before calving but I have been getting 1 out of 8 not cleanse anyone have an ideas ? They are brown Swiss cattle yielding about 9500 kg + I'm feeding 8 kg maize ,8kg chopped haylage average quality , and 4kg Brewers grains and mag chloride and calcium sulphate in diet , and a specialist dry cow nut with a calcium binder in at 2.5 kg per head , and ad lib haylage in ring feeders ,The cows are housed, I'm just wondering if there are any simple systems out there which work ? I was thinking of feeding ad lib haylage and a dry cow nut but was told the haylage alone would not supply enough energy , many thanks would appreciate your replies

Fairly mature silage. Then we have a dosing pump that puts .5% liquid magnesium in all the water. Don't feed anything else. 4 cases milk fever and 5 retained cleansings in 280 calvings (all jerseys)

 

[farmer JD]

Fairly mature silage. Then we have a dosing pump that puts .5% liquid magnesium in all the water. Don't feed anything else. 4 cases milk fever and 5 retained cleansings in 280 calvings (all jerseys)

So if you were to do it manually on a group of 80 cows how much mag chloride would you give them in water troughs per day do I give them so much per cow per day or work out how much water they are drinking then give them 5percent of that in mag ?

 

[jerseycowsman]

So if you were to do it manually on a group of 80 cows how much mag chloride would you give them in water troughs per day do I give them so much per cow per day or work out how much water they are drinking then give them 5percent of that in mag ?

Half a percent.
Do your dry cows drink out of one trough?
If so Get yourself a dosing pump (about £300 from dosatron)
A 1000 litre IBC of rumag from for farmers at £400 which will probably do you for at least 2 months and job done.
Don't bother with mag flakes, it dissolves and sinks to the bottom of the trough, useless!

 

[farmer JD]

It seems too b working at min I put the bag in water trough and leave to dissolve