The importance of a good dry cow protocol

Colin Murdoch at Bunton Hill Farm in Ayrshire decided to change from an all year round calving Holstein Herd to a block calving Jersey herd, that would eventually move to all year calving. October 2019 saw the first heifers arrive from Denmark.

This first delivery brought with it excitement for the future, but also a responsibility to get things right first time. Thanks to the milk contract from Graham’s Dairy, work was needed to fulfil it and at the correct composition, so there was a huge amount of pressure to make things work in this first year.

“We just couldn’t afford for it to go wrong; we’d made a huge investment in the transition to the Jersey breed,” says Colin.

Interestingly, it was the transition period that Colin focused on with Ruminant Specialist, Sean Kennedy from Advanced Nutrition. In order to make the farm’s own transition smooth they looked at the most stressful period in their cows’ life – the transition period - with the aim of making this as stress free as possible. They used findings from the previous Holstein herd to formulate a dry cow protocol, ensuring hassle free calving and enough energy to start a successful lactation.

It’s well documented that the dry period is such a critical time to get the feeding and environment right as this can really impact on the cow’s health and future productivity. It’s essential to give the cow the right start. This is even more crucial for Jersey cows, known to be more susceptible to milk fever and transition disorders such as retained cleansings and ketosis. Added to this, Colin has the pressure of buying the heifers from herds in a different country, as well as going from an all-round calving herd to these first heifers block calving.

Sean from Advanced Nutrition comments, “With so many calvings happening at the same time we needed to maximise intakes but we also just needed to get the system right. If things go wrong in the transition period you end up fire fighting, so we made sure that we were proactive rather than reactive.”

Learning from the Holstein Herd

One thing they had learnt with the Holstein herd was getting the diet right. For the past 18 months they have used X-Zelit in a mineralised nut - DC X-Zel.

Colin comments, “Having X-Zelit in a nut, we relaxed knowing the cows were getting everything they needed and intakes are far better.”

X-Zelit is a dry cow product that works by stimulating the dry cow’s own hormonal system to create a perfect calcium balance at calving. It’s scientifically proven to produce a dramatic drop in levels of clinical and sub-clinical milk fever, increased health, fertility and post calving energy.

DC X-Zel had offered Colin peace of mind through the dry period, it had worked to reduce metabolic disorders and calving was just easy. They continued to feed it to the close up Jerseys - it offered them a safety net when there was huge pressure for the cows to calve down well and have the energy to get going and produce at the start of the lactation.

The results have been brilliant, out of the 200 heifers that arrived, 175 have calved with 25 to go.

Colin says, “We were nervous of calving Jerseys through the winter but there hasn’t been any issues at all. Not only have the cows started off producing 26 – 28 litres per cow per day, the calves are also much fitter and growth rates have been great.”
“DC X-Zel has enabled us to get the heifers through their first lactation and to set their calves up for future health too. Once you start feeding it, it’s an area you just don’t have to worry about, it gives you the time to solve other problems on the farm!”

As part of the dry cow protocol they looked at the following areas:

The Dry Cow Diet

In the last three weeks, the transition diet consists of silage, chopped haylage, chopped straw, barley, with the last two weeks with the addition of DC-Xcel. They are fed once a day and the silage is pushed up 3 times a day to maximise intakes.

Ration Presentation

They changed to a tub feeder wagon to get more consistent diet that incorporates large amounts of well chopped straw. This gives you a high fibre and low energy diet, allowing for long periods of feeding without the cow being capable of increasing her bodyweight. Maintaining body condition for the whole eight weeks is vitally important to good liver function and immune suppression. From the large straw inclusion rumen motility is maintained and therefore high intakes are maintained.

Cow Comfort

Cows in the dry period need space to help reduce stress and areas available for different groups. This was one of the main reasons for changing to a Jersey herd. There were issues with stocking densities for the Holsteins, whereas the building and environment are now better suited to help the size and frame of the Jersey animal compared to the Holstein.

Movements
The team looked to minimise group changes, ideally just one change at 15 days from calving, allowing the diet to have the DC-Xcel top dressed till point of calving. This nut holds DMI up as the cows would naturally begin to fall, therefore maintaining their energy input the same as day one at drying off!


Colin is confident that transition problems in the future will continue to run at a low rate, the past 18 months have proved that the system works and it gives them time to focus on other areas should they need. The plan is to continue feeding X-Zelit as part of their dry cow protocol, not only did it provide a safety net this time round, it’s proved well in setting up the cows for future lactations through improved health and therefore lifetime performance.

Article first published in British Dairying February 2020 Issue


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