The dry cow yard is split into two, near dry cows and far dry cows.
We use selective dry cow therapy (SDCT) for cows on the dairy. A SDCT program treats some cows at dry off with an antibiotic which can reduce antibiotic use and costs for the farm, but all cows are treated with an internal teat sealant.
Upon first indroduction only a few cows in the herd were treated with SDCT, but over a number of years SDCT has increased within the herd, due to the continued improvements in udder health across the herd.
The far off dry cows are dried off from milking at 8 weeks pre calving. The group will always consist of up to 25 cows that are 4 to 8 weeks pre calving.
During the months March to September the far dry cows live outside and are rotationally grazed on less ‘lush’ paddocks or are grazed on a ‘leader-follower’ system. This means that they follow the milking cows and graze off the less nutritional grass after the milking cows come out of the paddock, this system is used as the nutritional needs of these far off dry cows are not as high as the milking herd.
The near dry cows are 3 week pre calving and are housed during this period as the farm staff need to carefully control their diet and feed intakes. This is the critical period that can have positive or negative effects on the lactations to follow. Both far and near cows get the same diet, but the near dry cows have additional protected calcium top dressed onto their ration, to help prevent hypocalcaemia (milk fever) and retained foetal membranes (RFM).
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