This is a series of 7 articles about CowSignals® to improve health
production and welfare of your cows. Content 7 articles: feed, water,
light, air, rest, space and health.
This time article number 5 about Rest.
Author:
Joep Driessen is a Dutch dairy vet with 15 years experience in advising dairy
farmers in 50 countries. His team is active in CowSignals trainings, Barn Design
and Dairy management. www.cowsignals.com
The CowSignals Diamond: what is the weakest
spot in your dairy?
Look, Think, Act, do something to make your
cows and yourself happy!
Rest
Give the cow a break! Quiet cows give
more milk. Rest stands for: quiet cow
handling and enough resting hours in
bed.
A cow is a very nice animal. She can
turn grass into tasty milk for us, a real
nice habit. So I think we should
reward her with a friendly, worthy,
treatment and a good rest.
If you are good to her, she will be
good to you!
So what are you gonna change to
make yourself and your cows more
happy?
Cows in these beds lay down in one minute:
Quiet cow handling
because of soft bed, ( head swing-) space and a
flexible neck chain with pvc cover.
Cows like to be treated the same
every day. They like routine. Do your
cows stay calm when you walk up to
them and touch them? Or do they walk away or run away? If you cannot get
within one metre of them, ask yourself the question: why are they afraid of me?
In most milk robot barns the cows get very calm after a while, because they are
not chased by the milker. But in barns with a milk parlour cow behaviour and
fear can be very different. Cows do not like the harsh, loud and low voice of
men. A friendly woman’s voice sounds a lot better to the cow. A good reason to
ask your wife to milk the cows or collect the cows…
Short milking times
Cows do not have much spare time. We like them to be not more than one hour
“out of pen”
That means that cows are not deprived from food, water and a bed more than
one hour per milking. That means with a 2x8 milking parlour you have groups of
maximum 72 cows. Do you need a bigger parlour or can you make two groups?
A big advantage of a milk robot is the very short milking time. 3 x 8 minutes per
day. But make sure you choose for free cow traffic and a lot of space in front of
the robot (4-8 metre). Because with forced cow traffic the waiting times around
milking can be even longer than with a too small parlour. Also stress levels for
especially the heifers and low ranking cows in collection yards can be high.
Burn the stick
Cows hate shouting, hitting and chasing. So the first thing to do is burn the stick.
Learn to friendly guide your cows with a soft and high voice. “Come on girls”. If
you want them to move away from you, you might use your normal voice or a
slight bit deeper and louder. Don’t stress lame and weak cows with coming to
close to them. Give them time and ask yourself in the same time: why did I let
her get lame…? What can I do to prevent this? If cows do not want to move
quick enough, ask yourself what you can improve. Lame cows only get more
lame if you chase them. We train herdsmen to stay a few metres behind the last
lame cow in the herd to give her time to carefully move ahead. For the same
reason the backing gate in the holding area/ collecting yard should not be used
to crush the (lame & weak)cows, but only as a waiting room space deminisher.
Do not hit cows with it. Always watch the cows when you push the button. Maybe
you have to install a mirror to see the cows from the milk pit, at the end of the
holding area. And install a sound on the backing gate to warn the cows..
Stupid cow?
Is she just a “studip cow” or “dumb heifer”? Let me tell you, there are no such
things as stupid cows. Just ignorant farmers. If cows don’t move, there is always
a good reason for it. Did you know that your cows do not like slippery floors?
They don’t like uneven floors either. Can you put soft, grippy rubber in front of
the milk parlour, in the parlour and at the exit? Or roughen the floor with a
diamond blade cutter? Cows don’t like going from light to dark, so it will help if
you install some extra light tubes. They don’t like narrow passages or dead end
roads. They also can be very scared of abnormal things: a jacket hanging over
the fence or sudden changes or moving things. Also very shiny surfaces or the
sun that reflects on a wet floor can make them stop. It is better to please them
than to tease them. Pleasing is better than punishing. It is like training a dog. It
works far better with a cookie than with a stick. So fresh or newly pushed up
feed that is always waiting for them at milking time is a big reward for cows and
the cow flow around milking will be better and faster. Call the cows in with a
friendly: ”come on girls”, and never leave the milking pit, to go and fetch cows.
Cows get used to this and will wait for you. So be patient for a week or two, and
you will save time in the future. Yes you can train your cows!
Make sure that you also tell your new cow-friendly-strategy to your family and
your relief milker, neighbour boy on Saturday, inseminator and vet.
Teach them young
You should start with the heifers to train them. Always be honest and friendly
with them. They learn to trust you. Some smart farmers lock in the 2 months
olds at milk feeding. Either with a chain on a hook or with a back gate, handled
from the front side of the calves. They touch them and talk to them. They tell me
that the rest of their lives these heifers will be very easy to control.
The heifer between 12 and 24 months has the best learning capacity. Go in
between this group more often, lock them in and touch them and clip them.
Teach them all they need to know: free stalls, feed fence, eat concentrate
(especially in robot barns), passages etc. Show them the milk parlour, do foot
baths, let them hear all the sounds. Do a hoof check at 22 months. So invest in
education of your cows!
Heifer group
Some farms make a special heifer group/ first lactation group. I see this already
on 60 cow dairies. 40 cows on one side of the feed alley and 20 on the other
side.
Heifers are a lot more quiet and eat up to 10% more feed and give 10% more
milk…The main reason is no stress from fighting with big mama’s for feed, water
and a bed. They are a bit smaller than older cows, so they can also have a bit
smaller beds, which will stay cleaner. In practice it means that you make the cow
beds bigger and leave the heifer beds the original size.
Fresh cow group
Rest is also having a quiet start of your lactation. And rest around calving…You
can choose between a heifer group or a fresh cow group. The best farms have
both. For optimal start of the lactation we advise strongly to have a “paradise”
for your 10% high risk animals: these are your close up cows, 3 weeks before
calving until 3 weeks fresh. We call this a Stress free calving line. Minimize stress
for yourself and your cows. Having these cows next to each other makes it easy
to move a just calved cow to the next side of the fence. Most farms let her calve
in the dry cow (close up, last 14 days for calving) group on a clean straw pack or
in a shortly separated fenced corner in the group. The cow after calving can relax
and recover in a nice big soft bed or a straw pack in a small group. They don’t
have to fight for food, water or a resting place. Short walking tracks to milk
parlour or robot. Also provide soft floors to prevent laminitis/bloody soles/
corium dysfunction. The first 10-20 days after calving are the most critical for all
diseases. A fresh cow group is also easy to control. The manager can focus on
this group, see empty rumens directly and will be earlier with treatments if
necessary. So if you build for 80 cows, you need 80 m2 straw pack. 10m2 per
cow in the straw pack are needed so you will have space for 3-4 dry cows and
space for 4-5 fresh and lame cows. The lame cows will quickly recover in a straw
pack. Another option is to build this separate part with very spacey and soft
beds. A big advantage is also the very easy control of all your risk animals
together in one group. If you can, design this stress free calving line between
your house and your barn so you pass by every 2 hours automatically. Fresh
cows deserve the best!
Stress free calving line
Good beds: big and soft
There are hardly any hotel beds in the world that are shorter than people, but
90% of the cow beds in the world are shorter than the cow… We talk about a
huge ownertis/ tunnel vision/narrow mindedness of all kinds of farmers and
advisors and barn builders.
If you realize that cows laying length is 190-195 cm (from bended front knee till
tail head), how can we make the effective bed length 175 or less? A Holstein
cow’s length from nose to tail head is 260 cm. She needs 75 cm head lunging
space. This is 335 cm. How can we park them behind a wall with only 260 cm or
less? This is very stupid. If you give them good beds, cows will rest for 14 hours,
but in bad beds they only rest 9 hours. The difference is 5 litres of milk per cow
per day. Every extra hour resting time is 1 litre of milk. So yes, it pays back to
soften and lengthen the cow beds..
Tie-stalls
You can do a lot for the cows’ ease, also in tie-stalls. More bedding material,
straw or sawdust also make a big difference in resting time in tie-stalls. So don’t
be mean on them! Also head and shoulder space will make a big difference.
When cows can get up very easily, they also will rest more.
Deep soft beds already in use in 40 swiss tie stalls with great success.
Make your life easy and give the cow a break!
Soft bed with straw-lime-water mix. Only sand is better!
195 cm bed length between the brisket locator and back curb is just fine for this cow.