5 – Dairy Housing

Question 1

What is the importance of cow housing?

Answer 1

• Cow comfort correlates directly with animal health and welfare
• *as vets, we must advocate for the animal
• Housing affects long-term situation and a significant FINANCIAL INVESTMENT
• Commitment of producer is CRITICAL
• Must meet NEEDS of producer and staff

Question 2

What are stable groups critical for?

Answer 2

• Animal hierarchy
• Social stress

Question 3

What are the determinants of group size?

Answer 3

• Cow time budget
  o If given the choice, what do they do with their time?
• Parlor size and efficiency

Question 4

Example of a cow time budget

Answer 4

• Lying: 12 hrs
• Eating: 4.4
• Standing in stall: 2.4
• Standing in alley: 2.9
• Milking: 1.9
• Drink: 0.4

Question 5

2x vs. 3x milking: how long are the cows out of a pen?

Answer 5

• 2x: 1h/milking
• 3x: 40mins/milking

Question 6

What is an efficient parlour? (how many turns?)

Answer 6

• > 3.8 turns/hour, including 5mins to/from parlor

Question 7

Ex. 50 cow parlor, 3x/day max herd size

Answer 7

• 24hr/3=8hr shifts
  o 1 hr to clean parlour
  o 7 hrs to milk
• 7hrs x 3.8 turns/hr = 26.6
• 26.6 turns x 50 =1,330 cows

Question 8

What are some different bedding materials?

Answer 8

• Sand
• Straw
• Wood shavings
• Oat hulls
• Compost/manure solids

Question 9

Sand

Answer 9

• Comfortable and biologically inert
• Destroys manure scrapers/handling systems
• Vacuum removal
• Flush alleys

Question 10

Straw

Answer 10

• Barley, wheat and oat most common
• Dry=absorbent
• Potential dust issues:
  o Less with flax straw, but clogs manure handling systems
• Might be eaten by cows
• *Increased risk of streptococcal mastitis

Question 11

Wood shavings

Answer 11

• Dried, untreated
  o Screen for nails, screws
  o FLAMMABLES
• Large wood chips drain well
• Little dust
• *supports growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae (‘role’ is to degrade dead trees)

Question 12

Oat hulls

Answer 12

• By-product of oat processing
• Good drainage and cleanliness
• *irritation issues (VERY ITCHY): rarely used now

Question 13

Recycled manure solids

Answer 13

• Dried through screw press, composting and digesting
• Efficient bacterial growth medium
• Massive bacterial growth in first 24hrs after application

Question 14

What are the different housing systems?

Answer 14

• Free stalls
• Tie stalls
• Bedding packs
• Pasture
• Dry lot dairies

Question 15

Free stalls

Answer 15

• Cleanliness
  o Stall allows waste deposition in alleys
  o Clean stalls at each milking
  o Lime/drying agent at back of stalls?
• Comfort
  o Lie comfortably
  o Ease of rising
  o *knee test

Question 16

Mattress vs. deep bedding

Answer 16

• Deep bedding: better animal welfare measures
  o Lameness, injury
• *if mattress with lots of bedding on top=works if managed well

Question 17

What is the free stall layout?

Answer 17

• Described by number of stall rows per feed bunk
• 2 or 3 row barns most COMMON
  o 2 row is more expensive to build, but will pay for itself within first 3 years
• > 3 rows=feed on both sides

Question 18

What are the different cow arrangements with a free stall layout?

Answer 18

• Head to head: cheapest
• Tail to tail: ease of cow movement
• Head to tail: observe parturition as all are facing the same direction (can walk down one alley and then the next)

Question 19

Tie stalls (stanchion barn)

Answer 19

• Impaired natural behaviours
• Industry moving away from this
• Feed and water at stall
• Manure channels rather than alleys
• Daily exercise protocols
• Basic principles of stalls and bedding same as free stalls
• Electric cow trainers?

Question 20

Bedding packs

Answer 20

• Loose housing on a bedding material
• Daily: remove manure and add bedding
  o Recommended: remove it multiple times/day
• Composting: till twice daily
• Access to an exercise yard

Question 21

Pasture

Answer 21

• Cheap and abundant feed source
• Appropriate environmental conditions
• Low housing overheads
• Decreased milk production/cow
• *streptococcal mastitis

Question 22

Dry lot dairies

Answer 22

• Loose housing systems in outdoor lots
• Warm, dry climate (‘desert’: Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Middle East)
• Dirt lots, sloped for drainage
• Feed mangers along one side
• Drives for feed mixers
• *Management of heat stress
  o Shades and sprinklers

Question 23

Stocking density

Answer 23

• *tempting to overstock for maximum use of facility
• Code of practice
  o <1.2 cows/stall
  o 120ft2/11m2
• Enough feed bunk space should be available (24in for lactating cows)
• Do calculations based on 140% expected occupancy

Question 24

Animal-based measures

Answer 24

• Lesions
• Cleanliness
• Lameness
• Knee test (drop knees into stall)

Question 25

Where do you look for lesions? What might they mean?

Answer 25

• Hocks, knees=stall bedding and size
• Necks=neck rail height and feed rail height

Question 26

What do you look at for cleanliness scoring?

Answer 26

• Stall comfort
• Bedding management

Question 27

If lameness issue, what do you assess?

Answer 27

• Flooring
• Stall comfort
• Handling (cows walk slower than humans, slipping=cause problems)

Question 28

Ventilation in cow housing

Answer 28

• Central to dairy environment
• Good ventilation
  o reduces respiratory disease
  o maximizes DMI
• Assess: rust, cobwebs, odour, air flow
• At 15C look to cool down, at -10C look to warm up