Dairy Industry and Nutrition Flashcards
outline life cycle from birth to first milking of a dairy cow
- Born
- Removed from mother 0-72 hours
- Reared with other calves adn fed milk based diet
- Weaned 6-12 weeks when rumen developed
- fed roughaged based diet
- Puberty 10-12 months
- 15 months/ 65% mature body weight = service
- Pregs 282 days/ 9 months
- 24 months calving
- LACTATING
Why is snatch calving carried out other than to obtain milk
disease control = mainly from yeonies – rubbish diagnostics until years later = link between yeonies and chrons disease in man
How do you knwo when a calf is ready to be weaned?
- not about time, all about when rumen has developed with bacteria and microflora. Milk by passses the rumen and goes straight to the abomasum = give solid food. when calf eats it it is ready.
After giving birth, what occurs in the time period until second birth
- Gives borth
- voluntary waiting period = not try get preg
- after 3 months in milk = serve
- preg 9 months
- 10 months after birth dry off for 2 months
- 1 year gives birth second calf
What are we waiting for in the voluntary waiting period
- wait for uterus to involute and shrink back down to pre pregnant size. Any infections clear up and ovaries start cycling again
What is the key performance indicator (KPI) for first calving and how many calves per yr
- 24 months
2. 1 per yr
How many months is a cow preg for
how many months lactating
how many months dry
- pregs = 285 days (9months)
- lactating = 305 days (10 months)
- Dry period = 60 days (last 2 months preg)
What is Dystocia
- difficulty giving birth
2. called a gateway disease as liekly to lead to more porblems such as infections (womb, udder etc)
Why is it really bad for a cow to be overweight
- Dystocia: weight in pelvis
- D = gateway disease
- once given birth if overweight = poorer appetite = energy requirements at birth go from small to HUGE so if not eating enough = bad
What sort of food do you want to give the far off dry cows
- cheap and low energy as no milk = no adding to income
2. roughage based diet, lot of straw as low in energy but keeps rumen big
What sort of food do you want to give close up dry cow
Close up = 3-4 weeks off calving
1. Higher energy diet than far off as prep for sudden milk production
what is the average number of lactations in the UK
- 3-5
- high culling rate lots to do with disease
- US 40% heifers never have a second calf
What are the dairy breeds
- Holstein
- Friesian
- Brown Swiss
- Ayrshire
- Channel Island
- Jersey
- Guernsey - Swedish Red, Norweigan red (lower yields than H but healthier)
- Simmental/Fleckvieh – dual purpose
5 facts about the UK dairy industry today
- 13M tons of milk produced annually with
- 50% sold as liquid
- 9,170 dairy farms
- Average herd size: ~150 cows (increasing)
- 1.9 million dairy cows
What is the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board
- all farmers pay some money towards
- provide products and services to improve the sustainability of British dairy farming. done by providing independent, evidence-based information to British dairy farmers on:
a) Feed and forage
b) Genetic improvement
c) Animal fertility, health and welfare
d) Business skills and market intelligence
