Herd Management [DA.HM]
MMN July 2024 – Why Won’t a Calf Suckle?
There are many reasons why some calves struggle to suckle from a teat. One of the main causes is an acidotic calf at birth and this condition is most likely…
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Ventilation in Calf Housing through Summer
As the weather warms steps need to be taken to prevent disease outbreaks in calves. Calf sheds should be well-ventilated to ensure cool fresh air is flowing through. Air capacity…
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Practical Assessment of Nutrition in the Milking Herd
Nutrition of the milking herd is usually seen as the responsibility of the farm’s nutritionist. However, there are many ways a herd manager or stockperson can assess whether nutrition is…
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Nutritional Guidance for the Milking Herd
Nutrition in dairy cattle is a complex area, and many farmers rely on their nutritionist to ensure that the ration for the milking herd is correctly formulated to optimise herd…
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MMN May 2024 – Risk Factors for Twinning
As dairy cattle have been selected over the years for higher milk production, a higher rate of twinning has also been observed. In fact, the rate has tripled over the…
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MMN May 2024 – Colostrum Beyond Antibodies: What is New?
Project: Identifying critical control points for colostrum contamination and Mycoplasma bovis prevalence in first milking colostrum from Scottish dairy herds. When colostrum quality is discussed, it is tempting to think…
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Providing a Comfortable Thermal Environment for Calves
Despite the various methods for housing calves (e.g. individual, paired, group, pens, hutches) the basic principles for housing should be the same. The environment should be as clean as possible,…
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MMN March 2024 – Dairy Cow Building Design
Building layout is important to ensure that dairy cows have good access to feed, water and space for lying to maximise cow comfort and productivity. Feeding It is important to…
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MMN March 2024 – Are Robots for Me?
With the ongoing problem of finding good reliable labour, dairy farmers are increasingly asking themselves: Should I be looking at robots to milk my herd? In the following article I…
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MMN March 2024 – How Long are your Heifers Lasting?
According to the recently published NMR 500 Herd KPI Report for 2023, the medium number of lactations per cow at exit was 3.6 and the culling rate was 28%, with…
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