Keeping Cows Cool: It's more than sprinklers and fans!

Last week supplied some down right unbearable heat in the upper Midwest! I know several dairy farmers were posting pictures of their cows enjoying sprinklers and fans on their dairy farms. Other than spraying dairy cows down with cool water (cold water actually causes shock in cows!) and blowing them with fans, what other options do farmers have to keep cows cool?  Additionally, how does hot weather change the day to day operation of the dairy farm? 

Cows laying down is an excellent sign of cow comfort and cooling!

 

You’ve been hot all day, chances are you are not very excited to eat anything.  Cows and calves are the same way.  Dairy farmers will work hard to keep extra cooler water available for the baby calves to drink as well as even supplementing water with electrolytes (much like Gatorade).  Calves can be bedded with sand instead of straw which in the shade of their calf huts actually provides a dry and cool place for the calves to rest in the heat of the day.  Calves can be further cooler by opening hatch doors on their huts and even lifting the huts up to accommodate more air flow.

For cows and heifers, they might be fed at night rather than the heat of the day to help them feel cooler and more eager to eat.  Additionally, cows and heifers might be fed more frequently in the heat so they have the opportunity to have fresh feed more often.  Feed spoils more quickly in the heat so fresh feed is critical.  There are even electrolytes for cows that can be added to their water to improve their hydration.  Dairymen and women might postpone doing some extra tasks during the week of heat stress, focusing on only doing the necessary tasks that provide excellent care.  Vaccinating calves and cows during this weather is not advised, so not to put the animal’s immune system under even more stress.  Moving cows to different pens is also not advised, however, when cows decide to have babies, that cannot be predicted.  Cows calving are kept in cool, shaded locations and when they have delivered their calves, they receive plenty of cool water to drink.  Cows are provided with lots of fresh bedding to keep dry after their sprinkler baths.  Most dairy farmers will avoid breeding cows during the heat because the increased internal temperature of the cow reduces her chance of becoming pregnant. 

In operations, dairy farmers are working to do everything they can to keep cows cool and keep them from getting stressed.  Farmers will change feeding time from morning to night.  They might not vaccinate or dry off cows during an extreme heat week like last week.  The might also only do the necessary jobs on the dairy, allowing them to take care of themselves.  So often farmers in general, will work tirelessly to take care of their cows and forget about themselves.  It should be noted that they are some of the best people because of this but they put themselves at risk.  I know dairies with employees will stock fridges with cool beverages and lots of frozen treats.  They will encourage their employees to also take breaks when doing extremely physical tasks, like cleaning stalls.  When a heat wave like this comes through, it effects everything from the cows to the people on the farm!  Stay cool everyone!

Proud Daughter/Sister Moment!



Dairy Star reported the state list, including my family, Autumn Breeze Dairy.

I can’t even begin to express how excited and proud I am of my dad and brother!  This week they received their notice that they were among the top dairymen and women in the state of Minnesota for milk quality, producing milk with a SCC below 100,000 for the year. 

Here’s a little science education on milk quality:  every time the milk truck comes to a dairy, the milk truck driver collects a sample of milk to be tested for a variety of quality measurements, including SCC (somatic cell count).  Somatic cell count is a measure of the white blood cells in milk.  Yes there are white blood cells in milk.  All of the nutrients that a cow needs to make milk in the milk making cells of her udder need to get carried to her udder via blood.   Contrary to popular belief by the anti-milk crowd, milk does not contain actual blood because there is a blood/milk barrier in the udder (milk making cells filter out the nutrients that they need to make milk proteins and fats and send the blood back to the heart) but the occasional white blood cell will slip through because it is a protein based cell.  These somatic cells are an indicator of overall cow health and levels of mastitis (infection) in the cows’ udders.  When the measurement is low, the cow herd is healthy and when the level of SCC is high, this is an indication that there is a problem with the cows, environment, equipment and management.  Healthy cows in a good environment will produce milk with a SCC of 200,000 or less.  Milk produced at a high level of SCC is considered illegal and processors will not accept this milk.  Stress like a cold or flu can cause SCC to rise in addition to poor animal handling or bad ventilation.  SCC quickly becomes the measure of overall quality care of the cows.  It doesn’t matter which type of housing, whether grass fed, organic or conventional all of these different management styles are capable of producing safe, wholesome, high quality milk.  So now you know the science….here’s why I am so incredibly proud of my family……

It wasn’t always this way.  It wasn’t always easy to produce high quality milk and give cows the best that they deserve.  These things cost money, take time and planning, and they take patience.  Things like new barns, concrete to keep cows out of the mud, better education and management, testing individual cows, and yes culling out cows that just couldn’t produce high quality milk (some of SCC is definitely genetic).  Decades ago, I remember when my dad was producing the occasional tank of illegal milk, we had to dump milk, and we were at risk of not having a place to sell milk to.  It wasn’t dad’s fault the cows went swimming in the mud after a rain but it was dad’s responsibility to make sure that milk that he sold was safe for consumers.  It was then that my dad made a commitment to improve his milk quality and keep working on that.  I would say my dad became down right anal.  “If it wasn’t perfect, we pitched it.” 

The first steps were improving cow comfort in our tie stall barn, adding more bedding and making stalls larger.  Dad poured concrete in the yard to reduce mud and he made sure that cows didn’t go out to pasture unless it was dry out.  My brother went off to college and came home to farm in partnership with my dad.  My brother took it one step further by implementing DHIA (Dairy Herd Improvement Association) testing, where each month each individual cows were sampled and checked for SCC. 

DHIA testing monthly helps my family make sure each cow gets individualized care.

 

 

Cows with high SCC were sold, while others were treated with antibiotics and allowed to heal.  My brother added milking detachers to make sure cows were never overmilked, which can cause damage to cows’ teats and increase SCC.  Within a couple years the cows were housed in a much more spacious state of the art sand bedded free stall barn.  Those cows went from a cozy Super 8 to the Hilton.

 

Cows rest comfortably in the new sand bedded free stalls.

Finally this winter my brother completed the last step in improving milk quality and cow health: the milking parlor.  With new equipment with a better design, cows are able to milk out quickly, comfortably and completely.

The new double 8 parlor helps milk cows gently, completely and quickly.

 

Keeping SCC low is easier, cows are more comfortable, and making perfect milk is almost effortless, but it didn’t come easy.  This was years of dedication to achieve this goal.  This was never losing sight of the fact that cows’ health is important and making sure the consumer deserves the very best dad could offer.  This was the result of tough decisions and trying times.  This achievement didn’t come easy.

I hope dad can look back and see how far he’s come.  I hope he knows how proud I am of how hard he worked to achieve this.  I hope my brother knows how much I respect him as a dedicated dairyman and peer.  But most of all this Father’s Day Weekend, I hope they both know how amazing they are as dairymen, husbands and fathers!  #prouddaughter #proudsister

 

4 generations of my family: my dad, my nephew, my brother, my grandfather, celebrating 100 years of farming on the same farm as well!