Today was herd health day at the farm. Every 3-4 weeks the vet shows up to check the health of our new fresh cows, vaccinate cows and heifers, dehorn calves, pregnancy check cows that were bred, and check any cows that we need to have examined. Today was an excellent herd health! We had a a good report on our fresh cows, vaccinations went well and most importantly we had a number of cows that were confirmed pregnant! When looking over the list of cows that were pregnant, I decided that we had a small collection of misfits. It was interesting reading each name and thinking about that cow's life history.
Cows varied in ages, but each was a misfit in their own right. First we had a 12 year old cow, Terry, who is the oldest cow in our herd. She has had numerous calves, and again, is pregnant and due in July. Terry isn't the prettiest cow in the barn but she milks well and has calves...she stays healthy. We love her a lot. Second on the list was Zhilgen. She's a special heifer because she beat the odds. As a heifer she had a serious surgery. The vets told us that she wouldn't be able to have a calf someday, but we bred her anyways, got her pregnant and she successfully delivered a heifer calf. After that, we were told that she couldn't have another calf, but after a couple tries, we are successful! Third and fourth on the list were 2 cows that delivered calves months ago, but due to their high milk production they were not able to become pregnant. After many tries we finally got them to conceive, even one with twins! Fifth and sixth on the list were heifers that had many tries as well, but we got them pregnant. Finally, was Yevette! Yevette was a heifer that was born 33 days premature, and against all odds she survived! With a lot of TLC from Jon and I we nursed her, got her to grow, and now....she's pregnant with her first calf, due in July! We are so proud of Yvette and how well she is thriving!
After Herd Health, I walked through the calf barn and saw another misfit! On Thanksgiving Day we welcomed 2 new heifer calves. These girls were very fortunate that we had our Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandma's house, which is next to the dry cow lot. We were able to rescue them from the frigid weather, preventing frost bite. The first calf, Izzy did great from the get-go, however, the second calf, Thankful, wasn't doing so great. Thankful wasn't able to stand up, her legs were deformed, her ligaments were weak and unable to support weight. We nursed her and nurtured her. And finally today....6 days after her birth....she stood for the first time!!!! I was so proud of my little calf, I gave her a hug!!! Thankful was also a misfit, but with a little dairy farmer care she thrives. Dairy farming is all about saving the misfits....they are worth the time and effort.
Showing posts with label pregnant cows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnant cows. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Friday, October 16, 2009
Herd Health Day
We have been busy at Orange Patch Dairy today. We welcomed yet another bull calf to our farm. We have been birthing about 2 bulls calves to every 1 heifer calf. These calves will end up at our neighbor's farm where they will be raised to be beef animals. We had to move the new mother to the new barn as well. After taking care of baby and mother, we had our monthly scheduled visit with our herd vet.
We call this day "Herd Health Day". Our vet worked today to do post-calving check ups on all of the cows that have had babies (calves) in the last month. We had 15 cows to check. We had an awesome result, as all cows are of excellent health. These cows were also vaccinated for various cow-diseases, much like how we vaccinate humans for human diseases. We also did pregnancy checks for those cows that we bred 35 days ago. We checked 7 cows and 4 of them were pregnant. The remaining 3 that are not pregnant will be watched in the coming weeks for estrus (heat) and bred again. Try, try again...we want all of our cows to have calves and continue their lactations. After checking over the cows we moved to the calf barn.
Here we vaccinated our calves with a vaccine that is similar to what the cows got, for the same disease. We work hard to give booster vaccines to all animals on our farm to make sure that our cows are healthy and not sick. Sick cows reduce milk production which reduces our income, but it also costs money to buy drugs to treat them, therefore it is ALWAYS in our BEST interests to have HEALTHY cows! In fact today at the age of 4.5 months, we vaccinated Joey, the calf from our spring day care visits.
After vaccinating the calves we did follow up checks on animals that had surgery in the last few weeks. All in all, it was a great day on the farm-with healthy and happy cows on Orange Patch Dairy!
We call this day "Herd Health Day". Our vet worked today to do post-calving check ups on all of the cows that have had babies (calves) in the last month. We had 15 cows to check. We had an awesome result, as all cows are of excellent health. These cows were also vaccinated for various cow-diseases, much like how we vaccinate humans for human diseases. We also did pregnancy checks for those cows that we bred 35 days ago. We checked 7 cows and 4 of them were pregnant. The remaining 3 that are not pregnant will be watched in the coming weeks for estrus (heat) and bred again. Try, try again...we want all of our cows to have calves and continue their lactations. After checking over the cows we moved to the calf barn.
Here we vaccinated our calves with a vaccine that is similar to what the cows got, for the same disease. We work hard to give booster vaccines to all animals on our farm to make sure that our cows are healthy and not sick. Sick cows reduce milk production which reduces our income, but it also costs money to buy drugs to treat them, therefore it is ALWAYS in our BEST interests to have HEALTHY cows! In fact today at the age of 4.5 months, we vaccinated Joey, the calf from our spring day care visits.
After vaccinating the calves we did follow up checks on animals that had surgery in the last few weeks. All in all, it was a great day on the farm-with healthy and happy cows on Orange Patch Dairy!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Herd Health Day
Today was our scheduled Herd Health Day, at the farm. Every 4 weeks our veterinarian comes for his scheduled visit. We usually have a list of animals that need to see the vet. These animals are 99% of the time not sick, but just getting "physicals".
The first group of cows that the vet checked today were the post-calving cows (cows that have calved since the last herd health). These cows are palpated (checked rectally) to make sure that they are free of infection (which can occur during calving) and inflammation (swelling left over from calving). I would say that 90% of the time our cows get a clean bill of health. For those 10% that might have some infection a treatment protocol is put into place. We like to avoid using antibiotics when at all possible, to make sure that we aren't wasting milk (antibiotic treated cows need to have their milk dumped) but for severe cases of infection we do need to use antibiotics. For mild/minor infections we can use non-antibiotic antimicrobial to clean out the infection, keeping the cow in good health. Today we had 100% of the 10 post calving cows free of infection! At this time we also vaccinate for contagious diseases and give a vitamin injection to boost the cows immune system. Healthy cows, especially healthy post calving cows are critical to good quality milk production.
The second group of cows checked are the post breeding cows. These cows were bred 35 days or more ago. We use artificial insemination to breed all of our cows. We do not use a bull, for safety reasons-bulls are unpredictable and dangerous at times. Bulls don't fit into our goals for our farm. Artificial insemination allows us to use lots of different bulls from various companies, increasing our genetic advancements. Cows that were checked today are also rectally palpated to determine if they are pregnant or not. Our vet is well trained in this practice. This method does not hurt the cow, in fact it is a short process and she hardly knows anything happened to her. We also have the ability to ultrasound cows as well. We did not ultrasound cows today, but in the past we have to determine the sex/gender of the calf, determine if there are multiple calves, and determine conception date. Ultra sounding cows is much like ultra sounding humans-the images even look similar. Today we checked 16 cows, 11 cows were confirmed pregnant, 4 cows were open (not pregnant) and one was pregnant but might be losing her calf. The 4 cows that were not pregnant will be put back on the "Cows to breed" list. Some we will watch for natural heats, others we will synchronize breed. When we synch cows, we use 3 shots of hormones. These hormones are safe and do not transfer into the milk. Cows, just like humans have cystic ovaries or even have ovaries that become static or annovular. These shots help to bring the cow back into her cycle, just like doctors prescribe for women who have similar problems. Thankfully, we only have to give shots to 3 of the 4 cows...I hate giving shots to the cows.
Getting cows pregnant after calving is important because it means that we can keep the cow in the herd, she will give us another calf, and she will milk for another year. In the wild cows would also naturally calve once a year, so we are NOT forcing our cows to be calf factories, but following their natural cycles.
The last thing on the list for Herd Health today was pulling blood samples. We are part of a volunteer program which tests for and certifies for Johne's Disease. We have been certified Level 2 Johne's free for the last 4 years. Today's task was pulling blood samples on 30 random cows in our herd to be tested. If any come back positive then we will have to pull fecal samples from the positive cows. Some cows come back false positive, hence the fecal test (more expensive but more reliable for determining false positives). The blood sample is pretty painless. We like to make sure that we are doing a good job maintaining good bio security practices, keeping cows healthy, and keeping our milk safe. Be assured that EVERY DAY we are working for you the consumers, producing the safest healthiest product possible for you, your families, and our own families. Tmorrow we look forward to hoof trimming! Happy June Dairy Month!
The first group of cows that the vet checked today were the post-calving cows (cows that have calved since the last herd health). These cows are palpated (checked rectally) to make sure that they are free of infection (which can occur during calving) and inflammation (swelling left over from calving). I would say that 90% of the time our cows get a clean bill of health. For those 10% that might have some infection a treatment protocol is put into place. We like to avoid using antibiotics when at all possible, to make sure that we aren't wasting milk (antibiotic treated cows need to have their milk dumped) but for severe cases of infection we do need to use antibiotics. For mild/minor infections we can use non-antibiotic antimicrobial to clean out the infection, keeping the cow in good health. Today we had 100% of the 10 post calving cows free of infection! At this time we also vaccinate for contagious diseases and give a vitamin injection to boost the cows immune system. Healthy cows, especially healthy post calving cows are critical to good quality milk production.
The second group of cows checked are the post breeding cows. These cows were bred 35 days or more ago. We use artificial insemination to breed all of our cows. We do not use a bull, for safety reasons-bulls are unpredictable and dangerous at times. Bulls don't fit into our goals for our farm. Artificial insemination allows us to use lots of different bulls from various companies, increasing our genetic advancements. Cows that were checked today are also rectally palpated to determine if they are pregnant or not. Our vet is well trained in this practice. This method does not hurt the cow, in fact it is a short process and she hardly knows anything happened to her. We also have the ability to ultrasound cows as well. We did not ultrasound cows today, but in the past we have to determine the sex/gender of the calf, determine if there are multiple calves, and determine conception date. Ultra sounding cows is much like ultra sounding humans-the images even look similar. Today we checked 16 cows, 11 cows were confirmed pregnant, 4 cows were open (not pregnant) and one was pregnant but might be losing her calf. The 4 cows that were not pregnant will be put back on the "Cows to breed" list. Some we will watch for natural heats, others we will synchronize breed. When we synch cows, we use 3 shots of hormones. These hormones are safe and do not transfer into the milk. Cows, just like humans have cystic ovaries or even have ovaries that become static or annovular. These shots help to bring the cow back into her cycle, just like doctors prescribe for women who have similar problems. Thankfully, we only have to give shots to 3 of the 4 cows...I hate giving shots to the cows.
Getting cows pregnant after calving is important because it means that we can keep the cow in the herd, she will give us another calf, and she will milk for another year. In the wild cows would also naturally calve once a year, so we are NOT forcing our cows to be calf factories, but following their natural cycles.
The last thing on the list for Herd Health today was pulling blood samples. We are part of a volunteer program which tests for and certifies for Johne's Disease. We have been certified Level 2 Johne's free for the last 4 years. Today's task was pulling blood samples on 30 random cows in our herd to be tested. If any come back positive then we will have to pull fecal samples from the positive cows. Some cows come back false positive, hence the fecal test (more expensive but more reliable for determining false positives). The blood sample is pretty painless. We like to make sure that we are doing a good job maintaining good bio security practices, keeping cows healthy, and keeping our milk safe. Be assured that EVERY DAY we are working for you the consumers, producing the safest healthiest product possible for you, your families, and our own families. Tmorrow we look forward to hoof trimming! Happy June Dairy Month!
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