Lameness and mastitis can, and do have a major impact on cow performance, with controlling these a focus for most farmers.
The housed period has begun on farms, with the focus now being to keep cows in good condition and healthy ahead of calving in the spring.
Avoiding issues during the housed period is important to allow calving in the spring to be successful.
Cows that develop issues during the house period will likely have issues around calving and in the period shortly after calving.
Lameness
Lameness can be an issue on dairy farms at any time of the year, but during the housed period cases can increase due several factors.
Lameness caused by mortellaro can increase during the winter months, as the environment which the cows live in aids the bacteria’s survival.
You should ensure the cubicle-shed floor and passageways are regularly scraped to remove manure.
A big contributor of lameness in the housed period is the overcrowding of sheds. Ideally, there should be 10% extra cubicles for your herd.
So for a 100 cow herd, there should be 110 cubicles. On many farms, this is not the case.
You should have at least one cubicle/cow, there should not be more cows than cubicles.
If there are not enough cubicles, older cows or ones that have had feet issues should be housed in a straw shed to take pressure off the cubicle shed.
Mastitis
Lameness is not the only issue that can develop from the overcrowding of sheds, increased cases of mastitis can also develop.
Overcrowding may increase the bacteria that cows come in contact with during the housed period.
Another issue that can happen due to over crowding is teats being stood on and becoming damaged.
Maintaining a certain level of hygiene in the cubicle shed is important to prevent mastitis cases from the dry period.
Maintaining this level can be difficult when there is an excessive number of cows within the shed – but it must remain a priority.