Slash dairy cow lameness costs and boost grazing benefits. Discover expert tips to reduce the £330/head risk and ensure optimal cow health and performance.
Grazing provides an important opportunity to rebuild margins following the past wet winter which has seen dairy cattle housed for longer than normal. However, it is still important to keep a close eye on the health and welfare of those grazing cows to maximize the benefits, according to Brett Finch, area sales manager of HerdVision in Scotland.
“Grazed grass remains the cheapest feed for dairy cows and with purchased feed prices remaining high it will be essential to maximize the contribution from grazing,” he comments. “Key to this is optimizing grazing dry matter intakes. Anything that affects intakes will compromise performance.”
Maximizing Grazing Times and Performance
Cows will typically consume 1kg DM from grazing per hour, so it is important to maximize grazing times. “We expect grazing cows to often walk long distances to get to grazing and to then stand and feed for several hours before lying down to ruminate. As soon as cows begin to suffer reduced mobility, all these factors will be compromised, meaning intake and performance will fall.
A one-hour reduction in grazing time can reduce intakes by 1kg DM, worth more than two liters of milk in terms of energy. In addition, milk protein may be reduced, further hitting margins.”
Challenges of Ground Conditions
Mr. Finch added that the risk of reduced mobility can be higher with grazing cows due to ground conditions. Wet ground can lead to softer horn, which often results in more physical damage and bruising. If intakes are reduced, cows are also at risk of losing condition. For spring-calved cows, this could have a direct impact on fertility. For late lactation cows, the risk is that they will go dry in poor condition, which will have consequences for calving-related conditions as well as fertility in the next lactation.
The issue with grazing cows is that they are not as closely monitored as housed cows, and the changes in milk yield, milk composition, and body condition may often be subtle. By the time a cow is identified as showing poor mobility, she will often be at mobility score 2, meaning losses will already have occurred, and treatment costs and recovery time will be greater.
Financial Impact and Proactive Management
The average cost of a case of lameness is £330. Early intervention and trimming cows at the right time will prevent them from becoming a score 2 or 3. Tracking mobility regularly means trimming can become proactive rather than reactive, improving efficiency and reducing costs.
“Changes in condition will be even harder to pick up manually, meaning problems may go unnoticed until it is too late. Cows losing condition due to poor intakes of grass will struggle to get back in calf, pushing up calving to conception interval. Each missed service will cost over £100 in lost productivity.”
“However, automated systems will allow daily assessment of both mobility and condition scores with problems flagged up as soon as they are detected, allowing earlier intervention to reduce the financial consequences.”
Key Takeaways:
- Grazing remains an economically efficient feed option for dairy cows, and maximizing dry matter intakes is crucial for performance.
- Prolonged durations on wet ground can increase lameness risk due to softer horn and physical damage.
- Reduced mobility impacts grazing time and intake, thereby affecting milk yield and composition.
- Early intervention through routine trimming can prevent severe lameness, saving significant costs.
- Automated systems enhance monitoring, allowing for daily assessments and proactive management of mobility and condition.
- These systems leverage existing EID tags, making the transition seamless and reducing the need for additional devices.
- Automation ensures consistent and frequent monitoring, enabling early detection and timely management of issues.
