Maximizing Profits by Optimizing Cow Comfort - ABS Global

Maximizing Profits
by Amy Ryan
by Optimizing Cow Comfort
Optimizing cow comfort is a key to profitability on any dairy, since optimal
cow comfort results in higher milk production, improved herd health, and increased
reproductive success. Ensuring maximal cow comfort really comes down to
knowing what activities your cows are experiencing during a 24-hour period.
Evaluating Cow Comfort
Under ideal cow comfort situations, there are six fundamental activities that
make up a cow’s daily (24-hour) routine. These activities include: eating, milking,
restraint for management activities, socializing, drinking, and lying down making
milk. Milking and lock-up time activities are fixed amounts of time dependent
upon facility design and management efficiency. The other activities (eating,
drinking, socializing, and lying) are variable time activities that are dependent
upon factors such as stall design, grouping, ration palatability, and bedding
management. Reviewing the amount of time devoted to these activities each day,
is a good indicator of whether you are optimizing cow comfort and avoiding
non-productive activity like excessive time on concrete (TOC) (see Activity
Charting Exercise).
Eating. Studies have shown that a cow’s Dry Matter Intake (DMI) is directly
correlated to her level of production. Therefore, maximizing feed intake for
your cows is a main component in increased production and profitability.
A good way to accomplish this is promoting good
feedbunk management practices, such as frequent feed
push-ups (10-15 times per day), daily cleaning of feedbunk,
and managing for 2-5% weighbacks. Ideally, cows
will eat 6-15 meals per day of 4-9 lbs of DMI per meal,
with each of these sessions lasting 20-30 minutes. So, on
a whole, that would add up to about 4.5 to 5 hours, or
approximately 19%-21% of a cow’s day. The largest meals
are eaten immediately after milking which necessitates
that managers provide plenty of fresh ration when cows
return from milking.
Milking. When we discuss milking turn time, most
people think it is the pen size divided by the number
of cows per hour the parlor will milk. However, when
monitoring milking turn time, it is important to take
into account the total milking time per pen plus additional time away from the
feedbunk and freestalls. Total milking turn time starts when a pen is pushed to
the parlor and ends when the last cow gets back to the pen, times the number of
milkings per 24 hours. Total Milking turn time should be less than 3 hours (13%)
per day, regardless of how many times per day the cows are milked. An increase in
this time takes away from a cow’s other activities, like eating and socializing, which
can mean decreased milk production and heat expression.
Lock-up. As stated above, lock-up time is essential for different reasons on a
dairy (heat detection, vaccinations, A.I., examinations, etc.). Although it is an
Photo 1. Ideal Freestall Use Index (FUI)
important part of management, this should
be a very minimal part of a cow’s day.
The total time spent per day locked
up or retained for management purposes
should not exceed 1.5 hours (6%) per day.
During long lock-up times, high producing
cows may not be able to consume enough
feed, even if adequate feed is available for
the average producing cows. Long lock-ups
may disrupt high producing cows’ usual
eating habits, since they prefer to eat smaller
amounts of feed more times a day. During
summer heat stress, lock-up periods should
occur before the heat of the day becomes
significant and have shades overhead.
Lying. In order to maximize milk
production, a cow should spend over 12
hours, or greater than 50% of her day
lying in a stall, lot or pasture.
According to research, the amount
IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE MILK PRODUCTION, A COW
SHOULD SPEND OVER 12 HOURS, OR GREATER THAN 50%
OF HER DAY LYING IN A STALL, LOT OR PASTURE.
of blood flow to the udder increases
dramatically, when a cow is lying down
and relaxed. A good evaluation of lying
time is the Freestall Use Index (FUI).
FUI is determined by counting all animals
within a pen that are not eating or drinking
and then calculating the percent of these
animals that are lying down normally.
The FUI should be measured 2-3 hours

after milking time. Optimal cow comfort
will result in greater than 90% Freestall
Use Index, which is depicted in photo
1. Additionally, at least 50% or more of
lying cows, should be chewing their cud.
As more and more modern dairies are going
to a total confinement design, ability to lie
cows down will have a big impact on cow
longevity, foot health, and overall profitability.
Socializing. In general, socializing
refers to the amount of time that a cow
spends walking around, or interacting
with other animals around her. This
includes grooming, exercising, licking,
but most importantly, expression of heat.
This aspect of a cow’s day may be largely
influenced by cow health, environment,
grouping, and time allowed by other
activities. On average, a cow spends about
1.5 hours (6%) of her day socializing.
Drinking. Water consumption is a
crucial component to high milk production.
A typical cow should spend 1 hour or 3
percent of her day consuming water.
A high producing cow will drink 30-40
gallons of water per day, which equals
three to four pounds of water per 1 pound
of milk she produces. In order to maintain
this level of consumption, watertanks
should be located in 2-4 sites per pen
and cleaned once per day. There should
be about 3 inches linear space allowed
per cow or one space for 10 animals
when using "hole" type water devices.
Optimizing Cow Activity
Evaluating your herd’s cow comfort
and identifying problems is only the first
step to increased profits. Finding solutions
and eliminating bottlenecks is the
next phase in successful cow comfort.
Here are a couple different ways to keep
cows off their feet and making milk.
• Decreasing Milking Turn Time
–
This may involve improved parlor
routines that result in decreased unit
on time, shutting down sprinkler pens,
or reducing pen sizes.
• Lock-up times – Studies have shown that unless exceeding 4 hours per day, this is
not a huge bottleneck on most dairies. According to research, the exception
would be if animals become heat stressed while being locked. (see references)
• Improve Freestall Use Index
– If FUI is less than 90% on your dairy, it likely
represents your largest opportunity to correct excessive TOC. Why aren’t
your cows using your freestalls? The two most common reasons are lack of
lunge space or bedding surfaces that are compacted or uncomfortable to lie
Photo 2. Neck rail too low, or inadequate lunge space
on. If using brisket boards, they need to be positioned 66-68 inches from the
rear curb of the stall, placed at a 45-60 degree angle, and not be higher than
4 inches above the bedding surface. Excessive cows standing half in stalls may
be due to low neck rails or inadequate lunge space (see photo 2). Neck rails
should be positioned, 46-48 inches above the bedding height, and should be
placed 60-66 inches from the rear of the curb.
• Install Rubber Belting or Mats –
Many of today’s dairymen are exploring the
use of rubber belting and mats in their facilities.
According to Dr. Neil Michael, Director of Technical Services at ABS,
rubber belting seems to work well in return and transfer lanes (photo 3),
while the commercial, softer rubber mats may work better in the feeding
lanes (photo 4). "I believe that rubber mats are key for high producing cows
in today’s commercial dairy operations to reduce time on concrete," says,
Michael. "I know this an expensive recommendation, but so are cows that
can’t get to the feedbunk or have delayed conception due to lameness." He
also mentions that people need to be careful when purchasing conveyor belting,
because some types are harder than others, depending on age, and it’s use
prior to being used in the dairy.
As for commercially
available rubber mats, they
are an increased cost, but
many dairies are choosing
this avenue because they
are thicker than conveyor
belting, and provide more
cushion and shock absorption.
Tim Dewey, herd
manager of Cimarron
Dairy in Cimarron, Kan.,
Photo 3. Rubber belting in transfer lanes

installed these rubber mats in his 8,000-cow dairy six months ago, and is
extremely pleased with the results. "We put the rubber mats in half of the
holding pen, in the parlor itself, in the parlor exit lanes, and in the housing
pens of our freestall facility to help decrease wear and tear on our cows’
feet," says Dewey. "Not only has it improved our feet condition, I believe
we are seeing better conception rate, due to the increased cow comfort."
Plus the mats have really paid for themselves. "Our cull rate due to foot
problems has decreased 12% since we installed the mats. That alone has
paid for the investment," notes Dewey.
Comfortable, Profitable Cows
Ensuring cow comfort on your dairy is key to profitability, whether it’s
through higher milk production or improved pregnancy production. Using
fundamental activity times to assess cow comfort can help you detect problems,
and then improve milking turn times, freestall use, or consider rubber matting
Photo 4. Rubber mats in feeding areas
in
key areas of your dairy as needed. All in
all, optimizing essential cow activities
puts money in your pockets.
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/courses-jmgay/PM98StudentComfort.htm
Specific References:
1. Cermack, J., Cow Comfort and Lameness-Design of Cubicles, Bovine Practitioner, 1998: 78-83.
2. McFarland, D.F., Gamroth, M. J., and Bucklin, R., Freestall designs with cow comfort in mind. Dairy systems for the 21st century.
Proceedings of the third international dairy housing conference held in Orlando, Florida, USA, 2-5 February 1994: 145-158.
3. Radostits, O.M., Leslie, K.E., and Fetrow, J., Herd Health Food Animal Production Medicine, Saunders, Philadelphia, 1994: 301-330.
4. Albright, J.L., Stouffer, D.K., and Coe, B.L., Cow comfort and preference in free stalls with reference to flooring and bedding, Journal of Dairy Science, 1989: 67.
5. Rodenburg, J., House, H.K., Anderson, N.G., and Bucklin, R., Free stall base and bedding materials: Effect on cow comfort, Dairy systems for
the 21st century. Proceedings of the third international dairy housing conference held in Orlando, Florida, USA, 2-5 February 1994: 154-164.
6. Shipka, M.P., C.W. Arave. 1995. Influence of extended manger lock-up on cow behavior and production factors in dairy cattle
management. J. Anim. Scie.73 (Suppl.1):310 (Abstr.)
7. Arave, C.W., D. Bolinger, M.P. Shipka, J.L. Albright. 1996. Effect of extended lock-up of lactating cows on milk production, feed intake and behavior.
J. Anim. Sci. 74 (Suppl. 1):43 (Abstr.)
Activity Charting Exercise
Dr. Neil Michael, Director of Technical
Services at ABS, has developed the following
spread sheet exercise to help you monitor
the daily activity of your cattle. The
easiest way to incorporate your data into
the spreadsheet is to enter the following for
your herd: dry matter intake, total turn time
per day milking, lock-up time per day and
the estimated free stall use. Once you have
entered this information, the
program can calculate your herd’s activity
chart, and you can compare this to the
breakdowns in an ideal herd (scenario
shown above).
To obtain this spreadsheet, visit the VIP Lounge in the
Technical Service tab of the ABS website (www.absglobal.com).
For more details on activity charting, contact your local ABS
Representative or call the Technical Services department at
1-800-ABS-STUD today.
ABS Global, Inc. • 1525 River Road • DeForest, WI 53532 •(608) 846-3721 • Fax: (608)846-6392 • www.absglobal.com