Improving transition management on an AYR system

Michael and Tony Ball, from Coton Wood Farm, along with Mark Hall, from Trouw Nutrition, explore top tips in transition management, how to assess transition and getting cows off to the best start after calving.

What is the transition period?

We are expecting cows to: stop milking, produce calf, give birth to a calf, eat as much as physically possible as quickly as possible, don’t have any issues, give 40L+ milk and get back in calf, all within a tiny window.

The purpose of the dry/transition cow period is to recover, regenerate mammary tissue, produce calf, prepare for the next lactation. A 30L cow is the human equivalent of running 2 marathons every day.

Dry cows are often treated as second class citizens, the only cows on the farm that in theory aren’t making any money. In reality they are the most important cow on the farm – if you get the transition period right.

The transition period is 60 days around calving, 30 days pre and 30 days post calving. How long should the dry period be?

• Higher the yield, the longer the dry period
• Between 45 to 60 days – often yield/system dependent
• Do not drop below 45 days – up to 10% of lactation yield lost if we drop to 35 days

Disease incidence during the transition period

76% of cows experience some sort of transition issue and these cows probably never reach their true peak yield. What is stopping cows achieving their peak yield?

• Milk fevers – UK average 6% clinical milk fever
• Retained fetal membrane – 9% average
• LDA – 4.5% average
• Ketosis – 12% clinical average, up to 60%

At Coton Wood, they use a transition cow monitoring service to record all disease. Retained cleansings are under 2% and LDAs are below 1%.

The perfect transition

AfterShock 3918 is the 365 day world record holder. She has produced 98 kg/day every day for 365 days. She is 5 ft 2 in and weighs just under a tonne. AfterShock 3918 has never had any issues with disease which is why she’s got to that position, she’s bomb proof.

The important part is transition is transition – it doesn’t matter if you’re producing 98kg or 15kg, the principles are the same no matter what your yield aspirations are.

Body condition scoring

Everyone has their own idea of where they want their cows to be. Michael estimates at Coton Wood they have an average score of 3 in their dry cows.

As body condition score at calving increases, dry matter intakes decrease – fat cows eat less than thin cows.

It is vitally important we keep cows between 2.75 and 3.5. We need to avoid extremely fat cows and extremely thin cows at all costs.

Fat cows:

• Limit their intakes post calving driving fat mobilisation
• Experience significantly more post calving issues
• Experience a lot of negative energy balance

Thin cows:

• Have no bodily reserves to cope with anything
• Just because they are thin doesn’t mean they are not mobilising internal fat
• Tend to suffer from increased lameness levels (chicken or egg)
• Generally cause more issues than fat cows

Controlled energy diets prepartum

Feeding cows to controlled energy intake prepartum decrease BCS loss in early lactation.

Dry cows have an energy requirement of around 120 MJ/day.

If you need to gain weight in your dry cows, it’s best to do this in the far off dry period. Changes in the close up period have a big increase on performance.

The size of the drop in DMI before calving is larger in cows overfed energy in the dry period.

Dry cows and energy

We’ve established we don’t want fat or thin cows, but how easy is it to keep cows within the target range?

Coton Wood dry cow ration:

• 15kg Grass at 12.1 ME
• 20kg Maize at 11.6 ME
• 6kg Alkagrain at 13.4 ME
• 4kg rape/soya at 13.2 ME
• Total 176 MJ/cow/day is supplied

How many kg’s of weight are we going to gain over a 30 day close up period?

• 176 MJ/day = 120 MJ for maintenance leaving 56/day extra
• 56 x 30 = 1,680 MJ
• 1680/32 = 52.5 kg
• 52.5kg of weight gained in 30 days – a huge amount of that weight is internal

This is why it’s important to BCS cows in late lactation and 5-10 days pre calving.

Dry cows and metabolisable protein

One of the most important metrics in a dry cow diet. It is the actual amount of protein available to the cow after she’s digested it in the rumen. Dry cow metabolisable protein requirement is 1200 g/h/d (not the same as crude protein). The average dry cow ration in the UK probably only provides half that.

Levels lower than 1200g/h/d may lead to:

• Decreased muscle tone
• Increase muscle breakdown
• Decrease protein status of the cow
• Reduce colostrum quality

Negative energy balance and ketosis

Everything we do in cattle nutrition is geared towards reducing ketosis.

Ketosis is a perfectly natural state for any lactating animal to be in. In fact some ketosis is necessary for a number of internal mechanisms.

Once the basal metabolic function (breathing, eating, heart rate, etc.) has been met, everything else goes into feeding that calf/milk yield.

The problem comes when we add a stressor:

• Inflammation and reduced intakes – lameness, mastitis, heat stress, social stress, metabolic issues
• Energy is used to fight all of the above, we get excess BCS change when we add in an extra stressor that increase this basal metabolic rate
• The cow will continue to produce milk at all costs BUT must also use extra energy to fight the above causing ketosis
• 40kg milk = 3kg glucose
• Inflammation consumes 1kg glucose in 12 hours

If you have a cow producing 70 litres/day, eating well, good milk qualities, no cell count issues, no other obvious health issues, but slightly elevated BHBs and NEFAs – leave her alone. She is mobilising the fat and has no problems.

Intakes – dry cows/fresh cows

Dry cows:

Most dry cow issues can be linked back to intakes in the dry period. The primary driver of the inflammatory response is reduced intakes.

It’s vital we keep rumen fills between 3–5:

• 3 just before feeding
• 4/5 for the remainder of the day

Target 6kg of forage NDF, neck rail height 132cm, feed space 85cm.

Fresh cows:

The single most important driver of fresh cow performance, along with energy and calcium.

We can do all the dry cow priming possible and then reduce the progress in the fresh pen.

Milk fever and RFM

There are a few ways to minimise milk fevers on farm – Full DCAD, partial DCAD, low calcium, calcium binders, high calcium. Best to pick one system and stick to it. It’s important to get forage analysed for minerals no matter which system.

DCAD:

• Combats high K diets by causing metabolic acidosis
• Causes the kidneys to excrete Ca in the urine mimicking milk yield
• Important to add Ca into the diet to compensate

Partial DCAD:

• Easier to manage than full, but don’t get the same intake post calving
• Partially acidify the diet and keep Ca at or just below requirements

Low calcium:

• Hard to do in the UK systems due to green forage

Calcium binders:

• If nothing else will work and your silage is 3.5% K then they do provide a good last ditch

High calcium:

• Feeding the milking cow ration to dry cows – not recommended.

Summary

• Transition is transition – 100 litres or 10 litres it’s all the same
• The cost of poor transition to the dairy industry is millions per year
• Control energy through the dry period
• Ketosis – some good and some bad
• Metabolic disease – could your cows be peaking higher? Is calcium status where it should be, or are you covering up subclinical milk fever?
• Cow comfort and cow flow – one of the most overlooked part of transition. What simple things can we do to improve cow behaviour?