The milking cows are hoofing it
People ask, “So how was Manu’s visit?” Truth is, I have no idea, because Sally stole the celebrity- I was cast aside like an empty potato sack! Perhaps it had something to do with his velvety French accent, his good looks and his cooking ability?
What about me I say, why don’t I get credit for being able to eat really well? I have a face full of character, am only mostly bald and there is a lot of me to go around! I had never heard of Manu a month ago, but he seemed like a guy you’d like to have a ginger beer with.
And the helicopter he came in would be the ultimate in farm toys. How could I justify one of those? Maybe the downdraft would keep the flies off the cows in summer? And, in the summer, we try and limit the cows walking.
Milking cows can walk a fair way-three kilometres is the upper limit. We would only ever do long walks like this in the winter with cool weather, good tracks, only once every second day and only if the feed is of great quality and unlimited.
Every kilometre milking cows walk, you lose a litre of milk production per cow. At the moment the cows aren’t walking much at all, staying really close to the dairy at night and in the day, they hang around the sprinklers to keep cool as soon as it warms up.
You would think that no walking would be great for the feet but we are currently treating ten to twelve cows for foxtrot, digital dermatitis and lateral hoof cracks, so I am working at making the dairy an easier place for the cows to navigate.
If you want to check if an area is comfortable for cows to walk on, take your shoes off and do it in bare feet-if you aren’t comfortable, neither are they.
When the cows come off the dairy, they are going from a moving concrete platform to stationary concrete, a bit like when you hop off an escalator in a shopping centre, except the cows are doing in backwards. We cover this high risk area with non-slip rubber, and I’m going to replace mine this week to see if it helps. You don’t want cows turning sharply and/or slipping on concrete.
Cows need to walk slowly and plod so they can watch where they are placing their feet on the ground. If you see a mob of cattle moving, with the cows’ heads up in the air due to stock pressure, it’s creating opportunity for foot damage and or injury.
We have spent, and need to continually spend, time and effort training staff (and myself) in low-stress stock handling, it makes all the difference.
If you’re happy and you know it…dance a jig!
Paul