July is the month a lot of farms start their transition/springer herd management ready for spring calving
The transition period is generally regarded as the period ranging from 3 weeks prior to calving to 3 weeks after calving for a heifer or cow.
All ‘springing’ cows need magnesium from somewhere prior to calving and all cows and heifers are low in calcium when they calve and need calcium asap. For any calving cow or heifer (and for farm productivity and profitability) this is an important time as it is critical to the ongoing health and productivity of both cow and calf and it influences the season's animal health, reproduction, production, and profitability metrics. Management and monitoring are critical.
Heifers need training and exposure to all of the things they will be exposed to as a milking animal before they calve so the only thing that is new for them on the day of calving is the calving process itself. Parasites can be a problem for heifers, as well as lighter cows, and warrant treatment close to or at calving.
Calving is a stressful event for a heifer and a cow (and the calf) and much of how she performs for the rest of the season hinges on the management of these animals around her calving date.
Newly calved animals are highly fragile animals and require attention as soon after calving as possible. Once a day milking for a period of time post-calving is now the normal and not the exception and is implemented to allow an animal time to recover (and with that her appetite) before she is milked twice a day.
Anti-inflammatories and vitamin B12 are supportive treatments that help with pain relief, reducing inflammation and helping tissue repair after a calving, an illness or an event requiring antibiotics.
It is an important event for calves as well. Keeper calves need good quality colostrum as soon as possible after birth (and enough of it) which is more influential on these animals lifetime performance than most of us realise.
Vaccinating cows with a calf scour vaccine like Rotavec Corona or Scourguard to boost colostral antibodies and injecting calves with Multimin at birth help boost calves immune function to get them through this early calf rearing stage.
Drafting heifers and cows into springer herds:
Most farms need to have cows that spend time in a springer herd where cows transition: between a lower intake, lower energy and often different dry cow diet to a higher intake, higher energy lactating cow diet; from a metabolically different pregnant non-lactating cow to a non-pregnant lactating cow that has to get back in calf.
Recommended pre-calving springer periods:
14 – 21 days for healthy cows of body condition score of 4.5 – 6.0 producing less than 600 kg milk solids/cow/year.
21 – 30 days for higher producing cows (> 600 kg milk solids/cow/year) and for problem cows: over fat cows, carry over cows, twins, submissive cows, very thin cows, liver disease, cows that have had facial eczema in the past, cows that have been eating fodder beet prior to going into the transition mob etc.
Drafting heifers and cows into springer herds:
Most farms need to have cows that spend time in a springer herd where cows transition: between a lower intake, lower energy and often different dry cow diet to a higher intake, higher energy lactating cow diet; from a metabolically different pregnant non-lactating cow to a non-pregnant lactating cow that has to get back in calf.
Recommended pre-calving springer periods:
14 – 21 days for healthy cows of body condition score of 4.5 – 6.0 producing less than 600 kg milk solids/cow/year.
21 – 30 days for higher producing cows (> 600 kg milk solids/cow/year) and for problem cows: over fat cows, carry over cows, twins, submissive cows, very thin cows, liver disease, cows that have had facial eczema in the past, cows that have been eating fodder beet prior to going into the transition mob etc.
