“What should I write about this month?” I asked my wife this question while suffering from a mild case of writer’s block. “Write an article about what a cow would want for Christmas” was her quick reply. My first thought was, “That’s silly…”, but on further thought, I agreed it might be very timely and appropriate. Also, the old adage, “Happy wife, happy life,” came to mind. So, here goes.
As I thought about the question of what a cow might want, I eliminated the idea of a list of one-time gifts such as a special treat on Christmas Day. However, I do know of dairy farmers and employees who carry around special treats in their pockets for their favorite cow, usually a former show cow. So, there is no harm in doing so as long as it doesn’t go overboard and disrupt their ration.
The more I thought about the question at hand, I concluded the best gift for your cows would be a commitment to do everything you can every day of the year to make their lives comfortable, keep them healthy, be attentive to their individual needs, feed them high-quality feeds, and handle them with care to the best of your abilities. Basically, these things show you are taking the role of caretaker very seriously while they are under your responsibility.
The commitment of making your cows’ life comfortable should include all the facets of cow comfort. This includes a clean, dry, comfortable place to lie down, adequate lunge space to get up without stress on her joints, and confident surfaces to walk and express her behaviors on. This should also include fresh air to breathe, fans and sprinklers during the warmer weather, and relief from strong winds, severe cold and moisture during winter weather. Take some time in this season of giving to take a fresh look at ways you can improve these conditions for your herd in the coming year.
Keeping your cows healthy is a complex system of management tasks including proper diets for the various production stages, a well-planned vaccination and prevention programs for common ailments, and effective health monitoring and treatment protocols. Considering the animal suffering that has been occurring in herds across the country that have been affected by the strain of Avian Influenza that affects cows, your cows would also appreciate if you would go the extra mile and really tighten up your biosecurity measures now to prevent them from becoming sick if this disease comes to Pennsylvania. At this writing, Pennsylvania and nearby states do not have any confirmed cases, but we are always only one slip-up away of becoming the next state fighting this disease within our own borders.
Being attentive to your cows’ needs on a daily basis is important, but it’s very difficult to achieve without a real commitment to do so. It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the daily tasks and interruptions that occur on a regular basis on modern dairy farms. It should be someone’s job to put the cows first and make sure their needs are met on an individual animal basis. As a veterinarian, the most obvious area that I saw that can use some improvement on farms is taking care of lame cows when they are first seen – not hoping they will improve if ignored until tomorrow.
Feeding your cows high quality feeds is so important to their overall wellbeing all year long. There are so many decisions that go into achieving this goal that it’s hard to list them all. Everything from choosing plant genetics, soil testing, optimal fertilization, and timely planting and harvesting influences feed quality. In addition, harvesting techniques, proper packing of forages, adequate covering of bunkers, proper feed-out techniques and bunk management at the cow level all have parts to play in feeding the optimal feed to your cows. Once again, this is the time of the year to really look back and evaluate how you have done on these areas over the past year and develop plans for how you might improve in some way next year. Many of these decisions are made under difficult weather and time stress, but they affect your cows for the entire year once they are in your storage facilities.
The last gift that I listed above is handling your animals with care. Everyone in your operation involved with the care of your animals should be trained in low stress animal handling techniques. Hollering, aggressive actions, rushed behavior, or moving animals without proper gating are recipes for poor results. This could also lead to injury for your animals or their handlers. Nobody wins in those situations. Do what you can to properly train your workers and provide the facilities, gating and tools they need to be successful in their jobs. Your cows would thank you if they could.
As I look at this list of things your cows might want for Christmas, it becomes obvious to me that not only will these gifts benefit your cow herd, but in turn, they will benefit you and your dairy farm. This realization illustrates the wonderful relationship between the caretaker and the animals you are all responsible for. The better you take care of them, the better they take care of you!
During this season of thanks, I am thankful to my wife for the idea for this column as well as to all of you for what you do every day on your farms to feed us all. Wishing you a blessed Christmas and the optimism of a new year to come!
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