Planning a dairy expansion

Dairy farm size is increasing in all regions of the United States. In two of the largest dairy states, California and Wisconsin, mean herd sizes have increased 950% and 250%, respectively, since 1950. Dairy herds of 500 cows are common in all areas of the United States, and herds over 1,500 cows are common in the West producand Southeast. Many dairy operations are considering expansion of existing facilities or construction of new facilities to increase efficiencyor profitability. Before adding cows or facilities, dairy producers may want to answer the following questions: 1) How can I improve the efficiency of the present operation? 2) Can production per cow be increased? 3) Can the current herd be milked 3× per day? 4) Can I send the conheifers to a contract raiser and expand the cow herd? 5) What are my financial goals? 6) Where do I want to be in 5 and 10 years? 7) What are investthe expectations of other family members? 8)Do I have adequate acreage to expand the herd and manage the waste? 9) Do I want to manage employees? 10) Do I want to deal with regulatory agencies

MF789REVISED

James R. Dunham & John F. Smith, Characteristics of Low Somatic Cell Count (SCC) Herds, October 1985

Keeping cows cool

Heat stress occurs when a dairy cow’s internal heat load is greater than her capacity to lose unwanted heat to the environment. Effects of heat stress include: increased respiration rate, increased water intake, increased sweating, decreased dry matter intake, slower rate of feed passage, decreased blood flow to internal organs, decreased milk production, and poor reproductive performance. Lower milk production and reproductive performance cause economic losses to dairy producers. The ordered priorities for reducing heat are: increasing water availability; providing shade in the housing areas (both dry and lactating cows) and holding pen; reducing walking distance to the parlor; reducing time in the holding pen; improving holding pen ventilation and freestall ventilation; adding cooling for the holding pen and exit lane; cooling close-up cows (3 wk before calving); cooling housing for fresh and earlylactation cows; and cooling housing for midand late-lactation cows

Fan placement and heat stress abatement in four-row freestall barns

Smith et al. Fan Placement and Heat Stress Abatement in Four-row Freestall Barns. Manhattan, KS, Kansas State University, November 2001

Special needs facilities: recommendations for housing for pregnant, lactating and sick cows.

Smith et al., Special Needs Facilities: Recommendations for housing for pregnant, lactating and sick cows. Manhattan, KS, Kansas State University, July 2001

Consumptive water usage of evaporative pads

Dairy Research, 2006 is known as Dairy Day, 2006Consumptive water usage by evaporative pads was measured during 7 days of a 3-week period at a Kansas (KS) dairy and a 2-day pe-riod at a North Dakota (ND) dairy. Water me-ters were installed between the water hydrants, and evaporative pads at each dairy, and were monitored. Data were recorded every 30 min-utes during 5 hr at the KS site and every 15 minutes during 1 to 2.5 hr at the ND site. Ra-tio of pad area to cow equaled 4.8 and 4.5 ft2 per cow at the KS and ND sites, respectively. Airflow rates through the pads were 1.2, 2.1, and 3.2 mph at the ND dairy and 3.3 mph at the KS dairy. During the study period in KS, the temperature humidity index ranged from 78 to 86 and water usage varied from 0.7 to 4.7 gallon per minute. Average pad efficiency equaled 62%. Water usage averaged 0.3 gal-lons per hr per ft2 of pad when airflow rate was 3.3 to 3.6 mph. At the ND dairy, the wa-ter usage averaged 0.1, 0.3, and 0.38 gallon per hr per ft2 of pad for the low, medium, and high airflow rates, respectively. The tempera-ture humidity index equaled 65, 72.5, and 71 for the low, medium, and high airflow study periods. Pad efficiency averaged 93, 86, and 81% from the low to high airflow rates. Simi-lar to pad efficiencies at the KS site, efficiency increased as the outdoor air temperature de-creased. (Key Words: Coolin

Effect of headlocks on milk production and feed intake of dairy cattle

Cows previously trained with headlocks did not increase milk production or feed intake when headlocks were removed. Twoyear- old and older cows did not differ in response to headlocks and neckrails. Prudent use of headlocks increases labor efficiency of a commercial dairy. Managing a dairy without headlocks is a challenge because cows must be sorted and worked off the milking parlor flow. In the case of large milking parlors, it may be necessary to process 50-200 cows per hour. Depending upon the treatment facilities, this number of cows may create a bottleneck in the dairy. For many routine procedures, headlocks offer the simplest and most cost-effective alternative. It is important to note that headlocks can be mismanaged. This is especially true during summer months. Locking up cows for extended periods without access to water or shade may have adverse effects during summer heat stress. It is important to minimize lock-up time. Consideration should also be given to training heifers to headlocks prior to calving. It is very likely that untrained heifers may be reluctant to be placed in headlocks. If this occurs, intake could be limited during their first exposure to headlocks. If heifers are not trained to headlocks prior to calving, one should determine if they should be locked-up each day during the first week of lactation. Headlocks can be successfully used on a dairy. The critical question is how will they be managed. Successful managers of headlocks minimize restraint time, push-up or feed pens often (6- 8 times per day), and avoid use of headlocks during late morning and afternoon hours during the summer months

EP51

Gerald L. Stokka et al., Bovine Leukosis, Kansas State University, November 1998

MF2102

Gerald Stokka et al., Dairy "preventive herd health program" (PHHP), Kansas State University, October 1996

Estimating optimal operation time of korral kools on dairy cows in a desert environment

Dairy Research, 2008 is known as Dairy Day, 2008Developing management strategies for Korral Kools will help producers provide cooling in the housing area while minimizing the operational cost of the Korral Kools system. Two experiments were conducted at a dairy in Saudi Arabia to evaluate operational time of Korral Kools for multiparous and primiparous dairy cows. For multiparous cows, running time per day of Korral Kools should be continuous, but for primiparous cows, no difference in performance was detected between 21 and 24 hours. However, producers need to be careful when reducing daily operation time of Korral Kools for primiparous cows because elevated core body temperatures were observed in both treatments