Charmany Dairy Herd Newsletter October 7 th 13 th

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1 Charmany Dairy Herd Newsletter October 7 th 13 th Daily Events Monday: Tuesday: Bleeding opportunity to tail bleed cows for Chuck Czuprynski s laboratory 4 th year Theriogenology rotation Herd Check Dr. Momont & 4 th yr. Students Wednesday: LAIM will be sending a 4 th year student to tail bleed and exam any sick cows. Thursday: Friday: 7:30am-Management meeting for Teaching herd management team Posilac injections given to 10 cows-another opportunity for students A Good Day in the Lot!!!

2 Charmany Dairy Herd Newsletter October 7 th 13 th Weekly Events Cows due to calve: - No calves this week but 17 dry cows so I hope Judith is listening! COW DUE Tina 10/22/02 Dimples 10/22/02 Amanda 10/22/02 Sasha 10/24/02 Scarlet 10/30/02 April 11/13/02 Trudy 11/14/02 Katrina 11/20/02 Diane 11/21/02 Char 11/22/02 Susan 11/23/02 Greta 12/18/02 Swish 1/01/02 Production and Milk Quality summary: The herd continues to milk an average of 77lbs/cow of Adjusted Corrected Milk (ACM). ACM is a calculation that standardizes milk to 3.5% fat content, produced by a 3 rd lactation cow at 150 DIM. Approximately 38 cows are producing 2750 lbs/day. We are down about 3lbs/cow, as we have been out of silage for about a month. Silage has been purchased, is bagged up, and has been cooling for 2 weeks. We will probably begin feeding it on Monday, which will allow us to reduce the grain and increase the protein in the ration. Hopefully, we will continue to maintain high hay intake and by November 1 st, be back to shipping 3000 lbs per day, our break even level. We now have some 4 th crop hay with 21% protein and a relative feed value of 160, and we have a grassy 4 th crop hay that is a little lower in protein (19%) with a lower relative feed value of 135. Combining this hay with our 2 nd crop hay (19% protein and a relative value of 129) means we will be feeding the hay in a smorgasbord fashion. Hopefully, we will maintain better butterfat levels and reduce the likelihood of acidosis. Sick Cows/Treatments/Breedings/Patient Care: Last week was one of those tough weeks that comes along about every 4 months - every time you turn around, another problem has to be dealt with. Cindy- Cindy continues to increase in milk yield (almost 85 lbs.), and feels better as evidenced by increasing intake and normal TPR s. However, she has been out of the tank for 3 weeks because of a high SCC in the quarters which were not affected by the Klebsiella that dried up her LF quarter. This is in the face of 2 negative cultures (RR, RF, and LR), 2 and 3 weeks after the initial treatment on the LF. Because Cindy gave over 30,000 her first 2 lactations, she is a fresh cow, and we have 17 dry cows in the face of $10 milk, we will continue to monitor her with cultures and SCC, hopefully getting to a tolerable SCC for the remaining 3 quarters.

3 Kristyn- Kristyn is another cow fighting the inflammatory products of Klebsiella in her LF, which maintains a SCC of over 4 million - yet has had no effect on production. We will continue milking her 3x per day in an attempt to physically remove the products of inflammation, especially because she is already a 3 quartered cow. To add to her problems, late last week she developed a severe case of foot rot. When we attempted to move her to the chute for an exam, she wrenched her right knee and we were not sure for a while if we would be able to get her up to milk. Nigel Cook heroically laid on his stomach in a swan position, trying to use a hoof knife to assess where the problem was. This limited exam indicated there is an outside chance that the swelling she has in the foot/fetlock area might be an orthopedic problem and not foot rot. We shall see what we shall see. Kristyn is a tough cow though; she was the only cow in the barn to be over 100 lbs. during the heat of the summer! Gertie-Our only first calf heifer to ever hit 100 lbs, affectionately known as Dirty Gertie (we now know that Stacia V. gave her the appropriate name). But Wednesday night, due to the clinical skills demonstrated by Carmi Wallis, I received a call (6:30pm) during my presentation to the Pre-Vet club that indicated we had a colicky cow with a normal TPR that Carmi thought needed immediate attention. I called LAIM who responded immediately as they always do, and Simon Peek and I agree to meet out at Charmany in 30 minutes. Gertie was in severe abdominal pain no pain response with the withers pinch; thrashing back and forth in the stall; getting up and down; kicking at her side. The diagnosis was an extremely dilated cecum which was tortuous, meaning there was potential for a volvulus. Dr. Peek determined that surgery needed to be done immediately, and 3.5 hrs after the initial onset, surgery was done at the VMTH. Dr. Sandra Bauer and her surgical team met us at the door as Gertie was being led off the trailer. Dr. Peek s judgment was absolutely correct in that Gertie had a volvulus of the cecum, which was untwisted with no tissue resection necessary. The contents of the cecum were emptied, allowing the cecum to resume a more normal shape. Four days later, she is doing fine, eating her hay and wanting very badly to go outside with the other cows. Instead, she has to be content of going for a walk with Dan Teasdale in the barn (Dan is such a soft guy, he just felt she had to have some exercise - What patient care!) Sammi -Our almost 9 year old girl! She is having a tough lactation with continual feet/leg problems. This is evidenced by her 2.25 Body Condition Score (she is normally a 2.75) and projected 17,000 lbs. (normal is 28,000 for the last 4 lactations). Thus we had LAIM examine Sammi, and they found nothing wrong with her (except high heart rate and respiratory rate from pain in her feet). Nigel Cook had done his magic on the right foot, treating a sole ulcer successfully but now he uncovered a severe sole ulcer on the left foot, which required an extensive amount of trimming, antibiotics, aspirin, and a sculptured wooden shoe to keep her weight off the offending digit. Sammi then made the big move to the box stall; moving Morgan to Red s tie stall (higher production gets the tie stall ), and then Red without hesitation gave up her tie stall and took Sammi s stanchion (what a girl!). Norman (Retained Placenta), Brutus (ketosis), Pearly (mastitis) are progressing well. Brenda had clinical signs of not eating and loose manure as she was coming into heat, but a normal TPR gave us a sigh of relief. Lameness assessments: See above-kristyn and Sammi Karl Burgi will be trimming feet with Nigel Cook (using 2 chutes) on Wednesday, November 6 th all day. Students are welcome to come out to Charmany to observe or get involved with trimming cow s feet. For third years, this will be very timely as a follow-up to the Oct Foot trimming lab using bovine feet when Nigel Cook will hold Court. Noteworthy item: The first palpation laboratory of academic year was conducted this past week. The students in GROUP B-1 demonstrated the most respect to our teaching cows that any class has shown over the last 2 years. It really makes one feel very proud to see students exercise this level of patient care. No one kicked a cow to get them up; cows rear genital area was cleaned with soap and water; manure was removed from stalls after palpating; alley were kept free of manure; if a cow was laying down-cows on either side of her were also gotten up to avoid stepped on teats; students stayed in the rectums of cows on average less than 5 minutes; no cow had to be removed from the

4 palpation list because of bleeding; and students pushed feed up during the palpation to maintain intake. Put your hands together for Group B. Projects: We give our Posilac injections on Friday mornings. Come give Keith Poulsen a hand, as there can be up to 24 cows to inject. Feel free to show up any time between 6:00-7:30am. We have cows to vaccinate (J-5 and Scourgard) see Sara Colopy for the schedule. Rachel Klos continues to run the Nutrition monitoring project and always needs help. Sara Gilbertson is now doing the body condition scoring and always could use some help. Sarah Braeske is entering our financial data. Sara Colopy and Rachel Klos are editing the newsletter. Employment opportunities: If you are interested in gaining experience with dairy cows, we have the opportunity for you. You can join the milking crew at the Charmany Teaching Facility and work the AM or PM milking shifts. Weekday shifts are from 5:00 am to 7:00 am and from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Weekend shifts are from 5:00 am to 12:00 pm and from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Interested students should contact Dr. Bill Goodger at If you need to contact someone at the UW-SVM Teaching Herd Barn, call (608) Please direct correspondence regarding the Charmany Teaching Herd or the newsletter to: William J. Goodger, DVM, PhD cellular wgoodger@facstaff.wisc.edu (KEEP SCROLLING TO READ THIS WEEK S SPECIAL FEATURE!!!)

5 Charmany Dairy Herd Newsletter October 7 th 13 th **Special Feature** Meet Stacia Volbrecht and Dirty Gertie! Gertie Breed: Holstein Age: 2.5 yrs (Born 2/9/00) Lactation: 1st Days In Milk (DIM): 186 Somatic Cell Count (SCC): 35,000 Average Number of Pounds per Day: 72 Total Pounds Produced: This lactation: 21,690 Lifetime: 21,690 Reproductive Status: Bred

6 Stacia Volbrecht Year in School: 2 nd Year Veterinary Student Born in the Herd: Spring 2002, with no prior experience Why Stacia Joined the Herd: To get more comfortable with cows. Stacia s Favorite Cows: Dirty Gertie because she loves me. If you talk nice to her and give her a little lovin before you prep her, she doesn t kick. Swoosh takes a close 2 nd. Her Favorite Part of the Job: The best part about working at Charmany is that I get to learn things through hands-on experience as opposed to reading them from a book or lecture notes. What Stacia has Learned Hangin out at with the Herd: It gives me exposure to the dairy industry something I didn t have before I became a veterinary student. I ve gotten better at taking TPR s, learned how to give injections and feel very comfortable around cows in general. What are Stacia s Career Interests? Most likely small animal mixed practice. Would she recommend this job to other students? Yes, if they haven t had much prior dairy experience - because whether they want to or not, they have to learn large animal. What does she do in her free time? If I had spare time, I would enjoy rollerblading, watching TV/movies and shopping. (This requires both time and money I have neither.) These things are all 10x better if you re w/ friends or family.