our Dry cow protocol
what is a dry cow?
A dry cow is a cow that is about to calve, and is not making milk. This is arguably the most important phase of a dairy cow’s lactation cycle as it allows the cow and her udder to properly prepare for the next lactation cycle. This also allows the cow to focus all her energy on growing and preparing herself, and the calf, for birth. We dry our cows off 2 months before their due date for proper recuperation.
Preperation for dry off
When we dry our cows, we use Synergy dry off cow treatment. This is an essential oil substitute for traditional anitbiotics, decreasing milk supply and eventualy sealing the teat cannal to prevent bacteria entering and causing mastitis.
Dry off period
During the time that the cow is dry, we decrease the amount of fodder they receive and change from an alfalfa hay diet to a three-way grass hay diet. It’s important to have a nutritious diet full of minerals and vitamins during this time, however, you need to be careful to not feed to much to make the cow fat. An overly fed fat dry cow can develop health issues such as a big calf which can lead to calving issues, fatty liver disease, where the liver builds excess fat around and on it causing it to not be able to function properly, and a variety of other issues. This is why it’s important to feed just enough food to give the cow energy and to make that food as nutritionally dense as possible.
Because our cows are not fed a grain diet, we add a variety of minerals and vitamins to the fodder to make it nutritionally dense. This includes a mineral blend of our making for overall balance; a clay-based mineral for balanced rumen pH, molasses and apple cider vinegar for digestion and easy absorption, VITA-MIX for all vitamin needs, and magnesium for proper calcium metabolism (which we have found has minimalized our issues with milk feaver (calcium deficiencies after calving)). We start this protocol at the start of the dry-off period.
In the last 30 days of the dry-off period, we introduce a product called prolific. This is the only grain our dry cows receive. This is important because it contains an ingredient called monensin, which when it is digested by the rumen, enhances the microbes to work more effectively, leading to more enhanced digestion of feed and mineral/vitamin intake. We have found this product minimizes our issues with ketosis.
Our reasoning
Now we are not saying this is the protocol everyone should be doing, it took lots of experimenting and situations for us to develop this recipe for our cows. This is based on their environment, feed, and nutritional needs. Every year we grow in knowledge and change our recipes a little bit, but this is a base of what has worked for us. Every herd is different, but through sharing some insight on what we implement on our herd may help others with theirs and helps our hershare customers stay connected with the cows!
