Transition and reproduction

By Rod Martin It’s been a hot week throughout the Midwest and it looks like temperatures will remain high for the next few days.  Plus, it’s probably a safe bet that this won’t be the last heat wave of the summer. With that in mind, don’t forget about your transition cows.  Hot weather brings about

By Dr. Bruno Amaral With an uncommonly warm March, we’re already starting to think about keeping cows cool.  Now is our chance to strategize and get ahead of the heat. We all know the value of heat stress abatement for milking cows as temperatures spike in the summer and milk production drops.  But the value

By Dr. Neil Michael Managing fresh cow performance is a challenge.  When ketosis becomes an issue, cows start slowly and you can expect significant losses due to direct treatment costs and lost future income. Contributing factors Much of the variation in how well cows go through transition can be explained by changes in cows, feedstuffs

By Dr. Neil Michael In the simplest form, the goal of all reproductive programs is to maximize the production for quality pregnancies during a specified time period with minimal variation and waste.  Producers whose herds show high reproductive performance use a handful of metrics to evaluate and manage their programs.  Some fundamental metrics include: Pregnancy