Herd Check...

One of the things that is important to successful dairy farming is overall herd health management. 

We do a lot of diagnosing and treating of minor problems on our own...Jim gives medications  through injection, orally, or through IV when necessary...we do our own vaccinating, and he can usually diagnose things like a twisted stomach by listening to the cow's rumen with a stethoscope.

One valuable asset that we do use, however, is our veterinarian.  Jim can call him for advice, or have him come out to check on an animal when necessary...and one of the vets is always on call for after hours emergencies.

There are some things that we aren't able to do.. so we have a regularly scheduled "herd check".   During herd check, the vet will normally do pregnancy checks and "GYN" exams on cows.  It's also a great time to ask questions, stock up on meds or have him examine an animal that's not doing well.

Here, Jim is getting ready for herd check this morning.  He's checking the Herdex for cows that have been bred at least 40-42 days, which is when we choose to check them for pregnancy.  He will also have the vet check cows that have been fresh for over 60 days that haven't yet shown a heat.  The vet can tell if they are cycling normally or if they are "cystic" (have a cyst on their ovaries)

Below is the Herdex chart...Each cow has her own line on the chart.  The AI technician puts a green X on the date that she is bred.  When her green X reaches the second green line from the right, it has been 42 days since she's been bred.  If she is confirmed pregnant, the box is colored in solid purple.  It's a great way to keep records!

This is Dr. Ellis, the vet that we see most often on our farm.  He is checking this cow to see if she's cycling normally after freshening.  He does pregnancy checks in a similar fashion...he can feel the uterus with (hopefully) an embryo the size of a marble inside if she's pregnant. 

His truck is stocked with supplies and medications...if we need anything we get it from him before he leaves.

Then, when he's finished, he disinfects his boots and is on to the next farm.

This is just one more aspect of life on the farm...it takes working together to keep the animals healthy and the dairy running smoothly.

*Coming soon..."New Kids on the Block"...Jenna's 4 - H goats arrived today...it's already been an adventure!

The Brains of the Barn...

We call it "the brains of the barn"...and it's one vital part of having a successful dairy operation...good record keeping!

This is the Herdex chart...

From a distance it looks rather like a dirty piece of plexiglass with a bunch of random marks on it! But then...barns tend to be dirty, and metal rusts, so please forgive the rough look. It's quite important!  On this chart, each milking cow has a line of her own.  We keep track of her freshening date (when she has her calf), her heats, breeding dates, and her due date on this chart...

The red marks indicate a fresh date, the green marks indicate a heat or a breeding date, the purple mark indicates that she's been confirmed pregnant by the vet, and the yellow mark indicates that she has been "dried up".  (no longer being milked, and given a rest period before her next calf is due).  Those red and green lines show us at quick glance how long she's been fresh, and where she is in her heat cycle...

This is what we call the "barn desk".  In it, we keep our records...breeding, vaccinations, vet checks, and our heifer book, which is a record of geneology for each animal in the herd...

When Jim's Dad was farming, he bought this little blue notebook (you can see it above, in the barn desk).  In it, he kept track of each cow's freshening date, indicating whether the calf was a heifer or a bull.  You can see by the date, that this book began in November, 1990.

We still use this book...this is the page we are on now, in 2011!  It's fascinating to go back through the book to see how many heifer and bull calves that each cow has had...as well as how quickly she settles in each lactation.  There are approximately 1000 calves recorded in this little notebook!  It would have been interesting to count the heifers and bulls, but I'll save that for another day...I'm guessing there would be about fifty percent heifers vs bulls!

Each heifer calf is recorded in the "heifer book" below.  She is given an ear tag #, and her birthdate, sire, dam, and genetic record is recorded here.  We have genetic records for as far back as seven generations recorded for some of our cows.  Our herd is "closed", which means that we raise all of our own replacement heifers, and don't purchase any from outside sources.  We really count on those heifer calves each year!

So...if there were to be a barn fire, after getting the animals out, the next thing we would grab would be the barn desk and the Herdex chart.  After all, you can't function without "the brains of the barn"!

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