Dairy Team News - Housing/Facilities

Rubber Floors Update

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:18:00 -0600

Just made a post about rubber floors for dairy facilites. Came to realize there was a post on the same subject on April 2, 2008 with a spreadsheet dated March 30, 2008. The spreadsheet posted on the CDP web site is slightly updated from the March 30, 2008 version.

Can Rubber Floors in Dairy Facilities Pay

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:32:00 -0600

This was the question posed by a Jefferson County milking parlor user group. The answer begins with "it all depnds". It depends on how good or bad conditions are now and what benefits can be attributed to the addition of rubber floors. To help answer this question, a spreadsheet was developed to do some cost and benefit analysis. This spreadsheet and an article "What the Research Shows about the Use of Rubber Floors for Cows" is available on the Center for Dairy Profitability web site at URL:

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/dairymod/cowcomfort/index.cfm#costs

You can also access the site by clicking through the CDP sequence of menus as:

Dairy Modernization, Cow Comfort, Costs

The spreadsheet has been used with a few groups of dairymen and they have advised on some of the cell entries. With certain assumptions, rubber floors can have a very rapid payback (less than a year) or they will never payback (paybak period > life expectancy). This suggests there is no one answer to the question and existing conditions and expected results influence the decision to use them or not.

WI Dairy Modernization Fact Sheet

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:36:00 -0600

A fact sheet summarizing the results of the Dairy Modernization Survey that was done on 99 WI farms in 2008 is now available at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/green/ag/documents/2008DairyModernizationSurveyFactSheet.pdf.

Big Sand Stalls: Best Thing Ever or Bad Idea?

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:20:00 -0600

The dairy expansion era in North America, which gathered pace throughout the nineties and continues to this day, has resulted in the migration of dairy cattle from traditional tiestall and stanchion barns to the freestall facility, which has emerged as the dominant form of dairy cattle housing worldwide.

In this article, Dr. Nigel Cook will attempt to summarize the aspects of freestall design that are failing the cow, and justify the solutions we have found and the current trends emerging in the dairy industry of the Upper Mid-West. The challenge presented is to find the balance between excellent cow comfort and manageable cow cleanliness.

2008 WI Dairy Modernization Survey

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:22:00 -0600

Greetings,

The paper summarizing the results of the 2008 Dairy Modernization Survey conducted by the UW-Extension Dairy Team has been posted on the Dairy Modernization webpage at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/dairymod/cost/index.cfm as well as on this blog under the Housing/Facilities catergory. If you have programmed in Dairy Modernization you might find some of this information helpful when writing your impact statements and success stories for 2008.

I also have a PowerPoint presentation that goes with this study that can be downloaded from my website at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/green/ag/index.html

Mark Mayer, Green County Dairy and Livestock Agent

mark.mayer@ces.uwex.edu

Rubber Floors for Dairy Facilities

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:51:00 -0600

Dairy producers have used rubber floors to improve cow comfort, hoof health, reproduction efficiency, increase milk production and reduce cull rates etc. Some have viewed rubber floors as expensive and wonder if the benefits can pay the cost of the floors. To answer this question, a search of the literature was conducted and discussions with held with veterinarians at the UW School of Veterinarty Medicine. A summary of the literature search is attached. Based on the findings, a spreassheet was developed whereby producers can enter information about thier facilites, cow health and costs of milk production and obtain an analysis about the economics of installing rubber flooriing. The spreadsheet is attached.

Plans are to develop this analysis further to make improveents in the analysis.

Commingling Dairy Cows: Pen Moves, Stocking Density, and Health.

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:01:00 -0600

As a followup to Dave Kammel's post for Transition Cow Facility Design on
Feb 8th, this posting discusses our findings from 17 years of clinical farm
investigations for the School of Veterinary Medicine; in particular pen
moves and stocking density around the time of calving and it's influence on
cow and herd health.

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/tci/commingling.pdf

For more information related to Transition Cow Management follow this link:

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dms/fapm/fapmtools/transition_cow.htm

Transition Cow Facility Design

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:47:00 -0600

Several dairy meetings around the state this winter have focused on the comfort of transition cow barns and how to design these facilities. The attached summary paper discusses the design process that producers can go through to define their specific needs with examples of pen designs that could be incoroporated into the barn design.

Slides for Milking Performance in Wisconsin

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:35:00 -0600

These are the slides from the presentaion on evaluating milking performance in WIsconsin that was part of the January 2008 Dairy Team Road Show. They are a supplement to the comanion paper.

Methods for assessing udder hygiene

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:52:00 -0600

The cleanliness of udders is one of the measures most highly correlated with mastitis risk and somatic cell counts. This paper presented at the annual NMC meeting by Dr. Nigel Cook from the UW vet school provides a variety of methods for quantifying udder hygine and some case studies to illustrate their use in the field.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkMachine/Cleaning/07%20NMC%20Hygiene%20Toolbox[1].pdf

Benchmarks for Milking Performance In Wisconsin

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:04:00 -0600

Are you wondering how the best milking parlors are performing in Wisconsin?

Have a look at this paper for statistics from milking parlor user groups in south and central Wisconsin.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkingParlors/07%20Bade%20IDF%20Wis%20Italy%20Dairy%20Survey.pdf

Milking Parlor Advisor

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:55:00 -0600

Are you wondering what size milking parlor to build?

Are you wondering how much it costs to build and operate a milking parlor?

Are you wondering how many people to put it the pit?

Are you wondering how to make you existing parlor more efficient?

All these ane more can be answered with the Milking Center Advisor.

Software and user guide guide are availalbe for download at:

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/milk_parlor/mpmain.htm

Cull rates compost and freestall barns on selected farms

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:07:00 -0600

Producers who have compost bedded pack barns often comment on how much longer their cows last. The question is compared to what? Most of the cows moved from old tie stall barns. This power point compares the farm records in cull rates on 14 different farms. Seven of them are compost bedded pack barns and 7 are sand bedded freestall barns. This power point in PDF format can be viewed on the Clark county UW Extension web site using the link below.

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/clark/ag/documents/CompostCulling1.pdf