{"id":1232887,"date":"2024-03-16T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=1232887"},"modified":"2024-03-15T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T12:55:00","slug":"keeping-milk-fever-at-bay-in-later-calving-cows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/keeping-milk-fever-at-bay-in-later-calving-cows\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping milk fever at bay in later calving cows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we progress further into March, the calving season continues, with the risk of milk fever within cows likely to increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is due to a number of reasons, notably the length of times cows have spent dry, the condition of the cows, and their age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s important that farmers continue to focus on safe management practices that will help to prevent cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milk fever<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, you need to ensure that you continue to give cows the correct amount of minerals; each cow should be receiving 100-120g\/cow\/day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality of the minerals being offered to cows is also important. You should ensure that they have at least 22% magnesium included and high levels of Vitamin D (14,000 units plus). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Older cows in particular need high levels of Vitamin D to prevent milk fever.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many farms have adopted the practice of operating a fresh cow group. Teagasc are advising that this should continue during the month of March, as it has a number of benefits for later calving cows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body condition <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The body condition score (BCS) of the cows that are yet to calf need to be accessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To keep April and May cows under 3.5, you should restrict their intakes to between 10-11kg of dry matter (DM)\/day for March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will help prevent them from becoming over conditioned, which in turn will reduce the number calving related issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These cows should continue to have access to ad-lib forage, with milk fever and other metabolic issues having to be managed at calving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer with Teagasc, Dr. Joe Patton recommended that farmers make sure that cows on the point of calving are fed low potassium (K) forage (under 2.2%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that this is very important to prevent milk fever, and that if you don\u2019t have low K silage in the yard, some bales should be purchased and fed for one to two weeks pre-calving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Patton also noted that many farms use a \u2018bottle under the skin\u2019 at this point of calving to prevent milk fever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Dr. Patton said that there is good evidence to suggest that this may increase risk of clinical\/sub-clinical milk fever after 24-36 hours post-calving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recommended that farmers use a high calcium bolus with added Vitamin D instead of straight calcium bottles for this purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Dr. Patton recommended that farmers do not use a calcium bottle as a preventative measure, it still has an important role to play on farms for the treatment of clinical cases.<\/p>\n\n\n

Also Read: <\/strong>Dairy advice: Treating a calf with scour<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we progress further into March, the calving season continues, with the risk of milk fever within cows likely to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3484,"featured_media":1213712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1936,10875],"tags":[2444,17514,5198,2257,2637],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232887"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250980,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232887\/revisions\/1250980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1213712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}