Archive for December 2021

Ask any dairy producer what their number one expense is, and they’re likely to say, “feed.” The average 80-cow dairy farm spends more than $15,000 on feed each month and over $180,000 every year. When trying to cut feed costs, where should you focus your energy? Trying to get a better deal on a particular…

Acknowledged as a leading cause of lameness in the dairy industry, digital dermatitis (DD) is a widespread problem. Also known as hairy heel warts, this costly and highly contagious disease progresses quickly. If not caught in the early stages, DD can result in permanent hoof damage. DD produces painful lesions and typically attacks the skin…

When hoof trimmer Rick Trinko of Middleton, Wisconsin, began seeing a large number of cows at one dairy with white-line hemorrhages in zone 2, he was alarmed. The typical site for a white-line hemorrhage is zone 3, and it can indicate the early stages of white-line disease. Having never seen a white-line hemorrhage in zone…

I have been a dairy nutritionist for over 33 years, and I am usually the first to know when one of my dairies is having hoof health problems. While many issues with cow health point back to nutrition, I have found that hoof problems, more often than not, stem from environmental causes rather than nutrition.…