In this episode of Cornell Cow Convos Daniela González Carranza, CCE Dairy Management Specialist and Kathryn Barrett, Sr. Extension Specialist, Cornel PRO-DAIRY interview Tom Overton, PhD, Professor and Chair, Animal Science Cornell University, and Director of the Cornell PRO-DAIRY program. Dr Overton outlines the key factors dairy farmers should be looking at to evaluate their farm businesses as we head into the new year.

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In this third episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, Margaret Quaassdorff and South Central New York Dairy and Field Crops Team Dairy Specialist, Betsy Hicks discuss the opportunities and challenges for farmers surrounding the beef x dairy industry in New York as well as the latest national trends.

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In this second episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Northwest New York Team Dairy Specialists, Margaret Quaassdorff and Kaitlyn Lutz, interview Jimena Godoy, Animal Welfare Specialist and manager at Aurora Organic Dairy, to discuss preventative health care for cows, the importance of technology and training, and compassion for both employees and cows on both conventional and organic dairy farms.

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More Resources:

Aurora Organic Dairy: https://www.auroraorganic.com/about-us/

Aurora Organic Dairy named a 2022 National Top Workplace: https://www.auroraorganic.com/news-updates/aurora-organic-dairy-named-a-2022-national-top-workplace/

Understanding and Improving Cow Lying Behavior: https://nydairyadmin.cce.cornell.edu/uploads/doc_403.pdf

Economic Benefits of Improved Cow Comfort: https://www.dairychallenge.org/pdfs/2016_National/Economic_Benefit_Cow_Comfort_Rick_Grant.pdf

Technology Tuesdays webinars https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBMGyzTr13dtddjCtjc3nnyWtMUpOdhJS

Cornell’s Agriculture Workforce Development: https://agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu/

Training Techniques: Plan, Conduct, Evaluate: https://cornell.app.box.com/file/705025206146?s=pi3zvgcgrkfjivtn2u0vqkgti3epy9ue

Episode 1: Welcome to Cornell Cow Convos!

In this first episode of Cornell Cow Convos, Dairy Specialists Lindsay Ferlito and Betsy Hicks briefly cover what to expect in this new on-going series, introduce the other hosts and hear about their areas of specialty, and present topics for the first few episodes. To give suggestions for future topics, enter them here: https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHF0mJo62tFans2.

Dry Cows

CCE Dairy Specialist, Casey Havekes, is joined by Dr. Tom Overton, Professor of Animal Science and director of PRO-DAIRY at Cornell University, in this episode to discuss troubleshooting issues during the dry period. Topics discussed include target body condition score at dry off and throughout the dry period, nutritional and feeding management of dry cow diets, dry period length, and non-nutritional factors that play a role in a successful dry period.

This episode covers how producers can approach hoof health and troubleshooting lameness on their dairies. CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Lindsay Ferlito & Betsy Hicks will focus on lameness as a scale, causes of lameness, troubleshooting lameness between pens, targeting protocols with treatments, and methods of tracking lameness. Analysis of records and tying this information with cull rates will also be covered to help producers best manage hoof health.

Facilities and ventilation have a significant impact on the health of dairy animals. This episode focuses on how to identify when the physical environment is having a negative impact on your dairy cows. Lindsay Ferlito and Dave Balbian, CCE Regional Dairy Specialist lead this discussion.

In this episode, CCE Dairy Specialist Casey Havekes interviews Trevor DeVries of the University of Guelph on lactating feeding behavior. Factors that will be discussed include the types of feeding behaviors that producers should watch out for, learned behaviors, and how to manipulate feeding behaviors through feeding management. Pen management and the effects on feeding behavior will also be a focus in this episode.

In this episode, CCE Regional Dairy Specialists Dave Balbian & Betsy Hicks cover issues around production in lactating cows on the dairy. Factors including nutrition and facilities will be covered, as well as troubleshooting by analyzing herd records. Culling parameters and strategies will also be discussed to help producers determine the approaches that might work best for their farm. M

Dr. Rob Lynch, DVM, Herd Health and Dairy Management Specialist, Cornell PRO-DAIRY discusses how to investigate reproductive issues your lactating cows maybe experiencing.