Easing post-calving heifers into productive life

According to DairyNZ, for young cows calving for the first time the milking routine is a new and different experience.

It takes about two weeks for most heifers to establish a quiet, reliable response to milking. Milking staff must then be patient and gentle, for best production, lowest milking times and less risk of injury to milkers and animals. Extra labour may be needed during calving.

Practical ways to prevent mastitis in heifers include:

• Using internal teat sealant about four weeks before the planned start of calving
• Spraying teats with normal teat disinfectant two-three times per week for the three weeks before calving
• Picking up calves twice daily and milking animals within 9-12 hours of calving.
• The choice of strategy for an individual herd will depend on:
• The gap in performance between incidence of clinical mastitis and industry targets
• Costs, potential risks and likely benefits of each approach
• Having the means to safely administer internal teat sealants to heifers pre-calving
• Opportunities to teat-spray regularly before calving
• Labour available to pick up newly-born calves twice daily and bring animals in for milking.
• Herds suffering 16 or more cases of clinical mastitis per 100 heifers within the first two weeks of lactation (8/50 heifer calvings) should work to reduce the disease. Talk to your vet.
• Using antibiotics in heifers at calving time is a dubious idea because of high costs and the risk of antibiotic residues in milk.
• If heifers are tight with udder oedema prior to calving, milk them out and use saved colostrum for their calves.
• If they are very uncomfortable, seek veterinary advice. Prevention is better than cure, so discuss heifer nutrition with your adviser to ensure diet does not contribute to severe oedema.