Since the Cope family improved the shelter of the transitional cows, the pregnancy rate has risen from 28% to 35%.

Prior to the purchase of the nearby Adderley Lodge Farm in November 2019, the transitional space was a critical juncture for Copes’ family farm, Bawhill Farm, located near Market Drayton, where they milked 1,150 cows.
The husband and wife team Steve and Caroline Cope and Steve’s parents Rob and Jerry used the “just-in-time” calving system in the past, keeping nearly calves in 49 compartments for 14 days , And then moved to calving when calving. But the transition time for cows is not long enough.
Kopp admitted: “We have expanded the number of cows and tried to improve the transition, but the facilities are getting tighter and we will never be able to do it.”
“Once the farm (next door) is on the market, making it a (dedicated) transitional dairy farm seems to be the logical next step.”
They converted the existing shed at Adderley Lodge Farm into a state-of-the-art transitional residence. In July last year, the featured dry cows moved into the greenhouse, which means they now have a transition period of at least 3 weeks.
“Once they come here, their society is stable. In the past, we would put cows in the calving pen every day, which means that there will always be social unrest before calving, which brings us many problems. “He added.
Mrs. Copp said that the transitional housing provides cows with a rest away from the hustle and bustle of the dairy farm and allows them enough time to recuperate before rejoining the milking herd.
The shed is modeled on a transitional department that Mr. Cope saw on George DeRuyter’s farm when he visited the United States in 2017, and was designed to maintain social stability and reduce stress.
The calves entered the building with 10 pens three weeks before calving and stayed in the group until they calved.
The building spans 30x61m and used to be a racecourse. It has been modified with doors and concrete panels to create nine pens, each providing 12.5x12m of space with a 3.6m scratching channel.
Each pen has its own quick-drain sink, 1.2m long. Cows lie on deep straw, feeding on corn and straw.
When calving, unless you need help, the cows can only calve themselves, and will not move into a fresh pen for two hours.
Hik-Connect streams the calf cameras in the calving farm to the phone application in real time, so that multiple workers can check whether cows are calving in real time.
“If you interfere with a cow, you can make her retreat [calving" for up to 8 hours," Mr. Cope explained. He attended the World Wide Sires Global Training Center in 2017 and has been there since he returned to his hometown. Always put the knowledge learned into practice.
John Cook, a technical consultant at World Wide Sires, said that heifers are at greater risk of this disease than heifers, and added that such setbacks are more likely to occur before the labor develops further. occur.
Dr. Cook explained: "Once the cow is in the second stage of calving (visible contraction), it is more difficult to stop calving, but it will affect the cow in the first stage of the birth process.
"Cows are prey, and when they leave the social group, which is equivalent to being separated by predators, they will start to prevent uterine contractions.
Two hours after calving, move the cow to a bail bag at the bottom of the shed for milking, and then feed 4 liters of colostrum directly to the calf.
"Our idea is that by having milking facilities in the calving shed, we can harvest colostrum at the right time," Mr. Cope said.
He admits that it is more difficult to collect colostrum in time before the milking time determines the milking time for fresh cows. However, by installing portable milking machines and lifting hooks in the new shed, this means timely collection of colostrum.
The reduced workload also means that the colostrum is not mixed together and the calves are fed colostrum from the dam.
In the past, Copes would measure the quality of colostrum, then pasteurize it and freeze it in a bag for whole feeding. This means that calves will not always get their mother's colostrum.
Dr. Cook explained: "The industry view is that colostrum refers to antibodies that protect calves in the first few weeks after birth, but there are many useful things in colostrum that can be [pasteurized] damage.”
He said that one of the most important things provided to calves from the dam through colostrum is the “bank copy” of white blood cells. The research he mentioned shows that calves vaccinated with dams have an enhanced immune response compared to unvaccinated animals.
“Therefore, we think it is best to use fresh colostrum from the calf’s own dam at the beginning of life. However, if you have a Johne’s positive animal, you should not use her colostrum,” he emphasized.
Copes conducts a quarterly test on Johne’s cows, marks all positive animals, enters them into the cow management software BoviSync, and then breeds them into beef or culminates.
Currently, the long-distance cows are raised on the third farm, but the long-term goal is to build more housing at Adderley Lodge so that the cows can spend the entire eight-week drought in one place.
Since purchasing Adderley Lodge Farm, the couple have also converted an existing shed with horses into a custom calf unit with ducted ventilation.
In the first 10-14 days, the calves are placed in a separate small cage, fed by hand, and then grouped into a sketch pen for 20-24 calves on an automatic milking machine.
“Since the transfer to the automatic milking machine, we have greatly increased the growth rate. We used to feed milk in the trough, but we could never get the milk correctly. Now we have to push 10 liters of milk for the calf every day,” Kopp Said the lady.
This is equivalent to 13.5% of 1035 grams of total solid milk powder per day. It is fed with 21% crude protein feed pellets to help fast and early growth, and the calves are weaned at 69 days (10 weeks).
“We had a milking machine a few years ago, but I swear I will never buy a milking machine again, but we listened to the AHDB webinar and all the things mentioned were things that we hadn’t done on the old machine before. .
“We put them on the machine too early, only two to three days ago. All the calves are put in a pen, and calves are constantly added and removed, so it will always cause social chaos.”
The shed includes eight pens, four on each side, and an automatic milking machine in each. To avoid interruption, once the pen is filled, the calf is left behind and the automatic program is programmed to prohibit the weaning animal from obtaining milk.
The pregnancy rate has increased significantly (see “Improvements Since Cows Moved into the New Transition Shed”), and the peak milk production period of the cows is also faster.
The peak days have been changed from 94, 66 and 60 in the first, second and third lactation groups to 75, 54 and 52 respectively.
Cows start serving 50 days after calving, but the voluntary waiting period for cows has been extended to 70 days to allow them more time to mature. This is consistent with timing artificial insemination.
This is because studies have shown that the best time for a heifer to become pregnant is between 70-100 days in milk, otherwise the viability of the next lactation will be reduced, Dr. Cook explained.
Since 2014, all animals have been in pre-synchronization and egg synchronization procedures to ensure that they mate in milk for 78 days.
Animals in the first lactation receive sexual semen during the first and second doses, and routinely receive Angus after the third dose. Animals in the second and third lactation period use regular semen first and then Angus in the first and second service. The fourth lactation period plus mating with Angus.
var fw_collection_links = {midArticleWidget:function(widget){var elem_pos = Math.ceil(jQuery(‘.article-body’).children(‘p’).length / 1.5); var elem = jQuery(‘.article-body ‘). children(‘p: nth-​​of-type(‘+ elem_pos +’)'); elem.after(jQuery(widget)); },} jQuery(document).ready(function(){var collection =’ #Iwtblpwn-bi49dna0-rxhizwdb’; jQuery(collection +’.caption’).remove(); fw_collection_links.midArticleWidget(collection);});