Preparing for next lactation starts back in the dry period

摘要

In the past, the transition period has been largely considered to be just the last three weeks of the dry period, but we should be looking a little wider than this. "According to the latest research, it's the whole of the dry period, plus the first three weeks post-calving that should be considered part of the transition into milk," says Mr Scott. "For cows to maintain a constant body condition throughout this time, late lactation cows must be managed closely to ensure they're dried off at body condition score (BCS) 3.0 - the target for calving," he says. A Korean study published in 2003 clearly demonstrated the benefits of maintaining body condition during the dry period. (See Table 1). Cows losing less than 1.0 BCS during the dry period suffered from significantly fewer calving-related problems, and had a shorter time to first heat.