Fresh cow performance experiment - KFC member participation?
Jun 21, 2014 16:40:36 GMT -5
crystalkelly likes this
Post by milkmaid on Jun 21, 2014 16:40:36 GMT -5
I'm interested in evaluating the health status of family cows owned by KFC members. I've been wondering about this for some time now... It's hard to look at "herd" health when everyone has just one or two cows, which really isn't a herd. However, I think that perhaps if I can get enough participation in this experiment, I can get an idea of the typical incidence of metabolic problems in family cows, including milk fever, ketosis, DAs, uterine infection, mastitis, etc.
Interested?
Experienced cow owners or newbies are all welcome to participate (in fact, I'd like a mix of both).
Here's what I'd need to do a general survey of the population-at-risk over the next couple months:
EDITED 10/19/14 - I will continue tracking cows, so keep sending me entries!
-Cow ID or name
-Lactation #
-Breed
-Date calved
-Bull or heifer
-Calving score (1=no assistance, 2=easy pull, 3=hard pull, 4= csection)
-Cow's Body Condition Score at calving on a 1-5 scale (1=emaciated, 5=obese)
-*Any* health events (milk fever, ketosis, LDA/RDA, metritis, etc) and date. I want all problems - if you have to PM me several times, that's perfectly okay.
-30 day report (cow ok?)
-60 day report (cow ok?)
Seems like the distribution of geographical location, feed type, and years of owning cattle is pretty consistent and doesn't appear to be influencing data in the current study group. So let's just switch to tracking the basics.
My goal:
This will hopefully give people a better idea of the probability of their cow developing specific health problems at calving, and help y'all better prepare for successful freshenings in the future.
Feel free to ask questions about anything that isn't clear.
If you are new to this discussion and would like to add your information, please feel free to do so! The only rule is that the cows have to be entered at or prior to calving so it doesn't falsely influence the data. I'll start posting updates with the graphs in the near future as we have 60 day health updates.
September results
Interested?
Experienced cow owners or newbies are all welcome to participate (in fact, I'd like a mix of both).
Here's what I'd need to do a general survey of the population-at-risk over the next couple months:
EDITED 10/19/14 - I will continue tracking cows, so keep sending me entries!
-Cow ID or name
-Lactation #
-Breed
-Date calved
-Bull or heifer
-Calving score (1=no assistance, 2=easy pull, 3=hard pull, 4= csection)
-Cow's Body Condition Score at calving on a 1-5 scale (1=emaciated, 5=obese)
-*Any* health events (milk fever, ketosis, LDA/RDA, metritis, etc) and date. I want all problems - if you have to PM me several times, that's perfectly okay.
-30 day report (cow ok?)
-60 day report (cow ok?)
Seems like the distribution of geographical location, feed type, and years of owning cattle is pretty consistent and doesn't appear to be influencing data in the current study group. So let's just switch to tracking the basics.
My goal:
This will hopefully give people a better idea of the probability of their cow developing specific health problems at calving, and help y'all better prepare for successful freshenings in the future.
Feel free to ask questions about anything that isn't clear.
If you are new to this discussion and would like to add your information, please feel free to do so! The only rule is that the cows have to be entered at or prior to calving so it doesn't falsely influence the data. I'll start posting updates with the graphs in the near future as we have 60 day health updates.
September results