After a period of not supplementing calcium in the paddock, Bevan has recommenced dusting 150 grams of limeflour calcimate to freshly calved cows and the colostrums to assist with better transition management.
Bevan drafted 21 of the 260 who had calved at that stage for metrichecking this week. These cows were at least two weeks calved to avoid identifying them as false positives.
We check all cows for endometritis as up to 71% of metricheck-positive cows would be classed "not at risk" (Runciman, 2009, cited in Anexa).
See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16630700/
Dirty cows look and behave like healthy cows — screening by eye or by risk factors alone misses most infections.
Cows treated early get back cycling sooner — meaning more heat cycles occur before PSM, lifting six-week in-calf rate by close to 10% and pregnancy rate by 3.25%, and cows conceive around 8 days sooner (Clews & Wells, 2019, Hoofprint).
Even just in days in milk, if producing 2kgMS/ day at a payout of $9.75 /kgMS, metrichecking and treating the positive cows will generate an additional $156/ cow of milk income from those cows treated.
See: https://nzfarmsource.co.nz/advice-and-support/enrich/metricheck-them-all-and-check-them-early.html
We will check the whole herd after they have been calved at least 10 days in 2-3 batches in preparation for PSM (48 days away).
Our second group of calves will be disbudded this week coming.