How Are Dairy Cows Raised? A Detailed Guide to Scientific Management Methods

Milk is comprehensive in nutrition, a beverage suitable for long-term drinking, and an important raw material for the modern dairy industry. Dairy cows are yellow cattle of the dairy breed, excellent varieties developed through highly selective breeding, but scientific breeding management is required to produce high-quality milk.So, how are dairy cows raised?Scientific management is very important!

1. Breed Selection

The Chinese Black-and-White dairy cow is the dairy breed with the highest milk production, the largest number and the widest distribution in China. Under ordinary feeding conditions, the lactation period is 270-305 days, the milk yield is about 4500 kg, and the average milk fat percentage is 3.4%. At the same time, it has strong adaptability, a long service life, and stable genetic performance.

2. Barn Construction

Depending on the structure of the farmhouse courtyard, the cow barn can be built in an idle area, preferably with a brick and tile structure. Generally, a herd of 7 dairy cows is suitable for a farmhouse, and together with the feed trough and feed passage, 75 sq m can be built. If there is open space, it can serve as an exercise yard. The doors and windows of the building should be arranged reasonably to ensure ventilation and coolness in summer without dampness, and thermal insulation measures should be taken in winter. The manure and urine channels in the barn must be unobstructed. Green hay, wheat straw and the like can be stacked and stored, and an outdoor idle area can be chosen for this. Corn silage pits can be built outdoors. If the courtyard cannot provide an exercise yard, the herd can be driven regularly and at fixed times to the outdoors for activity to ensure sufficient exercise.

3. Feeding Management

(1) Dry period (from stopping milking to 15 days before calving)

The daily ration should be based mainly on high-quality green hay, along with an appropriate amount of green, root and tuber feed and concentrate. Concentrate feeding should not be excessive, and the general mixed concentrate is about 2.5 kg. In the late dry period, the nutrition of the daily ration needs to be increased and the amount of calcium fed in the mixed concentrate reduced, to meet the needs of the cow after calving. At this stage, the ratio of concentrate to roughage feeding is preferably set at about 3:7.

(2) Perinatal period (within 15 days before and after calving)

Before calving, the concentrate feeding amount for the cow should be gradually increased, but the maximum amount should not exceed 1% of the cow's body weight (for dairy cows with severe pre-calving udder edema, concentrate should not be fed in large amounts). At the same time, salt feeding should be reduced to prevent constipation in the cow. After calving, supplement with 10-20 kg of hot bran and salt-calcium soup (500 g bran, 50 g salt, 50 g calcium carbonate) to help the cow recover strength as quickly as possible and expel the afterbirth. Within 1 week after calving, the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio should be adjusted to 3:1.

(3) Peak lactation period (within 16-100 days after calving)

The nutritional needs at this stage are partly for recovering physical condition, and more importantly to meet the needs of milk production. From 4-6 weeks after calving, the dairy cow reaches peak lactation. At this time, the lead-feeding method can be used, that is, starting from 5-7 days after calving, feed the cow high-quality hay and sufficient drinking water, increase the concentrate by 0.5 kg per day, and set the feeding level at 1.2 times the feeding requirement standard, until milk yield no longer rises, then begin normal feeding. At this time, the concentrate feed amount should be a base feed of 2.5 kg, with 1 kg of concentrate added for every 2.5 kg of milk produced, and the concentrate-to-roughage ratio is 5:5.

(4) Mid-lactation period (101-200 days after calving)

At this stage, the feed intake of the dairy cow increases, and the amount of concentrate fed should be reduced compared with the earlier period, with a concentrate-to-roughage ratio of 4:6, and dry matter intake can reach 3.5%-4.5% of body weight. During this period, milk yield declines steadily with occasional rises, decreasing by 5%-7% per month, so various effective measures should be taken to make the decline in milk yield as slow as possible.

(5) Late lactation period (from 201 days after calving to before the dry period)

At this stage, the milk yield of the dairy cow has declined substantially (decreasing by 8%-12% per month), and the concentrate feed amount should be appropriately reduced, with a concentrate-to-roughage ratio of about 35:65. However, about 1 month before drying off, the concentrate feed amount should be increased by about 1 kg to ensure the nutrition needed for fetal development.

(6) Calf rearing period (1-6 months of age after birth)

Within 1-2 hours after birth, the calf should be allowed to consume colostrum, with a feeding amount of no less than 1 kg, and during the suckling period, the daily milk feeding amount is 10-15 kg. After 7 days of age, the calf can begin to be trained to eat specially made concentrate and high-quality soft green hay and silage. When the calf can eat about 1 kg of starter feed per day, weaning can be considered. Generally, calves can be weaned at about 3 months of age.

(7) Growing heifer rearing period (7-18 months of age after birth)

At this stage, the rumen capacity of the growing heifer increases greatly, and the ability to utilize green and roughage feed is significantly improved, so the raiser should take advantage of this favorable opportunity to strengthen feeding in order to obtain a larger daily weight gain. The daily concentrate feeding amount is about 2.5 kg, and roughage is fed freely. Under normal feeding conditions, dairy cows begin to show estrus at 12 months of age, and at 18 months of age, the growing heifer's body weight can reach 300-350 kg, with a withers height of 125 cm.

4. Disease Prevention and Control

Once a dairy cow becomes ill, contact the local veterinary station promptly and ask an experienced veterinarian to make a careful diagnosis and determine whether it is an ordinary disease or an infectious disease.

In the process of raising dairy cows, scientifically proportioning their feed is one of the keys to producing good milk. In addition, raising dairy cows has high costs and large investment, and producers should allocate limited funds reasonably to achieve the best results.