Dairy cows need a lot of care, attention and comfort when having the important task of producing milk. When producing food products, all aspects of hygiene and cleanliness need to be taken into consideration. Dairy cows require a calm, stress-free, healthy environment which will allow your cows to produce the highest yield possible of milk. And like many of us, dairy cows require a holiday from their hard work of producing food for us humans. Many factors need to be considered for this period which is known as the “drying off” or “dry period”.

The drying-off period is an essential stage of the dairy cow’s milk production cycle. A suitable length of time must be made available between lactations to ensure the udder and mammary systems recover, a healthy calf is born and a subsequent productive lactation is achieved.

Effective dry cow management should address several key areas namely: dry cow treatment, length of the dry period, body condition and nutrition of the dairy cow. The first week after drying off and the week before calving are two crucial times during the dry period when udder health is at risk. A keratin plug in the teat canal, the udder’s natural defence system, forms during the first crucial stage, and in the second stage, just before calving, this plug gradually vanishes to prepare for lactation. During the dry period, the keratin plug stops bacteria from accessing the teat canal.

The beginning and end of the dry season are the two times when the udder is most vulnerable to developing infections. Additionally, not all cows create a keratin plug in the teat canal for the duration of the dry period. A clean environment is essential for dairy cows during this period. Good hygiene and a healthy environment will prevent the growth of bacteria in bedding material and possible udder contamination.

Cow welfare and cow comfort is a highly important factor when dairy farming, and providing a safe and healthy environment for our cows is the main goal. Cow comfort is minimising the stress in the animals environment in order to maximise production and yields. An appropriately designed resting area is essential when providing for cow comfort, and a clean resting area is the key to achieving this. This is where the Dairypower Slurry Scrapers step in to ensure the milking parlour and platform are always clean, avoiding these potential contaminants.

Mastitis in cows is almost always caused by bacteria that have gained access to the udder through the teat canal. During the dry period, these bacteria can only enter the udder from the environment, such as from soil, slurry, contaminated bedding or faeces. Bacteria such as E. coli or Strep. Uberis, which can survive in the cow’s environment, can cause severe cases of mastitis.

Dairypower’s slurry management solutions can assist with the prevention of these diseases and infections. Therefore, we provide two slurry management solutions for maintaining shed hygiene in dairy farms. These are our Pro-Clean Ratchet Scraper System and Eco-Clean Rope Scraper System. We also provide an additional solution for the aeration of the slurry, ensuring harmful gases are not produced from tractor agitation and slurry is stored in line with safety standards. This comes in the form of our Smart Slurry Aeration System.

Dirty cows have a negative impact on milk quality, including greater chances of mastitis infections and a high Somatic Cell Count (SCC). As most slurry management systems are automated now, Dairypower has created two unique offerings which will streamline your work time, reduce running costs and avoid potential infections.

The benefits of our Pro-Clean Ratchet Scraper System include:

• Fully Automated – set up cleaning times and frequency to your needs using the timer settings
• Trouble-free operation in all climate conditions
• Low-energy consumption
• Optimum Cleaning
• Easily installed with no pre-installation
• Long-lasting – fully galvanised, a heavy-duty system with many in operation 25+ years after install
• Works off a single or 3-phase motor
• Wide range of customisable scraper blades

While this product is not specifically designed to deal with slurry management and utilisation, it is a useful addition to your scraper systems. In order to keep the flow of your dairy cows highly efficient, our Easy-Flo Backing Gate works by slowly reducing space in your yard pushing all of the cows at the back slowly and gently through the direction of the milking platform.