A preconference seminar at the Central Plains Dairy Expo in Sioux Falls, S.D., highlighted the health and costs associated with transition cows.

Michael Overton, a veterinarian with Elanco Animal Health, gave a presentation entitled “Transition Diseases: Measuring, Monitoring, and What Do They Really Cost Your Operation?”

Overton told attendees that the financial impact of fresh cow disease is usually undervalued. He encouraged farmers to manage with the long-term impact of illness in mind.

“The total costs associated with transition disease issues are far greater than the direct costs such as therapeutics, veterinary fees and discarded milk,” Overton said. “The negative impacts on future milk production, reproduction and culling extend well into lactation and usually far exceed the immediate costs of treatment.”

He talked about "downstream" costs, including the risk of subsequent disease, and how they equal lost opportunity that is difficult to recognize and quantify, compared to initial out-of-pocket treatment costs. Misclassification of disease issues also leads to underestimating disease costs.

Good recording, monitoring are key
Without good disease recording, it is difficult to make appropriate and timely management adjustments, he added. An important step in managing and mitigating disease costs is implementing good monitoring programs.

“It’s simply not enough to measure how many cows were sold or died within the first 30 days in milk,” he said. “Producers are encouraged to aggressively and accurately monitor key predictors of future performance.”

Specifically, he encourages a strong focus on parameters such as stocking density, feed quality, urine pH, and days in the close-up pen. Additionally, it is important to keep consistent, detailed records of disease issues that increase the risk of premature culling such as retained placenta, ketosis, mastitis, metritis and milk fever, he added.

“The bottom line is that accurately monitoring key diseases and their indicators in a consistent, repeatable manner allows producers to detect changes well before issues show up on the culling report,” Overton said. “In turn, producers are much better equipped to make sound management decisions based on quality data.”

Source: Elanco