How to keep your dairy cows chill

Successful Farming magazine interviewed Jefo Nutrition’s Chris Gwyn about dairy cow stress and its deadly health challenges. The article covers how to spot stress and outlines management practices and tools to help reduce its effects in your herd.

Chris says that cows can usually overcome stress from one source, but that multiple stressors will wear down the immune system and make a cow more sensitive to disease. Reducing stress, he says, hinges on a strong immune system.

Stress can be complicated in cows, just like it can be in humans. Transition periods are the most common sources of stress. Management decisions can also create stress, as can stocking density and changes in diet.

As a cow approaches a transition phase, Chris says you can increase supplements of pro-active amino acids, A and B vitamins, and selenium, which boosts immune system defenses, to combat that period of stress. Learn more by reading the full article.