Dairy Management: It's Spring Cleaning Time Again!
Published: June 5, 2008
Source : University of Florida Dairy Update
1. Clean out high organic matter dirt (MUD) in lots and add new dirt, especially in calving areas.
2. Clean out cooling ponds – pump out the water, and clean out the sludge and spread it someplace where the cows do not have access to it.
3. Let ponds sit dry for the sun to work on the bacteria. Mycoplasma and other nasty stuff live in ponds. You
must clean them out at least once a year if you continuously add water to the pond. If you DO NOT continuously add water, you need to sample the ponds for Mycoplasma and pump and clean out the ponds once or twice during the summer.
4. Clean your fans. Dirty fan shields can reduce fan efficiency by 50%. You can purchase and install twice as
many fans if you wish not to clean them. If cows are in the barn or holding area, run fans 24 hours a day. This not only moves air to cool cows, it also helps to remove moisture and dry the place out.
5. Make sure your sprinklers, foggers, etc, work. It was a cold winter; many pipes froze and/or broke, and dirty nozzles don’t add much water. Check timers for the proper time for adding water. Constant water is not as efficient as intermittent sprinkling and saves water. Set your sprinkler thermostat at 75 degrees F or lower during the hot season. Sprinklers need to run at night because cows get hotter at night than daytime on those hot nights. To repeat the above message, you need timers to control sprinklers or you will waste great volumes of water.
6. Clean and rebuild your pulsators. Wash out and change the filters on your vacuum controller (unless you have a variable speed drive). Make sure all ATO’s work.
7. Replace all milk hoses, wash hoses, pulsator hoses and jetter cup holders. Replace all rubber hoses that may be in the milk house that may add water to the pipeline and /or bulk tank wash. These hoses harbor Pseudomonas and Coliforms and can raise your bacteria count. If rubber hoses are used to wash udders, change them also.
8. Replace all of your floor mounted cow wash sprinkler nozzles once a year. Spring is a good time to do this.
They not only clean cows, they cool cows also.
9. Clean your condenser fins on your milk coolers. Dirty fans cut down cooling and efficiency and you get warmer milk at higher electric costs.
10. Mow and spray careless weeds in pastures.
11. Cull your chronic mastitis cows now. It will lower your cell count and your help is sick of treating them.
12. Clean out the back half of your free stalls at least 10-12” deep and add new sand.
13. Keep a smile on your face. People will wonder what you are up to.
By David R. Bray, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida
Dairy Update newsletter - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS)
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