John Dore

I manage a herd of 3000 cows and 3000 followers in the Middle East. One historical issue that I am trying to address is the behavior of milking cows in groups at the extremities of the herd. The problem is most pronounced in Summer day time. Milking cows crowd together in the loose sand and manure bedded sheds at the closest point to the nearest group and in some cases only use only up to 40% of t ...

We removed the temporary herd of in calf heifers from the extremity of the shed and very interestingly we found that the cows stayed spread out after two days Again I posted the latest picture at 1am today on our Facebook page.

This is an issue to be considered when designing new projects. Outer sheds should be parallel and not perpendicular to the core of the herd.

As I stated before, if you look at our Facebook page ,Al Tukhaim Dairy Project , you will see before and after photos of placing a temporary herd of in calf heifers at the most outer extremity of one house. The cows spread out immediately, JD

Ha Duong, I find that in a big dairy herd in KSA using middle to far east labour - you tend to get labour from non farming back rounds - you need people from dairy farm back rounds - people that are interested and like farm animals - people with an eye that can spot an animal off form early - this is a skill that is acquired from years of farming experience - it is very difficult to get these sor ...

I don't think this topic is too well named - stating the elementary obvious does not do much for achieving excellence - you can understand the cow all you like - what about owners, management and labour? - the most important thing in achieving excellence is the will - where there is a will there is a way