Fernando Diaz, DVM, PhD

A new study about the nutritive characteristics of canola meal from Canadian processing facilities has been published recently in the Animal Feed Science and Technology magazine (Adewole et al, 2016). The authors evaluated samples of canola meal collected from eleven canola processing facilities in Canada over 4 successive years (2011–2014). Overall, the contents of various components of can ...

IntroductionThermostasis is the process by which cows attempt to keep their body temperature constant in spite of changes in environmental temperatures. Heat stress occurs when the cow is incapable of dissipating enough heat to maintain its core body temperature below 101.3°F. This increase in body temperature results from the combination of heat from the environment and that produced internal ...

Rumen acidosis results from an excessive acid load in the rumen not neutralized by salivary or feed buffers. Changes in physiology, metabolism, and behavior of heat-stressed cows increase their susceptibility to both sub-acute (SARA) and acute acidosis. Mishra et al. (1970) observed lower rumen pH when cows were fed 65% forage diets under warm, humid conditions (pH 6.1; 84.9F; 85% RH) compared to ...

The most important factors that determine the selection of the type of housing for dairy cattle are cost, animal comfort, worker’s efficiency, durability, and a favorable return on investment. Since the first low-profile cross-ventilated barn (LPCV) started to operate in South Dakota in the fall of 2005, at least 6 more facilities have been built in this state using this technology, and doze ...

Ample bedding in stalls can optimize cow comfort, reduce hock lesions and lameness, and increase cow longevity (Tucker and Weary, 2004). The great price increase seen in  other more traditional bedding sources has resulted in recycled manure solids (RMS) becoming increasingly common on dairy farms. Recycled manure solids are obtained by mechanical separation of manure removed from dairy cows& ...

Fat is the milk component most easily modified by the diet with possible changes of up to 3 percentage units (Jenkins, 2007). Nutrition represents the environmental factor with the greatest impact on milk fat and it is a tool that can be used to alter its fatty acid composition. Milk fat depression (MFD) occurs when specific diets cause reduction in milk fat concentration and yield, in addition of ...

Under ideal conditions, dairy cows produce milk during 305 days of the year and are dry the remaining 60 (table 1). In reality, feeding for high production should begin during the dry period or towards the end of the previous lactation. With dry periods shorter than 40 days, there´s not enough time to regenerate the mammary tissue; this may result in production losses of 20–40% during ...