The Dairyland Initiative Podcast

What's the ideal footbath and how do you implement footbathing on farm to control for digital dermatitis and foot rot? We cover the research that has shaped current best practices and discuss footbath placement in robotic milking herds.

Thoughtful design and management practices lead to increased milk production and labor efficiency in robotic milking herds. This podcast discusses the factors associated with high performing AMS herds, with topcis ranging from heifer and fresh cow management to pellet allocation and housing considerations.

How long do cows wait to be milked in a AMS? What factors influence how long cows wait to be milked? We look at the milking time behavior of cows in a guided- and free-flow AMS and discuss design strategies to minimize milk wait times.

There are a variety of ways to orient a robot within a pen, but the ideal robot placement will optimize visits to the automated milking system (AMS) by reducing traffic around the robot and providing plenty of space to minimize congestion and competition. This episode outlines the pros and cons of six common robot layouts with a focus on improving cow flow and labor efficiency.

What are the limiting factors to farm expansion? How do you layout pens to optimize cow flow and what are the essential elements to pen design? Find out the answers to these questions and more in this episode.

Successful housing and management of cows 21 days before and after calving is critical to the overall success of the herd. This episode focuses on transition cow management, pen sizing, grouping strategies, and the economic benefits of providing transition cows with a comfortable place to rest and adequate space to eat.

Our understanding of transition cow management and facility design has advanced significantly over the past 20 years with our focus shifting solely from nutrition to emphasizing the importance of understanding cow behavior around calving. This episode delves into feeding behavior, re-grouping stress, and what key performance indicators of transition cow health managers should look at when evaluati...

Designing a PPTV system is one thing, but putting it in the barn is another. Challenges with where to place the fan and tube, and how to direct the air jets into the calf pens all need to be considered. Once the system is installed, how do you know that it's working? This episode covers the practical aspects of PPTV installations so that you're confident the system is working the next time...

To overstock or not to overstock? That is the question! We discuss the negative impacts of overstocking on cow behavior, the economic impacts, and what overstocking means for the industry.

Almost every calf barn in the Midwest has a positive pressure tube ventilation system (PPTV) installed, but what is it and how does it function? We cover the primary principles of choosing a fan, picking a tube, and positioning the holes so that a known quantity of air is delivered to the calf pen without creating a draft in the winter.

You installed a ventilation system, now what? How do you know if your ventilation/heat abatement system is up to par? We outline how to measure air speeds in stalls, what observations to make in the barn, and how to measure cow respiration rate.

There is no one perfect ventilation design that can be used universally given the wide variety of dairy barns and climates, but there are key criteria that need to be met when designing ventilation systems for adult dairy cows. We discuss how heat stress affects cows, the 6 common ventilation systems, and the 4 criteria for effective ventilation design.

There are various ways to ventilate a calf barn (natural, cross, tunnel, or neutral pressure ventilation systems), with natural ventilation supplemented with positive pressure tubes (PPTV) being the most common way. We go through the elements of naturally ventilated barns such as sidewall heights, ridge openings, and curtain management, and discuss how PPTV systems became of interest.

In this episode, we discuss what design elements every calf barn should have no matter how calves are raised. Stocking density, resting space, nesting scores, drainage, and ventilation are all part of the equation for ensuring that calves have a comfortable, dry place to rest and thrive.

Deep loose bedded sand stalls are best for cow comfort because we see fewer lame cows, fewer hock and knee injuries, and higher producing cows who stay in the herd longer. While there are many benefits to sand, there are also some challenges when it comes to manure handling and bedding management. In this episode, we discuss the benefits of sand and how to manage it in a freestall system.

What is "cow comfort" and how do we optimize rest in dairy cows? Building off of some of the first studies on lying time behavior, we discuss what we learned from watching hours of footage of freestall-housed cows and how that research has led to our design and management recommendations for allowing cows to achieve adequate rest.

From hutches to calf barns, there's no one way to house a nursing calf. We cover how hutches became the "gold standard" and the transition to indoor calf housing, which has its own benefits and limitations in regards to social housing and ventilation.

Why do we house dairy cows inside? Shouldn't they be outside grazing? Dr. Nigel Cook explains the reasons behind why we house cows indoors and when grazing is a viable option while Courtney Halbach plays the role of the consumer.

In the first episode of The Dairyland Initiative Podcast, we discuss the important role cows play in the sustainability discussion, and how the way we house cows can improve the sustainability of the dairy industry.