Unlock the secrets to sustainable dairy success! Join us at the 2024 South African Cow Longevity Conference, where the focus is on proactive care to ensure a longer productive life for your dairy cows. This year’s theme, “Maintenance is cheaper than breakages”, highlights the importance of continuous investment in the dairy herd.
Our lineup of renowned speakers, including Dr Huw McConochie and Marie-Laure Ocaña from Zinpro, Dr Jay Johnson from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Elizabeth Kuhn from Chemuniqué, are eager to share their wealth of knowledge and innovative practical approaches. Here is a sneak peak from each of our speakers.
Stress-free calf rearing: Strategies for improving cow longevity
Dr Jay Johnson, research leader at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service’s (USDA-ARS) livestock behaviour research unit, will discuss how producers can consistently achieve growth targets for heifer calves by managing their early life experiences. From the moment of conception, the foetus may experience various stressors affecting growth and development in utero. At birth, we work with the foundation set in utero, but again are tasked with growing these calves into high-performing dairy cows. Nutritional, social, and environmental stress may all negatively impact growth of the calf before weaning and have knock-on effects on lifetime production. Dr Johnson will unpack each aspect of early life experience to achieve heifer performance targets.
Fertile grounds: Maximising longevity through optimal transition management
The transition period is the most critical period in a cow’s lactation cycle and has, therefore, received much attention historically. This period is accompanied by significant change and a tremendous risk of things going wrong, but the reward of a successful transition is far-reaching. Marie-Laure Ocaña, dairy technical services manager at Zinpro, will take a step further from the impacts of transition diseases and look at the benefits of a successful transition that producers cannot afford to miss out on – the high-fertility cycle.
Milking success: From udder development to bulk tank quality
Under health requires a multifaceted approach on farms and the responsibility does not only lie with the cow. Our very own ruminant scientific adviser, Liz Kuhn, will discuss the effective growth and development of the mammary gland and where things can go wrong in mammary gland development. Management of the proverbial milking machine during lactation can further affect udder health and milk quality, often directly impacting the milk cheque. We will delve deeper into management practices that ensure healthy udders for future lactations and, as a result, the harvest of high-quality milk.
Lameness: A disease of cows that starts in heifers
Hunter Thompson is famously quoted as having said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well”. Cows will spend a large portion of their lifetime on their feet and, as a result, lameness is a major cause of culling on a dairy farm. Without good feet and claws, the expected lifetime performance of cows is drastically reduced. Dr Huw McConochie, dairy nutritionist at Zinpro, will discuss lameness and the management thereof early in the cow’s life and how this disease can be effectively managed to ensure optimal lifetime performance of dairy cows at the 2024 South African Cow Longevity Conference.
Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and lead in the journey towards a more profitable and robust dairy industry. Click here to register for an event that promises to transform the way you think about dairy farming, click here to download the programme, and you can also listen to an interview in Afrikaans with our ruminant team lead, Dr Mariaan Viljoen, that was flighted on RSG Landbou on 4 April here.
Robyn Joubert is the marketing manager at Chemuniqué, contact Robyn at 074 252 3333 / robyn@chemunique.co.za.