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Know How / Dairy / Housing and handling

Dairy housing, handling and milking parlours are areas of major investment for a farm business. Read about the key developments in dairy buildings, robot milkers, cubicle design, bedding, hygiene, ventilation systems, calf housing and handling equipment including crushes, crates and weigh scales.

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DAIRY

Benefits of training heifers to use the parlour

A snap poll by Farmers Weekly revealed that 52% of dairy farmers who responded, train their heifers through the parlour and 26% run a separate heifer group. Both results are…

LIVESTOCK

How a Canadian dairy tackles heat and irrigation limits

Higher summer temperatures and limits on irrigation are prompting John Vanden Dungen and his family to find new ways of making their business more resilient. John farms with wife Tanya…

WHATS IN YOUR LIVESTOCK SHED

WIYLS? New calf-rearing unit eases pressure

Rearing calves has historically been one of the toughest jobs for the Williams family, but a new purpose-designed shed has made the whole process healthier for youngstock and more enjoyable…

DAIRY

Benefits of robotic milking in a pasture-based system

Combining grazing with robotic milking has lifted grass and milk yields at Overton Farm, Somerset, where David Paull and Rosie Sage have three robots to milk their 180-cow organic herd.…

SLURRY AND MANURE MANAGEMENT

How a 540-cow dairy benefited from recycled bedding

A leading dairy herd has been bedded on recycled manure solids since opening its new cubicle house in 2019. The Laird family at Blythbridge Holsteins, West Linton, Peeblesshire, stress that…

WHATS IN YOUR LIVESTOCK SHED

What’s in Your Livestock Shed? visits a £1m robotic dairy

A Pembrokeshire family farm has made a once-in-a-generation investment in a £1m dairy building designed for cow comfort and ease of management. The investment has enabled Mark and Caroline Davies,…

Practical advice

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HEALTH AND WELFARE

Advice on reducing pneumonia risk amid autumn weather swings

Pneumonia prevention should be top of the agenda this autumn as high humidity and swings in ambient temperatures are creating the perfect storm for the disease. Dr Gwen Davies of…

DAIRY

How to use light exposure to improve milk production

The amount of light a cow is exposed to during a day is called the photoperiod, and it affects some of the hormones the cow produces: melatonin, insulin-like growth factor-1…

BOVINE TB

10 tips for safe cattle handling during TB testing

Cattle are often large, heavy, fast and strong. Combine that mix with TB testing – a situation that may be unfamiliar and stressful for the animal – and it can…

DAIRY

5 ways to fine-tune cubicle housing for udder health

Summer is a good time to review milking cow accommodation. For year-round housed cows, this can be the period of highest environmental infection pressure. For seasonally housed herds, summer is…

DAIRY

Dairy transition management: Why diet is not the only focus

The payback on a successful transition period is “phenomenal” in terms of health, productivity and reproduction, according to Hefin Richards of Rumenation Nutrition Consultancy. But when it is not going…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Advice on handling cows in robotic systems

Efficient handling is essential to take full advantage of a robotic milking system. Yet a key aspect regularly overlooked in planning new units and retrofitted robots is how to handle…

Insights

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LIVESTOCK

Best dairy bedding for minimising mastitis-causing bacterium

A study carried out at the University of Nottingham has shown sawdust to be the best bedding for minimising the survival of the mastitis-causing pathogen streptococcus uberis (S. uberis.) S.…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Video: Inside a state-of-the-art transition cow shed

One USA dairy has converted a shed, originally built for calves, into a state-of-the-art facility for transition cows. The shed at George DeRuyter & Sons dairy in Sunnyside, Washington State,…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Better way of measuring reveals ideal dairy cow living space

A new on-farm measurement for dairy cow buildings, known as living space, has been developed to provide a better understanding of space allowances for adult dairy cows. Researchers believe living…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

6 things I learned from visiting US 'mega-dairies'

Dairy farming in the US has become synonymous with the words “mega-dairy”. While the scale of US dairy farms bears little resemblance to UK operations, there are some striking similarities…

FEED AND NUTRITION

Research shows benefits of pair housing calves pre-weaning

Pair housing calves before weaning can help them adapt better to different situations as they mature, leading to improved concentrate intakes and higher growth compared with those housed alone. Professor…

LIVESTOCK

How to choose the right winter bedding for dairy cows

Is one bedding system better than an other in terms of cow health and production? Research carried out by the University of Wisconsin suggests not. Trial work looking at 16…

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