What is a dry cow?
No, it’s not a cow that needs a drink.
Approximately 45-60 days before a cow is due to give birth, we stop milking her. During her vacation from being part of the milking herd, her job is to be lazy and grow her calf. This time off from milking helps her body rest and reset before her next milk production cycle. These cows on vacation are what we call dry cows.
Before we can dry a cow off we have to slow down her milk production. On the robot side of our farm, this means we change how many times a day she can visit the robot. On the parlor side of our farm, we milk the cows three times a day. However, about a month before dry off, we move the cow into a pen that is only milked twice a day. Decreasing the number of times a cow is milked in a day helps her to slow down on the amount of milk she produces.
During a cow’s dry period, she is fed a different diet from what she ate while milking. While she is growing a calf, her overall energy requirements are lower, and so she doesn’t need as high-powered feed. In cattle, being overweight can cause issues during calving and even after, so we watch our cows’ body condition carefully. Our dry cows also get a special mix of vitamins and minerals to help them grow a healthy calf.
We want our calves and cows to be healthy, and vaccinations are a big part of our strategy. During a cow’s dry period, she gets vaccinations that help both her immune system and the fetal immune system.
While we joke about the dry period being a vacation for the cows, we know that this period of rest is really critical to our cows’ health and future calves’ development.