Managing the Cow Around Drying Off

Leonard Betts, Teagasc discusses managing the cow around drying off.

It is an extremely important time of the year, it's down time for the cow so that she could recover herself after a long lactation and it is a time where cell count can be improved if the treatment is correct and the period of being dried is long enough and the following lactation you can gain extra milk yield as a result.

Body condition score at calving should be between 3.0 - 3.5, a lower body condition score than this will result in low milk yield while a higer score can lead to milk fever.

Ideally we aim to dry off the cow at 3.25.