Replacement Management in Cattle: Health Management

Replacements are the future of the dairy industry. Focusing on improving health management of replacements will yield tremendous returns through decreased losses of animals with the greatest genetic potential on the dairy, decreased costs of medication, improved growth rates, improved feed efficiency and earlier entry into the milking herd. Health management begins before replacements are born with attention to the nutrition of lactating and dry cows, the vaccination of lactating and dry cows, control of length of the dry period and both control of the disease status of the dams and the cleanliness of the calving environment. Greater attention must be paid to animal and environmental biosecurity to prevent introduction of diseases into the herd and to digestive disorders such as diarrhea, internal parasites and appropriate vaccination programs for the calves. Health management of replacements is often overlooked because producers do not see the immediate returns for their efforts. Common sense management in cattle, historical facts, experience based practice cultural and social aspects, combined with research, would depict that having adequately optimised balanced diets for the replacements, without producing excessive body conditions, could achieve a production of healthy replacements with superior levels of milk production. Continual video monitoring of the herd, modern thermal infrared imaging of the dry cows and calves body parts to identify early symptoms, and overall animal health and biosecurity risk analysis could achieve a sustainable and efficient replacement management practice in cattle industry.