DRY COW RECEIVING and DRY PERIOD PROTOCOL

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Dry cows arrive every Thursday morning at the TMF.

1. On arrival, cows are housed in the group work area in the holding pens.
2. As soon as morning milking is completed, cows are moved into the parlor, prepared for milking as usual and milked out one last time.
3. After being milked, all four teats are cleaned with a 4x4 gauze soaked in isopropyl alcohol and then each quarter is treated with a dry cow tube of Orbenin-DC (benzathine cloxacillin; Fort Dodge) in each quarter. Teats are then post-dipped and udders are flamed to remove long hair.

Meat and milk withdrawal for Orbenin-DC is 28 days.

4. After exiting the parlor, newly arrived dry cows are sent through the chute area and are:

• weighed
• height is measured
• all ID tags are checked and missing tags are replaced.
• treated against mange / lice with 60 ml of Eprinex (eprinomectin 5mg/ml), applying the product topically along the backline in a narrow strip extending from the withers to the tail head. No meat or milk withdrawal needed.
• vaccinated against:
• E. coli mastitis: J5 vaccine (Pfizer)
• Clostridial diseases: Vision 7 (Intervet) Clostridium chauvoei, septicum, novyi, sordellii, and perfringens C and D.
• IBR / PI3: TSV2 intranasal MLV vaccine (Pfizer)

• J5 vaccination and 5 ml MuSe at 2 weeks pre-partum
• For heifers or purchased animals with uncertain breeding dates, these injections are given in the week when there is notable udder development.
• Once each week, animals more than 263 days carried calf are moved to the pre-fresh pens. Heifers might move to pen 50 earlier depending on inventory
• Pen 50 for heifers
• Pen 53 for cows