Re: Re: MILK FEVER

[Guest guest]

I have to agree with the high potassium issue too. I have only had milk fever in one cow a 9 gallon a day Jersey. She would start high and stay there. I feed grass hay and no feed concentrate during the dry period. This is also the recommendation of my vet, although I was doing it anyway. My vet has more than 40 years as a dairy only vet so it comes from experience. It also causes the cow to start to pull from her body reserves instead of depending on intake only.

Chris

Given the author's credentials and support, unless you can show me a study or reserach to back up the potassium claim, I'm going to believe the calcium claim. Thank you for your input though. "isaiah7_25" wrote:High potassium is the main culprit in milk fever. Feeding lowPotassium hay before birth will help. Cheyenne"This excess calcium sets off a "chain reaction" causing calcium to be deposited into her bones when her body needs to be releasing it for use in milk production. Simply put, Milk Fever is a failure of the body's system to activate calcium mobilization and not a deficiency of calcium reserves."

[Guest guest]

I feed grain and both grass and alf. hay durring lacation. Not the way many go but it works well for me. The last cow I milked until she was 16 and she lived until she was 21. We don't have many really big dairys here anymore. Most of the ones Pete works with are about 300 cows and lots of us are a lot smaller. He is more of a low key vet when it comes to the things that he does. He knows cows and has saved my bacon a few times. I don't have problems with my animals very often. I have lots of animals that don't see a vet in their entire life times. I have seen bad large dairys and bad small ones too. It all depends on the managment.

It also depends on what you feed during lactation. If you only feed forage during dry times, what are you feeding during lactation. Remember too that a vet thats been doing dairy for 40 years is mostly dealing with conventional dairies that are really concentration camps for cows. "Schlicht" wrote:>> > I have to agree with the high potassium issue too. I have only had milk fever in one cow a 9 gallon a day Jersey. She would start high and stay there. I feed grass hay and no feed concentrate during the dry period. This is also the recommendation of my vet, although I was doing it anyway. My vet has more than 40 years as a dairy only vet so it comes from experience. It also causes the cow to start to pull from her body reserves instead of depending on intake only.