UGA Dairy SWOT Analysis

• The dairy parlor's priority is a safe and clean environment for both the cows and consumers
• All employees are required to wear gloves
• The milking procedure involves stripping the teats before attaching the milker to check for evidence of mastitis as well as a sterilizing pre and post dip.
• The facility as well as the equipment are cleaned thoroughly between milking sessions.

• Based on the results of this recent DHI-202 (pictured to the right) the average services per pregnancy for all cows is 9.2. That's an extremely high number of wasted breeding cycles per cow
• A herd should aim for a pregnancy rate of about 20% and the national average is around 14%. Based on the same 202 (to the left), UGA's dairy has an average pregnancy rate of 11%, well below both the national average and the ideal average.
• low pregnancy rates and a high number of services per pregnancy is a huge expense to an already expensive AI breeding program

UGA Dairy SWOT Analysis

Aaliyah Van De Cruize

Long Term Goals:

Cow Comfort

some examples of the UGA dairy optimizing cow comfort:

• A good dairy facility is one that prioritizes cow comfort by providing a facility that is clean and physically accommodating in a way that allows the cow to act as naturally as possible
• A cow in an uncomfortable environment is going to be stressed and more susceptible to injury and disease, both of which are detrimental to production

• Genetic variability is essentially nonexistent on UGA's dairy farm. We tend to breed the same bulls over and over again, like gabor for example, without much regard for variability or making cow specific improvements. We should work towards utilizing other bulls in an effort to make pairings based on improving production as well as weaknesses in the herd.
• As mentioned earlier in this presentation, the calves are currently housed right next to the feed mill. That is a very high traffic area where people and vehicles from all over the farm and that have been off farm come through and expose the calves, the most vulnerable animals, to a variety of new pathogens. Ideally, they would be moved to a more isolated location with ease of access only available to designated employees.

• Fans are scattered strategically throughout the facility to ensure both a cool environment and the proper circulation of air to combat heat stress
• Sand is the bedding material of choice in free stalls. Not only is sand very comfortable for the cow, it's an inorganic material meaning it won't harbor bacteria and therefore reduce the threat of disease.
• Each alley of freestalls provides ample space for each cow to have their own freestall and plenty of standing space so that they're not crowded. This reduces the spread of disease between cows, minimizes stress due to discomfort or unfavorable interactions with other animals, as well as makes waste removal easier.

short term goals:

• providing more shade (and bedding underneath said shade) in the pasture for close up cows would reduce the probability of heat stress which could cause difficulty calving. The shade structure already provided (to the left circled in red) doesn't provide too much shade, and it is the only one in the entire pasture which makes it a high traffic area as seen by the worn ground underneath it.
• We grow our own wheat and sorghum for silage. Ideally, we should let it wilt a bit before being cut and packed for silage to achieve an ideal dry matter percentage. We tend to cut and pack it too early and our silage is too wet when packed causing the moisture, and subsequently the nutrients to seep out.
• Good lighting in barns has been shown to improve cow's productivity. Simulating long day light in barns (16-18 hours light 6-8 hours dark) increases milk production and feed intake. The UGA dairy farm currently has a very dimly lit milking cow barn which could be hurting production potential

cows lying comfortably in their sand bedded free stalls

an immaculately clean dairy parlor :)

feet and leg

STrengths

calf management

• Feet and leg injuries are very common in dairy facilities and can be costly by way of treatment and production loss
• lameness due to injury/poor feet and leg health can make make the cow less likely to eat, costing the producer money by way of wasted nutrient dense feed as well as lowered production

opportunities for improvement:

• Cow Comfort
• Feet and Leg Health
• Mastitis Control

• Calves are the most sensitive area of the dairy farm and has the ability to be the most costly. It is imperative to a dairy farm to keep calves healthy and growing at a good rate.
• calving in is essential to a dairy operation in that if cows are not having calves they are not producing milk. In addition to that, calves are intended replacements for older or sick cows that are removed from the herd so it's necessary to have good calf management procedures in place.

some examples of where uga dairy needs improvement:

a few means of evidence that the UGA teaching dairy takes mastitis prevention seriously:

grooved flooring in the milking cow barn

• According to a recent DHI-202 report (pictured below), the somatic cell summary from this particular test period showed that 76% of the herd has a SCC 142,000 or below and 11% between 142,000 and 283,000. That's more than 3/4 of the herd well below the ideal limit of 200,000 and well below the legal limit of 750,000.

• Our calves are housed in individual plastic hutches aligned on level ground. Ideally the hutches would be placed on a hill to allow waste to drain from the youngest calves at the top to the oldest at the bottom. Our dairy farm doesn't have that drainage so waste is allowed to sit. That moist waste environment, especially in the heat of our region, is the perfect breeding ground for harmful pathogens.
• Additionally, the grass surrounding said hutches is very high making it even easier for waste to accumulate.

some signs that the UGA dairy is keeping good feet and health habits :

a poor baby jersey looks back at the level and perfectly aligned hutches and tall grass :(

tall, dense grass surrounds each of the hutches

• there are foot baths in both of the exit alleyways of the milking parlor with a formaldehyde solution to prevent digital dermatitis and/or foot rot in addition to a regular hoof trimming schedule
• the floors in the barn are grooved to allow waste to drain and are rinsed with water to remove said waste easily rather than let it get caked into hooves.
• according to a recent DHI-202 report (pictured below), only 3 cows had left the herd so far for feet and leg reasons, 2 of which were from the 3+ lactation group
• When observing the cows and assigning locomotion scores few cows showed any signs of lameness and most of those scored a 2 or 3

Mastitis Control

Weaknesses

• Mastitis is the most costly disease to the dairy industry due to both loss of production and treatment costs.
• It's very easy for mastitis to become a recurring problem and it's always better to prevent rather than treat so it's imperative to have preventative measures in place.

• calf management
• reproduction
• feed efficiency

• our calves are housed on wood shavings. Wood shavings are not necessarily the most comfortable bedding for the calf, and they're also an organic material which can harbor harmful bacteria and expose our calves to the increased possibility of disease
• our calves our housed right next to the feed mill, which is a high traffic area on the dairy farm. Anyone and various vehicles from any part of the farm including where older animals are kept now expose the vulnerable calves to new pathogens

Reproduction

the feed mill is in the bottom right corner and directly across from it are the rows of calf hutches

• Like mentioned in the calf management slide, calving is essential for a dairy operation because it's how we replace cows no longer benefiting the herd, as well as how we get milk production
• A good reproduction program is cost effective, improves herd genetics, and produces pregnant cows and heifers.

Threat to the farm

Biosecurity

UGA Ideal

Top 3.54% 6-10%

Middle 62% 30-50%

Bottom 33.6% 40-60%

feed efficiency

Biosecurity is a huge issue with the UGA teaching dairy because there are currently no procedures in place to ensure it. The amount of unsupervised traffic from both outside and within the farm could introduce disease and/or spread the disease rapidly throughout the farm which could have devastating effects.

A few examples of where the UGA teaching dairy could improve include:

• there should be restricted access for visitors, where they can only get around the farm with an employee and have to be logged on a visitor sign in sheet for records
• the gate that is always open at the entrance of the farm should be closed for certain hours of the day, especially when employees have gone home for the day
• clean boots (or plastic booties) and coveralls should be required by all people on farm
• There should be a required pathway to follow when moving through the farm so that the older or sick animals aren't visited before healthy and/or younger animals

• An all around "efficient" feed is quality for max production, cost effective, and takes into consideration how much the cow will actually eat and how much of what nutrients they need.

• Above is a chart comparing the ideal level of digestibility vs the UGA dairy's level of digestibility based on the results of a penn state shaker box test conducted during a lab. None of our results fall within ideal standards. Metabolic disorders can be caused by a percentage too high or too low in any layer due to digestion difficulty and a skewed absorption of nutrients.
• Varying body conditioning scores is also an indication of an inefficient feed which can be shown by cows in the milking barn pictured below. There are too many cows on both ends of the spectrum in terms of body conditioning score varying from cows that could be considered a 2.75(left) to cows that are around a 3.25 (right)

pictured are unidentified visitors interacting with multiple calves, the animals most susceptible to disease on the farm. Additionally they defeat the purpose of the separation of calves by interacting with multiple.