Progress 04/10/14 to 06/30/15
Outputs Target Audience:The data was collected to add to the existing literature regarding stockmanship on farms. The study results have been/will be used to promote stockmanship training on dairy farms as it for the first time shows the positive impact that it can have. Results and videos of this study have been shared with producers and veterinarians at field days and other occasions. Changes/Problems:There were several changes needed due to obstacles that were experienced. First, we were only able to do the study in 7 farms instead of the anticipated 10 farms, because of the poor response rate. However, this allowed us to analyze more videos per farm than originally planned, which improves the estimates gathered from this study. Second, we had to add a face-to-face anonymous survey about injuries into the second half of the study, because no injury reports were filed. Third, we also added a brief survey regarding the perception of stockmanship training for the workers as well. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PostDoctoral fellow and the students learned about the development of on farm surveys, writing of surveys, ethograms and analysis of video sequences. The participating dairy farm employees learned about cow behavior and a few stockmanship tricks to make their daily life easier. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes. Several workshops and presentations have been already given that use some of the film material from this study as well as the results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Cattle are handled on every dairy farm in the world. Poor cattle handling leads to stress of the animals, slow cow flow and a negative health and production impact in cattle and higher injury risk for people and animals. Therefore, the objectives were 1) to audit the current stockmanship knowledge, skills and behaviors of the dairy workforce, 2) To prospectively describe the occurrence of injuries of Minnesota dairy farm workers, and 3) To assess the impact of stockmanship training on cow behavior, productivity and cattle flow as well as worker injury frequency on Minnesota dairy farms. Six large farms ultimately allowed the installation of cameras and had over 80% of the employees agree to participate in this study. Unfortunately, little information could be obtained regarding injuries of workers as very few filled out injury report cards or responded to a face-to-face interview. However, the observations for the other two objectives of this project were very fruitful. Most employees (87%) appreciated the stockmanship training and said that they learned something new about how to move cows or general cow behavior. Most of these (90%) also said that they implemented provided stockmanship tips and that they were useful in their daily work. Furthermore, this study showed for the first time that cattle handling in the pen did translate to cow behavior in the holding pen and parlor. Of course, herds were different from the beginning and the impact of the stockmanship training varied by herd. However, across all herds, the cattle handling practices were already decent prior to stockmanship training and few forceful interactions or mistakes were identified. This will have contributed to the observation that the duration to move cattle from pen to parlor did not shorten significantly after the stockmanship training. However, fewer escape behavior of cows in the pen or holding pen were observed after the training, which ultimately was associated with less defecation in the parlor and higher milk production in some herds. Associations of different cow behavior aspects were comparable throughout milking across all herds and so the behavior data of 1,120 cows was combined for cow level observations. It was interesting to note that cows that were hesitant to go into the parlor (i.e, longer entry time) were more likely to step a lot prior to the milking routine. On the other hand, cows that were stepping a lot during the prep routine tended to be milked longer. Unfortunately, no daily milk weights were collected from the herds so that no association to milk yield could be established. As expected kicks from cows were associated with severe interactions from milkers. Furthermore, milkers would go through the whole range of interactions with difficult cows from gentle over intermediate to severe (e.g. forceful slap) to try to either calm or make the animal behave. Overall, this is the first study to quantify the impact of stockmanship training on large dairy farms in North America and to show that the impact of the quality of cattle handling in the home pen is indeed associated with cattle behavior in the holding pen and parlor and that good cattle handling can positively impact the milk production of dairy farms within a short amount of time.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge US. Importance of stockmanship on dairy farms, Minnesota Dairy Health Conference, Bloomington MN, May 6-8, 2015.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge US. Importance of stockmanship on dairy farms, Morris Dairy Field day, WCROC, University of Morris, Morris, MN August 11, 2015.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge US, A Stanton, L Espejo, J Bender. Importance of stockmanship on dairy farms, Annual Conference of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, New Orleans, Sept 16-19, 2015
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Sorge US, A Stanton, L Espejo, J Bender. Impact of Stockmanship Training on Large Dairy Farms. In preparation for J. Dairy Science
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Stanton A, L Espejo, J Bender, US Sorge. A short communication: Cattle behavior during milking routine. In preparation for J. Dairy Sci.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge. Stockmanship Tips. TODD COUNTY ANNUAL FEEDLOT MEETING, Clarissa, MN, March 11, 2015
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge US. Introduction to stockmanship. 5 Star Dairy - on farm presenation/training. Menomonie, WI, August 14,2015
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Sorge. Stockmanship Tips for Dairy Farmers. Producer Meeting for Rideau-St. Lawrence Veterinary Services, Kemptville, ON Canada, April 17, 2015
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Sorge. Importance of Stockmanship on Dairy Farms. Annual Meeting of American Association of Bovine Practitioners. Albuquerque, NM Sept 2014
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Progress 04/10/14 to 09/30/14
Outputs Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems: The major changes and challenges were that many herds in Minnesota and their workers were not willing to let cameras be installed on farm. Therefore we broadened our study population and included herds in Wisconsin from early June onwards. Furthermore, workers were concerned about privacy despite assurance that every data collected was confidential and also did not fill out injury report forms despite monthly reminders. One herd lost almost all workers at about the halfway point of the study and therefore the training was delayed from August to October on that herd, which will elongate the observation time until January. Multiple cameras were installed on each farm to capture the stockmanship. Due to the climate in dairy barns, the outdoor surveillance cameras (specifically selected to work in potentially damp climate) broke down regularly which rendered entire film sequences/shifts unusable. Furthermore, the lack of consent from individual workers (e.g. cow pushers) did not allow us to use film material for entire shifts despite other workers consent, because for the analysis the sequence from pen to parlor is crucial. However, at this point we have enough pre-stockmanship training video to proceed on all farms. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Some of the intially captured videos were used as teaching material (after blurring the faces and only when the consent for a video release was given) to explain stockmanship principles to participants in the study. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will complete the stockmanship training on all farms. In addition, we will continue to collect film of the fresh group/stockmanship and to monitor injuries on farms. During the next period, the analysis of videos will be intensified and data entry into electronic files will occur for statistical analysis.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
During this time period, herds in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin were invited to particiate. As of June 2014, 6 dairy farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin agreed to participate in this research and to allow the installation of cameras on farm. One herd in Wisconsin did not allow the installation of cameras, but participated in this research. The cameras were installed after the majority of workers in the dairy farms signaled their willingness to participate in the study. Video was recorded and some injury reports were also filed. As of the end of September, 4 of the 7 herds had completed the stockmanship training. One of the herds had lost most of its workers just prior to the stockmanship training and so the training of new employees was delayed to gather more pre-training video. The remaining 3 herds were scheduled for training during the first half of October 2014. The students also started to analyze some of the captured video of the "fresh" pens milking routine, which included the time they were brought up from the parlor. At the monthly herd visit, the workers were reminded to please fill out injury report cards, if injuries occurred.
Publications
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