Progress 01/01/12 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Several presentations were given to bovine veterinarians at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners in Milwaukee, other researchers and students of the University of Minnesota and to organic dairy farmers at the Organic Dairy Outreach day in Morris, Minnesota. One paper has been submitted for peer-review. Changes/Problems: We were only able to enroll 2 organic dairy farms in Ontario, Canada, by July 2012. Therefore, we had to abandon objective 3. Instead we went to visit conventional farms in Minnesota as control groups, which gave us better data than the originally planned historic control data. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project had provided a great opportunity to students to learn about different types of research methodology (survey design, sample collection and analysis, data management and analysis), to assess the health of cattle, to present results at scientific meetings and to visit farms to gain insight into management practices on a variety of dairy farms. Three students (1 undergraduate, 1 DVM and 1 Master of Science student) were heavily involved throughout the survey design and data collection phase of the study. In addition, 2 more students were trained in the laboratory methodology and analysis of parasite samples. Both, the undergraduate and DVM student, submitted an abstract to present at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. Both abstracts were accepted for oral presentation, which gave the students the opportunity to learn how a presentation is done and to present. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Two presentations were given at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Bovine practitioners. In addition, a brief summary of results were shown to organic dairy farmers and certifiers at the Organic Field day of the University of Minnesota's Western Research and Outreach Center in Morris. In addition, results were presented at a seminar to veterinary students and faculty at the University of Minnesota. Furthermore, one paper has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, 1 is currently with co-authors and two more papers are in preparation for peer-reviewed journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The National Organic Program specifies requirements for organic (ORG) farms including pasture requirements, no antibiotic or hormone use, and limitation for pharmaceutical dewormers. Although the industry is growing exponentially, little is known about the impact of those regulations and management practices on cattle health. Therefore, the objective of this pilot study was to collect baseline data on management practices, disease prevalence, and treatment options on ORG dairy farms and to compare those to conventional farms. In the end, 63 dairy herds were visited once between June and November 2012 (35 ORG, 28 conventional) in Minnesota. Conventional herds were categorized into 15 small conventional herds (SC, <200 cows) and 13 large conventional herds (LC, ≥ 200 cows) categories, so that SC and the ORG herds were of similar size. There was no difference among herd types regarding the duration that the farm had been established or since when the participants had been farming. ORG herds were more likely to have other livestock species, such as chickens, on farm compared to conventional herds. LC and ORG herds were more likely to use a milking parlor or gloves during milking than SC herds. Organic herds had more designated pasture, produced less milk per cow and were more likely to have a higher percentage of cross-bred cows and cows in their third or higher lactation compared to the other herd types. ORG and SC herds reported an almost stable herd size over the previous 10 years, while LC herds had been adding significantly more cows to their herd. Organic herds culled a lower percentage of cows than conventional herds, but generally the cull reasons did not differ among herd types. The destination of cull cows also did not differ between farms and ORG livestock was generally not sold for an organic premium. All conventional herds fed corn, corn silage and alfalfa to their lactating herd, but there was no feed stuff, excluding pasture, that was fed by all ORG herds. However, a large number of ORG herds (82.9%) fed kelp to their lactating herd, which was not fed on conventional herds at all. Compared to conventional farms, fewer ORG farms vaccinated their animals or used the veterinarian as primary resource of cattle health management. Reported dystocia and stillbirth rates, death rates in mature cows and reported rates for various cow and calf diseases, including lameness, were lower on organic than conventional farms. However, the actually assessed lameness prevalence of cows did not differ between herd types. Furthermore, ORG farmers were less likely to use foot baths for cows or to trim the feet of their cows. The observed hock lesions scores were lower in ORG farms than conventional farms, but the cattle hygiene was not different between farm types. The reported annual bulk tank somatic cell count average did not differ among herd types and neither did the bacterial counts of collected bulk tank samples and most of the gastrointestinal parasite counts in collected fecal samples. Only strongyle type egg counts were higher in ORG than other herd types. Few ORG herds (n=6) had used a pharmaceutical dewormer on heifers during the previous grazing season. ORG (42.9%) and SC herds (46.7%) were less likely to have Johne’s disease bacterium on farm than LC herds (92.3%). A myriad of treatments were used for various diseases with very few standing out. Overall, ORG herds more commonly reported the use of probiotics, phytomedicine or homeopathy than conventional herds. Although ORG herds did generally not use antibiotics, 43% of the ORG herds (n=16) had to use antibiotics on cows in the previous year. Of those, 12 herds repordedly used antibiotics for cows with pneumonia. Overall there ORG and LC herds had many similarities in management practices. Although in general similar, several differences between ORG and conventional herds were reported or observed. This pilot study provided good baseline data, but future studies will need to investigate more in depth the association between management practices and disease on ORG farms.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Sorge, US, L. Michels, S. Godden, L. Wolff, S. Schroth and B. Heins. Comparison of Parameters Associated with Udder Health
and Milk Quality on Organic and Conventional Dairy Herds in
Minnesota.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Sorge, US, BE Stromberg, R. Moon, SL Schroth, L Michels, LJ Wolff, DF Kelton and BJ Heins. Parasites and Management Practices among Organic and Conventional Dairy Herds in Minnesota.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
L.J. Michels; S. Godden; B. Heins; J. Lombard; U.S. Sorge. Evaluation of udder health parameters of organic and conventional dairy herds in Minnesota. Proceedings of the 46th annual conference of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, Milwaukee, WI Sept 18-21, 2013
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During the spring and summer of 2012, the survey design and pretesting as well as the on farm data collection were completed. The data of the surveys and collected sample are currently entered. All laboratory tests are completed with the exception of the culture of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, which can take up to 4 months to complete. Therefore, most results of this bacterial culture are expected in the first half of 2013. We enrolled 34 organic (29% of organic herds in MN) and 28 conventional dairy herds as comparison in Minnesota. Those conventional herds had to raise their heifers on farm, to have less than 250 cows and were located in the same geographical area as the organic farms. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Ulrike Sorge (PI) was the primary supervisor for the graduate student Lisa Wolff and the two summer students. Her role included the development of the study idea, study design and close supervision of the survey design and sampling schedule. In addition, she was training the students on farm and also enrolled and visited herds during the data collection period. Dr. Bradley Heins provided the contact information to organic dairy herds and content editing of the survey. The WROC organic dairy herd, managed by him, was additionally a participant of this study. Dr. Sandra Godden provided contact information for the conventional dairy herds. Dr. Bert Stromberg provided input to the study design of the collection and processing of the gastrointestinal parasite samples. In addition, he made laboratory space and training available to the students. Dr. Jason Lombard provided input in the survey and survey design. Dr. David Kelton provided input during the study design in particular in regards to the enrollment criteria for conventional herds in Minnesota. Dr. Lisa Wolff was the graduate student for this project. She enrolled herds, designed the survey, visited farms and did the laboratory work. Lee Michels and Samantha Schroth were participating the summer students. They both provided input during the survey design, visited farms for data collection and did the laboratory work (fecal parasite samples). Two more students (Giordana Costa and Carla Barstow) were temporarily hired and trained to help with the processing of fecal parasite samples. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The Ontario part of the project had to be canceled because only 2 herds could be enrolled until July 2012. Therefore, more herds, including conventional herds, were enrolled in Minnesota. This was done to strengthen the study by obtaining current data about management practices and health on Minnesota dairy herds. In particular the parasite burden was of interest as the only available data from the Midwest was from the early 1990s and management practices and housing has likely changed since then. However, the survey and sample collection procedures on farm were not changed for conventional farms.
Impacts
The students were trained in survey and study design, regulations of organic dairy production, the assessment of cow lameness, hock and hygiene, good sampling procedures and sample processing in the laboratory, as well as data handling. In addition, they were exposed to a large number of dairy farms with diverse husbandry practices, which will be useful for their future careers as veterinarians.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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