Well, that was fun

I was cleaning up while standing at the back of my SUV after my regular scheduled 7 a.m. Monday herd visit, when unknowingly I said, “Well, that was fun.”  

It was fun because I worked with great, goal minded people on the dairy. It was fun because the farm had beautiful, clean, well-cared for and productive Holsteins. That morning, I had performed my usual reproductive exams, while improving my Spanish speaking skills. While doing this I made observations about all sorts of seemingly small things that might affect the health and productivity of those beautiful animals:  bedding fill in the stalls, cow cleanliness, manure consistency and quality, air quality, feed bunk management and more.

 I polled the herdsman for information regarding adverse fresh cow events in the last seven days, including milk fever, metritis, retained placenta, and ketosis.  After finishing palpating, we tallied up the results to see what percentage of animals examined for pregnancy were pregnant, the number of CIDRs used, and  any abortions. Then I took a short walk through the calf area and spoke briefly with Manuel, the calf manager. 

Next, I sat down at the computer, and since it was at the beginning of a new month, I entered monthly data into the herd spreadsheet containing important key performance indicators that I keep current on my iPad. I then created several lists based on somatic cell count data from the most recent Dairy Herd Improvement Association test. One list was of cows with multiple, consecutive high SCC tests. I coded those cows as “true chronics”, meaning that they should not be treated during this lactation should they develop clinical mastitis, unless they were systematically ill. Another list was of recently fresh animals that dried up clean, or were heifers that calved in with high SCCs. The animals on that list would receive a California Mastitis Test, and based on results, might have a sample taken for on-farm culture. Then I filled out a brief report of what I saw and what I did that day.  Finally, before walking out to the car, I emailed the report, including the spreadsheet to multiple members of the farm management staff, the nutritionist, the AI technician, the hoof trimmer, and all our clinic’s veterinarians.   This is why I caught myself telling nobody in particular how much fun the day had been.  This is dairy veterinary medicine today. It was not that way when I started practice 43 years ago, but we worked hard to make it so, and now yes, it really is a lot of fun. 

As of July first, I am officially retired from active veterinary practice. I will miss it terribly, but I will still be available for any sort of consulting activity should the need arise. I love working with cows, and I love working with cow people even more, so I doubt I will be able to stay away from you all entirely.  

After today, I will officially be retired from writing articles for this fine publication as well. By my count, I have submitted over 200 articles since the first one in January of 2008.   In that article I wrote “These remarkable beasts produce tremendous amounts of quality milk, meat, cheese, and other foods for our tables. They pay for our Christmas presents and put our kids through school. Yet they rely on us for nearly all their needs… On every dairy, of any style, it is always about the cows…  Like the Kemps sign says, “It’s the cows.”  Whatever the topic of this monthly column will be, remember, it will always really be about the cows.”  I believe I have accomplished that, though perhaps I sometimes wrote about cow people too. When Dairy Star Editor Mark Klaphake first contacted me regarding writing for this publication back in 2007, I recall asking him about just what I should write. His response was, “Whatever you want.” He allowed me to do just that for the next 16 years.  In addition, I saw very few edits made to my articles when they appeared in print compared to the copies I had submitted. While I do not know for sure, I suspect allowing this degree of latitude is not typical of all editors. Thank you, Mark, for all of that, and for the great opportunity to share my thoughts with all of you. I enjoyed the entire experience immensely. So, I think my writing career at the Dairy Star can be summed up as such: Well, that was fun. It really is about the cows.  Thank you all so much for reading and may you all have a great future.  

Jim Bennett is one of four dairy veterinarians at Northern Valley Dairy Production Medicine Center in Plainview, Minnesota. He consults on dairy farms in other states. He and his wife, Pam, have four children. Jim can be reached at [email protected].