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Hospital Pens: Does one size fit all?

The Hospital Pen. Dr. Tripp's Tips
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I am a big believer in not housing hospital and fresh cows together. I also like separating lame cows into a designated lame cow pen whenever possible because the pen walking surface and water trough should differ for these groups.

So, to answer to the question: No, one size does not fit all.

Another question that often arises is, “How many animals should be in the cow hospital pen?” The correct answer to this is: It depends. The average for dairies is 2.5% of the Herd. For feedlots, typically the target is 4% to 5%. I mention feedlots because, if you are raising young stock, my target would be about 4% of the total number of young stock.

Why so high?

I did a dairy herd management study focused on isolating sick calves and treatments. The results showed that if one or two sick calves were identified and removed from a pen (the pen size was 21 head), the rest of the pen was okay. However, beyond that number, the entire pen often required treatment.

Clearly, isolation helps prevent disease.

The DHI-Plus mobile app from Amelicor does an excellent job of showing you the numbers. Here are two examples from real herds.

Herd One

Herd-One-percentage

Herd Two

Herd-Two-percentage

Obviously, these herds are different sizes.

The proper way to compare them is to use the percentage of the herd in the hospital pen rather than the total number of animals in the pen.

I will consider the total number as well… but primarily to asses the pen itself to determine if it’s sized correctly.

One final observation: The way the numbers are presented in the app makes it easy to spot potential disease outbreaks.

 

Discover More About Health Events by Using DHI-Plus Herd Management Software: