Why Does Recording Cow Health Details Matter?
Tracking and recording animal health data is key to keeping your herd healthy. By documenting health events like treatments, illnesses, and preventative care, you can make smarter decisions based on real insights.
With herd management software tools like DHI-Plus, dairy producers can manage and analyze these details simply. Tracking health data not only improves individual cow care but also boosts herd productivity and lowers costs. Comprehensive herd health management records help farmers manage their entire operation more effectively.
It's important to realize that dairy cow performance doesn't improve naturally. We get used to performance always improving because it has essentially been like that for our lifetime. However, there is no guarantee that production will continue to improve without deliberate decisions. The action required on our part is to collect information that will help drive deliberate decisions—decisions based on real data.
See DHI-Plus Dairy Management Software in Action
Curious about how DHI-Plus dairy software simplifies recording and analyzing animal health data? This video demonstrates how to track health events like treatments and illnesses with ease. Discover how digital tools for cow health monitoring can make managing your dairy herd easier. Learn how dairy cattle management software will improve daily tasks and support better decision-making.
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The Benefits of Recording Health Data for Your Herd
Managing animal health data goes beyond keeping records—it helps improve your herd’s health and your business’s success. When you document health events consistently, you gain insights that help you make better decisions and avoid costly mistakes.
- Support cow health and well-being by identifying trends and addressing problems early.
- Improve herd health and genetics for stronger, more productive cows.
- Meet FDA requirements and protect your dairy from compliance issues.
Recording and analyzing health events is a vital part of effective dairy cow health management. By staying consistent and proactive, you can ensure healthier animals and a more productive operation.
Keep track of health events and treatments for the health and well-being of your cows.
Recording health events and treatments won’t prevent every problem, but it will help you make corrections when needed. By regularly tracking this data and looking at it over time, you can see trends early. This helps you fix potential problems before they get bigger. This reduces production losses and cull rates, improving your herd’s performance and overall health.
Genetic Health Data: Record health data to improve the future of your herd.
By contributing health data to national databases, dairy producers can enhance the quality of information available for their herds and the industry as a whole. Even if you are not taking part in genomic evaluations, you can still help national databases. This will improve the quality of data for your business. This only requires authorizing your software, like DHI-Plus, to share your records with recognized organizations.
Consistency matters when recording health events. Using standard formats and approved codes is important when you want to make decisions based on the information. DHI-Plus makes it easy to log entries correctly and keeps your records aligned with industry standards.
The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) genetic health traits
In 2018, the CDCB began providing health traits to their official collection of genetic evaluations. In additions, Net Merit and other profit indices have also been revised to factor in the economic impact of these health traits.
The CDCB introduced genetic health traits in 2018 to improve dairy herd genetics. These traits focus on six common and costly health events that impact dairy cattle health:
- Hypocalcemia (Milk Fever) - MFEV
- Displaced Abomasum - DA
- Ketosis - KETO
- Mastitis - MAST
- Metritis - METR
- Retained Placenta - RETP
In addition, Net Merit and other profit indices have been updated to include the economic impact of these health traits. Net Merit is a measure of a cow’s overall genetic value, considering traits that affect profitability, such as milk production and health.
Recording these health events can save farmers hundreds of dollars in reduced treatments and lost production. By participating in national programs, you can select sires with better health traits, helping you build a herd that’s more resistant to these problems over time.
Protect Your Business and Meet FDA Requirements
Maintaining accurate animal health records is essential for keeping your dairy compliant with FDA regulations. The most common reason for drug residues entering the food supply is a failure to keep complete treatment records. If the FDA inspects your farm, having detailed health records can protect your business.
DHI-Plus dairy herd software makes it easy to document all treatments and protocols. This not only safeguards your dairy but also supports your commitment to producing safe, high-quality products for consumers.
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Genomics on the Dairy
With genomics, you can make informed decisions about your herd’s future before the animals even mature. Amelicor’s Records Processing Service provides valuable pedigree information to help predict a cow’s production potential based on generations of data. However, these predictions often take years to fully prove.
Genomics adds genetic data to pedigrees, helping you choose healthier, more productive animals earlier.
Drug Tracking with DHI-Plus
Accurate drug tracking is essential for keeping your dairy compliant and your products safe. DHI-Plus software helps you follow clear protocols to prevent drug residues from entering the food supply. These protocols also allow you to focus on producing high-quality milk instead of worrying about mistakes.
Properly documenting treatments and training employees keeps your bulk tank safe and your dairy protected. DHI-Plus software makes it simple to stay organized and meet compliance requirements with confidence.
Record Health Data Now for Added Benefits in the Future
Most health records on a dairy are recorded one cow at a time, often to decide whether a cow should stay in the herd. However, inconsistent record-keeping can leave gaps, especially if a cow leaves the herd before her final health event is logged.
Recording health data consistently benefits not just individual cows but your entire herd. For example, tracking cases of mastitis in cows can help you evaluate management practices and improve disease prevention across the herd. DHI-Plus software makes it easy to track health events, review trends, and manage your herd’s long-term health.
Use DHI-Plus to Record Health Events and Build Better Habits:
DHI-Plus makes it easy to create consistent practices for recording health events. These habits help you track trends, evaluate management protocols, and improve your herd’s long-term health. Here’s how you can use DHI-Plus to future-proof your dairy operation:
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Set clear protocols for recording health events consistently. This will ensure accurate data for evaluating your herd’s performance and management practices.
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Spot trends early by analyzing reports. Identify if disease prevention protocols are effective and whether treatment plans reduce recurrence rates.
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Schedule regular reviews of herd health data to make data-driven decisions and improve farm protocols over time.
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Track and Analyze Health Events with DHI-Plus
DHI-Plus acts as a powerful cow health tracking system, giving you the tools to monitor and analyze health events with ease. With custom reports and analytical tools, can perform a thorough dairy herd health analysis to spot trends, identify issues, and take action quickly. Below are some specific examples of features included with DHI-Plus software.
Health Count Reports
Curious how many mastitis cases are in your herd? Or which cows might need to be culled due to repeated treatments for transition diseases? Health Counts make it easy to track this information.
Health Counts summarize the number of health events and disease-related issues in your herd in a custom report. These insights help you identify trends and take action quickly. Want to see Health Counts in action? Watch the video below to learn how this tool works with DHI-Plus software.
Recording Calf Data
Tracking calving ease and calf livability data helps improve your herd’s genetics. This also supports a strong calf herd health program.
You can record Calving Ease in two ways:
- One Value: Records calving difficulty only.
- Four Values: Records calving difficulty, size, livability, and condition.
While many dairies only track calving difficulty, adding calf livability data provides a more complete picture. Accurate and complete calving data benefits your operation now and in the future by:
Accurate and complete reporting of complete calving ease data will benefit your operation now and in the future.
- Improving the accuracy of sire and daughter calving ease evaluations.
- Supporting the development of national stillbirth evaluations.
- Enhancing your ability to make better sire selection decisions.
Recording detailed calving data today helps create a healthier herd. It also improves your calf health program for the future.
Consistency When Recording Health Data
DHI-Plus makes it easy to record health events consistently, even when multiple people are entering data. The system lets you choose from two methods for recording events:
- Standard CDCB Health Event Codes: Use recognized codes accepted across the dairy industry.
- Custom Health Event Codes: Create your own codes tailored to your operation.
To ensure consistency, DHI-Plus allows you to map custom codes to industry-standard ones. Even if multiple custom codes are used for the same health event, you can map them together into an industy standardized format.
This consistency is essential for accurate reporting, analysis, and sharing data for genetic evaluations. With DHI-Plus, you can ensure your records are clear, reliable, and ready for use when transmitting genetic evaluations.
By filling out the form, here is what will happen:
- We will send you an email with a few specific questions we might have to help us customize our thoughts for your needs.
- After you respond, one of our customer service representatives will contact you.
- The representative can show you how health event tracking works in DHI-Plus. They can help you install DHI-Plus so you can try it with your own data for a period.
- To talk to someone today, use the options on our contact page.