Some “-ing”s in Livestock Management

Prenating

It means milking of heifers and cows before actual parturition. It is done in heavy milkers when udder becomes very much distended before parturition. But milking before birth of calves tends to delay the onset of parturition for about a week. It is not advised. However, it is helpful in automatic prevention of problems of udder infection. Provides proper milch temperament to cow. After calving such heifers are less likely to get excited, develop a nervous disposition, habit of kicking or become a problematic milker.

Drying offThere are three methods of drying off of cows(a) Complete cessation: This method is followed for cows with low milk yield (<5 kg per day) and free for mastitis. If the animal is left unmilked, milk will be filled in the udder, and then get reabsorbed.(b) Intermittent milking: This method is useful for cows with heavy milk yield (~10 kg daily milk yield). One time milking is first skipped, then two times and gradually the animal is milked once in few days is milked. Simultaneously, the animal’s feed intake is gradually reduced to decrease the milk synthesis in the udder.(c) Incomplete milking: This method is useful for cows with moderate milk yield. The principle is same as the intermittent method. Some amount of milk is left in the udder to get reabsorbed and reduce the milk synthesis.

Steaming upSteaming up is the feeding of a pregnant animals such as a dairy cow with a high plane of nutrition 6 to 8 weeks before calving/ giving birth. The feed should be of a good quality concentrate plus some good quality forage. Separate dry cows from the milking herd. After the heifer has been bred and conception has taken place ,she has not only to continue to grow ,but also to produce a viable calf and to milk few months later. If the heifer belongs to high producing animals , an additional 1.5 to 2 kg of concentrate ration may be daily.

Breaking in heifersThe heifers are young stock and first calvers who have never been milked before. In order to acquaint them with practices associated with cows , the heifers are brought to milking herd at this time. She can be fed a little extra concentrate in the milking shed and

in addition she becomes accustomed being handled .In this way they do not pose any problem at the time of actual milking after calving.

Wallowing Black skin colour of buffalo and presence of few and less capacious sweat glands are the major reasons which make it difficult for them to maintain their body temperature in hot and humid environments. Wallowing is important to maintain the body temperature as well as protection from the insects. Wallowing is preferable during hottest hours of the day. They usually defecate or urinate when enter into the water for wallowing. Wallowing tank made up of cement concrete can be constructed for wallowing purpose.

CullingThe word comes from Latin language word “colligere” which means “to collect”.

In animal husbandry this means to collect the good ones so as to separate them from the bad ones. Over the time culling has been considered mainly as the removal of the undesirable animals from the desirable ones. This removal can be in any form like separating the animals, killing the incurably diseased animals or selling away the animals. Sometimes, in dairy herd some animals are unproductive. These animals usually underperform and total farm production comes down. In such situation it is desirable to cull the unproductive animals so that herd should contain only the good high productive animals. In dairy husbandry culling and selection are very important. When some animals are selected for their better characteristics it automatically means that those animals who are poor performers will be culled. Disable animals due to injury or loss of organ, extreme lameness leading to un maintainable conditions, un healed fractured animals etc., come under the animal proposed or culling. The culled animals carry lower values and a separate list is made for such called animals and it is known as culling list. When the culling cows for poor production, the entire lactation yield is considered and preferably first two lactations are observed and if the lactation yield is less than what is expected from the breed or herd, The animal is included in the culling list. Very old animals are culled, as their maintenance will be uneconomical. Male animals or other animals surplus in the farm or not useful in the farm and they are culled. Calves born with congenital defects like congenital efierosis of the eye, total blindness or some other defects are included in the culling. Calves born much below the normal birth weight are included in the culling. Yearlings~ animals male or females, stunted much below their normal body weight, Pot bellied conditions)bad confirmation are culled. Valuation and culling is done on the farms every year at least

once in year. In some farms culling is done twice a year however doing it once a year is must.

Flushing

Sheep are seasonally polyestrus. Usually about 2-3 weeks before the onset of the breeding season , nutrition of the ewes to be stepped up to help increase in body weight .This practice will bring the ewes to come to estrous earlier in the breeding season, resulting in early lambing. Most of the ewes come into heat at more nearly the same time , then otherwise resulting in more uniform lamb crop. Flushing also results in multiple birth in the flock. Flushing will have effect only if the ewes were in declining phase of nutritional availability. Ewes in better body condition will produce more lambs thus the flushing of leaner ewes will increase the fertility by way of increasing incident of oestrous, increase ovulation rate and decreases the early embryonic mortality by strengthening the fetal membrane integrity. Flushing can be done by supplementing 250 g of concentrate daily or 500 g of good quality legume hay per head per day. Flushing increases the lambing rate by 10 to 20 per cent as well as higher birth weight.

Tagging

Ewes sometimes are not bred because wool or tags prevent the ram from making satisfactory copulation, thus tagging makes service by the ram more certain. The ram is also trimmed around the sheath. It is also done in the lambing season so that lamb do not find any problem finding teats of the ewes.

Eyeing

To prevent wool blindness in some breeds the excess wool around the eyes should be clipped away regularly. This process is referred to as eyeing/facing.

Ringing

Before the breeding season starts the wools should be completely removed from all over the body of the ram. Ram should at least be clipped from the neck and from the belly particularly at the region of penis. This process is referred to as ringing. This process makes it easier for the ram to have proper mating.

Dagging/ Crutching

Removal of wool around the perennial region and base of the tail of an ewe is known as crutching. This facilitates better mating. This refers shearing the lock of wool and dirt from the dock.

Raddling

Marking of ewe by ram can also be done by raddle. Radle is nothing but a ram harness containing crayon, which is rubbed on the ewe’s rump when mating takes place, so that a colour mark is

left. The process of allowing the ram to run along with raddle is termed as raddling. The above practice can also be adopted in goats also.

Docking:It is very important to cut off the tails of long-thin tailed wooled sheep as a sanitary measure and to reduce the incidence of blowfly strike. Operation can be performed with a knife, chisel, elastrator, emasculator, or docking iron. The docked ewes are easier to shear, have much cleaner udder, and can be more easily serviced by the ram, as compared to those with intact tail. It may be performed at any day or time but preferably on sunny day and at about 10 days of age of lamb.

Dipping:Dipping of animals is a common practice in organized farm to eradicate ectoparasites, to prevent spread of sheep scab,to ward off attack by sheep blow flies,to remove waste materials and dung from fleece, to get clean wool, sheep are to be dipped usually once or twice in a year. In India, little attention is paid to dipping sheep, though vermin menace is more here and in other tropical countries. Do not dip ewes in advanced pregnancy to avoid inducing abortion. BHC, Lindane (0.25%), DDT (0.5%), Garathion, Malathion (2.0%), Cimathion, Pyrethrin-arsenic sulphide powder (0.2% arsenic), coal tar-creosote (0.76%), nicotine and tobacco dips (0.1% nicotine, 15 kg tobacco leaves in 500 lit water are used in dipping solution.

WeaningWeaning literally means accustom (an infant or other young mammal) to food other than its mother's milk. In livestock management it refers to separation of young from mother after birth.An important activity of dairying. It is not needed when cattle are raised only for meat. Beef calves are allowed to stay with the mother and suckle for as long as they want. But dairy calves are separated from the cow soon after being born. This practice allows most of the milk to be collected and sold, rather than being consumed by the calf.Also, if the calf is freely fed as much milk as it wants for a long time, it will not have a strong early appetite for dry feed, and its stomach development will be slow and it will not grow well when it has to rely on grazing. So weaning must also involve the feeding of dry feed or roughage to the calf.Weaning can be done in several ways, but regardless of the weaning system practised, the young calf should be kept warm and dry in a clean, draft-free place.Below are two weaning systems which may be practised by smallholders.(a) Complete weaningThis is the removal of the calf to a place where the calf and cow can not see or hear each other. Without good fences and yards to keep the mother and calf separate, it is difficult to do successfully. The advantage of complete weaning is that all of the milk produced by

the cow is available for sale, and the cow and the calf soon forget about each other. This is practiced in organized farm. (b) Partial WeaningThe cow and calf can run together all day in the paddock, or the calf is put into a pen near the cow where it stays all day, but it must not be able to suckle the cow through the bars of the pen or properly muzzled. In both cases the calf can only suckle when it is allowed to and must be given feed and water. The number of times it is permitted to suckle depends on whether the cow is milked once or twice each day.

GroomingGrooming or brushing of body hair coat is an important daily farm operation to make andkeep the animals’ body clean and fit. For grooming blunt type brush is used, if not available then use coarse rope made from paddy straw, coconut coir or dried grass. In India, grooming generally practiced before milking along with washing to improve the clean milk production. Different types of brush like dandy brush and body brush are mainly used for grooming. It reduces the number of external parasites and organism, dirt from body coat of cows. Grooming is practiced to prepare a cow for show or exhibition purposes. Grooming enhance blood circulation to the skin and make it pliable and shine.

Disbudding and DehorningDisbudding is the process of removing horn bud in young calves before its attachment toskull within 3-5 days after birth. On the other hand dehorning is the removal of horn after it has attached to the skull in older calves. However, in most dairy farm disbudding is practiced instead of dehorning as former is less painful. Moreover, in case of horn injury or horn cancer to check the spread of infection dehorning is practiced. Dehorning may be practiced by chemical cauterization using caustic soda, caustic potash or Silver nitrate sticks. Disbudding may also be done mechanically using red hot iron or electrical dehorner pressing on the horn bud.

Hoof trimmingHoof trimming is a routine procedure in dairy farm which corrects the hoof problems or lameness and extent the productive life of cows. The hoof growth and its wear occur simultaneously and influenced by the environment. It has been observed that the animals’ foot will replace itself once a year. Therefore, with the simultaneous growth there should be wear of hoof to maintain the normal foot conformation. When hoof is abnormally grown more its length increases and in severe condition it curl up and create lameness

condition. The foot trimming in animals practiced at 6 month interval and cut only the extra grown hoof otherwise if excess than causes pain and bleeding.

Farrowing Act of parturition in pig.

Casting Casting of an animal means making the animal fall on the ground. Animals are cast for various reasons like surgical operations, hoof trimming, etc., Casting pit filled with sand as bedding material accidents during handling. In a large farm, a casting pit is set up to avoid injury during casting of animals. Casting pit is a circular area of about 8 metres diameter which is filled with bedding materials like sand, wheat straw, saw dust, etc. Sharp or piercing objects are never kept in the casting pit. As a precautionary measure, the animal is kept on fasting for 12 hours before casting to prevent injury to distended digestive organs. Casting of pregnant animals must be avoided.

Milking

Milking is the act of removing milk from the mammary glands of cattle, water buffalo,  goats, sheep and more rarely camels, horses etc The frequency of milking will depend upon the production of milk. Usually milking is done twice daily, with an interval of twelve hours. Cows producing more than 12 litters of milk per day can be milked thrice daily , preferably with 8 hours of interval with proper feeding It has been observed that three times milking can result in an increase of 10-15% milk.

Fisting

One of the two methods of hand milking. In this method, the whole teat is held first,fingers encircling the teat.The base of the teat is closed in the ring formed by the thumb and forefinger so that the milk trapped on the teat sinus may not slip back into the gland cistern. Simultaneously teat is squeezed between middle ring and little fingers and the hollow of palm ,thus forcing the milk out.

Stripping One of the two methods of hand milking. Stripping is done when the teats are too small and towards the end of milking to draw the milk completely. The last drawn milk is called stripping and rich in fat.

Chaffing

Making the folder stems or leaves into pieces by manual or mechanical means is known as chaffing. Manually cutting the roughage fodders in to small pieces with the help axe of the knife is known as manual chaffing. For small quantities or chaffed material a hand operated chaff cutter is used and for large quantities an electrical operated chaff cutter is used. Advantages 1. The stems of grass can be made into pieces of any small size. 2. The leafy material and tender part of fodder shoot is eaten away by the animal and the thick or hard stem is left, which goes waste. By this chaffing whole plant or stems are fully consumed by the animal. 3. While eating from the manger the un-chaffed grass or fodder is wasted by throwing it in the surroundings by the animal. The chaffed pieces are

completely eaten by the animal. 4. Chaffed material can be packed in bags. 5. The chaffed fodder consumes less space for storage. 6. Feed additives or other feed supplements can easily mixed with the chaffed fodder. 7. The leafy portion, shoots and stems pieces are mixed while chaffing, hence it increases the palatability of the fodder.

Assignment:

Give reasons to:

1.Twelve hours fasting is necessary before casting.

2.Dipping is done on sunny days at morning.

3.Chemical disbudding is not done in rainy days.

4.Partial weaning is advised in indigenous cows.

5.Grooming is done two hours before milking.

6.  Ewes that are already in good body condition (BCS > 3/5) usually do not respond well to flushing.

7.Steaming up of heifer is more important than steaming up of cow at 2nd pregnancy.

8. Culling rates in dairy herds vary, ranging from 20% to 35% per year.

9. Wallowing behavior is a learnt behavior.  

10. Supplementary feeding of ram should be done during mating season, 

11.Knuckling causes injury to teat tissues.

12.

13.Wet hand milking is to be avoided.