Cow: keeping at home, methods and technologies

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

"A cow in the yard - we alth on the table" - so says the popular saying. The main breadwinner in a peasant household, practically a family member, needs careful attention, for which she supplies her patrons with nutritious milk for 5-10 lactations with a lifespan of 20-25 years. What conditions should be provided for this animal?

Tethered and loose cow keeping requires a solid approach with a rational daily routine, good nutrition and quality care.

Keeping cows in a private backyard

In the household, loose keeping of cows is mainly used: animals are kept in a bright, warm, well-ventilated room with shared drinking bowls and feeders. A prerequisite for maintaining the he alth of livestock and preventing the appearance of mastitis is a warm floor and dry bedding, which is completely changed every six months.

The dryness of the upper layer is ensured byregular laying of fresh straw and sawdust. With such a system, biochemical decomposition of the lower layers occurs, resulting in the release of a large amount of heat, which is especially important in winter cold. Also, the floors should be provided with a slope for the slope of urine and a chute for collecting manure, which should preferably be cleaned twice a day. Feed and water are served in shared feeders and drinkers.

Summer care of animals

During the summer period, the cow, the maintenance of which in the household is most often fed loosely, is on pasture. Usually in the villages, the shepherd gathers the cows every morning, takes them to the pasture for the whole day and returns home in the evening. Being in a large group contributes to the normal physical and psychological development of the animal. The factor of group composition control is very important, since a new cow in the herd or the aggressive behavior of any individual negatively affects the milk productivity of the rest.

In summer, a cow whose maintenance is a daily hard work can be on a walking area with a mandatory canopy that protects from rain and hot sunlight. In the same place, under a canopy, a nursery is set up with an obligatory briquette of lick s alt - an important component involved in the formation of bone tissue, improves appetite, increases the digestibility of feed and is an excellent prophylactic against diseases for young animals.

Feeding Features

Food for cows in summer consists of pasture,vegetables and fruits from the garden. In winter, the basis of the diet is harvested hay, straw, root crops, as well as mineral and vitamin supplements. Animals should be fed with warm clean water at the rate of about 80-100 liters of liquid per day for 1 head.

For the productive keeping of livestock, it is very important to accustom yourself and animals to a clearly defined daily routine, to adhere to the same intervals between milking and feeding. A cow, the maintenance of which requires the investment of certain costs, with an average milk yield of 15-20 liters, should be fed 3 times a day. With more than 20 liters of milk, the number of meals and milking increases up to 4-5 times.

Holding on farms: the loose way

Loose housing is also used on farms with a large number of livestock (from 400 heads or more). Previously, it was common in beef farming, today it is increasingly used in dairy production.

Cows are created as close to natural conditions as possible with freedom of movement in spacious rooms and walking areas. Manure removal is usually done twice a year; Animals are provided with deep permanent bedding made of straw, sawdust, peat. It is important to add a new layer of bedding daily to prevent it from getting completely wet.

Some farms use manure processing technology with its separation into 2 components: a liquid fraction stored in large ditches with further use asfertilizer, and the solid part used as bedding.

A feature of the loose housing system is the unhindered access of livestock to roughage located directly on the territory of the livestock complex: under a canopy, on ground piles, in silos. Distribution of feed indoors is carried out in case of bad weather conditions. Animals are watered using group automatic drinkers.

Benefits of the tetherless method

The advantage of the loose method is active exercise, which has a positive effect on the he alth of animals, helps to increase their immunity and improve milk production. On such farms, labor costs are significantly reduced and great importance is given to the mechanization of work, which consists in the use of modern equipment: for milking, transportation, primary processing of milk.

The disadvantage of this type of livestock keeping on large farms is often the ill-conceived breeding scheme, which leads to high humidity, untimely manure cleaning, gas pollution, which has a detrimental effect on the he alth of cows.

With a loose method, a prerequisite for a livestock complex is the presence of a maternity ward. There, a calving cow, the maintenance of which requires special attention to the animal, is about 1.5 months (the period of its maximum milking). Then transferred to the main group; while taking into account its milk production.

Tethered content

The traditional method used on dairy farms is to tie up cows. Cattle are in stalls equipped with fixation devices: clamp, chain, mechanical or automatic. The length of the stall is on average from 1.8 to 2.0 meters in such a way that the cow can freely assume a lying position. All stalls are equipped with metal bars through which animal excrement falls into the manure ditch.

All operations related to the maintenance of the animal are carried out right there, in the stalls, the equipment of which includes:

• leash and metal frame for fixing the leash;
• feeder (about 70 cm wide);
• stall;
• manure transport channel.

Key processes

Distribution of feed is carried out using stationary or mobile distributors in feeders made of waterproof materials (metal, concrete). At the bottom of the feeders, located 5-7 cm above the stall bed, there are holes for draining liquid residues after washing and disinfection.

Cows are milked using portable milking machines. This operation requires a large investment of manual labor, in order to reduce the cost of which it is recommended to mount high-performance milking machines in special rooms.

Advantages and disadvantages of the tethered method

Benefits of the anchor content method:

• rationed animal feeding withtaking into account productivity and age;
• 5-7 tons of milk per year. This is how much a cow can give, the maintenance of which is carried out in compliance with all technological norms and standards;
• reducing calf injuries during maturation;
• improved feed conversion into fat and muscle mass.

Disadvantages include:

• high percentage of manual labor (caring for animals, cleaning stalls, monitoring the condition of cows, carrying out medical and preventive measures);
• heavy working conditions for machine milking operators, forced to drag milking machines around the barn, repeatedly crouch next to each animal).

Ways to keep cows: which one to choose?

The method of keeping cows using different methods of labor organization, milking, feeding, manure removal is decisive in the application of various technologies for obtaining meat and milk from cattle. For dairy production, the most convenient is tethered housing, the disadvantages of which include the deterioration of labor productivity, the complication of reproduction, and the lack of active exercise in animals. This technology of keeping cows requires a small area of premises, facilitates the work of veterinarians, and allows you to feed animals individually.

With loose housing, there is no need for a large number of staff, the animals are actively moving, eating from common feeders. The work of veterinarians and livestock specialists is complicated: more actions are required from them to provide therapeuticprocedures and record keeping of reproduction.