By: John Kariuki
Dr Simon Gathii Gachomo Gichuru is a respected Veterinarian from Murang’a. he has taken a moment to share with us more about good animal husbandry, more so about the proper way of managing the dry cow. He formulates various medicines and supplements for the animls, thereby giving the farmer a lot of profit.
Milk fever is a common challenge for many farmers where a pregnant cow is unable to wake up. There is no such occurrence that should happen. The danger is farmers are always misadvised. Many cows fall down/ find difficulty when giving birth. It’s the farmers duty to take the precautionary measures to avoid such a scenario.
When a cow is served and it conceives, the cow can be tested after 35 days. This informs the farmer on best practices on how to raise the cow, feeding it properly with minerals. At the 7th month, it’s a dry cow – that requires a very special treatment which will eventually lead to a healthy calf and higher milk yields. During this phase, even a low-yielding cow can be prepared for a high milk productivity. A pregnant cow has four demands: the cow’s own health, health of the calf, welfare of the uterus/placenta and also the udder. During this period, the cow should be put on a dry cow supplement. Dry cow management is crucial. The dry cow mineral supplement comprises – magnesium, calcium and phosphorous.
Avoid at all costs to offer the cow DCP. This is only required when the cow calves. The DCP once ingested, it sends a message to the cow’s brain: do not absorb the DCP because it is too much for the cow at the late stage of pregnancy. The DCP is expelled by the cow during excretion, depriving the cow the minerals it would have required.
For the dry cow supplement, the trace minerals are formulated in the correct ratio, allowing the pregnant cow to absorb all these minerals and to be stored in the bones and joints ready to be mobilized during parturition.
Everybody who follows the professional advice I give genuinely, gets profits in milk production.
He advised against the natural breeding where a cow is usually taken to the bull for mating. He instead urged for the farmers to embrace the Artificial Insemination.
As a farmer be very careful with the kind of advice/information he or she collects about the cow.
