Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Some Terminology
Production Animal A term often used to describe farm animals
Milking Parlour The specialised building which houses the milking equipment and were the
cows are brought to be milked.
Calving Interval The number of days between consecutive calvings. This gives an indication
of the fertility performance of individual cows or a herd average. 365 days is
the traditional target.
Standard Lactation A standard lactation is 305 days and is used to compare yields.
Dry Period The rest period between consecutive calvings when we stop milking the cows
which gives their udder time to prepare for the next lactation. 60 days is the
traditional length of the dry period.
Colostrum The first milk produced after a cow calves. Colostrum has a very high
nutritive value and is packed with immunity providing antibodies. It is
essential that calves receive their first feed of colostrum (around 3 litres)
within 6 hours of birth as they are born with no natural immunity.
Peak Yield The maximum daily milk yield, which usually occurs around 6 weeks after
calving.
Mastitis An udder infection resulting in production of milk which looks abnormal e.g.
discoloured, clots, watery appearance.
Bactoscan Test A laboratory test which counts the number of bacteria in a milk sample to
indicate hygienic quality.
Somatic Cell Count A laboratory test which counts the number of somatic (white blood cells) in a
test milk sample to indicate hygienic quality (udder health).
Butterfat % An indication of the compositional quality of milk.
Protein % An indication of the compositional quality of milk.
Cubicle shed A housing system for cattle where they are provided with an individual ‘bed’
to lie in. These often have rubber mattresses with straw or sawdust bedding
on top.
Straw yard A housing system for cattle where they are loose housed in a large shed and
lie on a deep straw bed.
Herd Health Plans A document produced by the vet to help the farmer plan his routine
husbandry and health treatments to promote a healthy herd.