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Minnesota Dairy Initiatives
Dairy Diagnostics Tool Box

Worksheets:

1: General Assessment

1A: On-site Evaluation Worksheet

2: Financial Data Income Sheet

3: Financial Data Balance Sheet

4: Goal Form - Estimate of Economic Losses
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin

5: Developing a Mission Statement

6: SMART (short-term) Goals

7: DRIVE (long-term) Goals

8: Estimating Access to Feed and Water

9: Calculating Cud Chewing Index & Cow Comfort Quotient

10: Feed Intake Data & Daily Feeding Log

10A: Body Condition Scoring Worksheet

11: Cow Health Disorders & Dry Cow Evaluation

12: Problem Cow Diagnostics

See: Johne's Disease Dairy Risk Assessment Form (MN Board of Animal Health)

13: Cow Cleanliness Scorecard
Also see: Relationship of Cow Hygiene Scores and SCC

14: Hock Injury Scorecard

15: Lameness Scoring Worksheet

16: Feeding and Milk Quality Variation

Supplemental Management Tools:

Annual Losses Due to Mastitis Above a Desirable Baseline Level (Excel spreadsheet developed by John Fetrow, VMD, MBA)

Costs of Common Diseases (Excel spreadsheet developed by Chuck Guard, DVM)

Cost of Raising Replacement Dairy Heifers (Penn State Excel spreadsheet)

Flowchart for Evaluating Freestalls (developed by Drs. Ken Nordlund and Nigel Cook, School of Vet Med, University of Wisconsin-Madison - 2001)

Milk Yield Projection (Excel spreadsheet)

Photoperiod Management of Dairy Cattle 
(Illinois TRAILL management tool that increases efficiency of the lactating cow)

Factsheets:

1: Feed Storage Tables

2: Bunker Silo Management

3: TMR Feeding Management

4: Ration Guidelines for Milking & Dry Cows

5: Milk Cow Nutrition Monitors on Dairy Farms

6: Reducing Mastitis

Supplemental Factsheets:

Interpretation and Use of Laboratory Culture Results and the Characteristics of Various Mastitis Pathogens

Mastitis and Milk Quality Problem Identification with Cause and Effect Diagrams

Seven Steps to Reducing Mastitis and Improving Milk Quality

Attitude is Key to Process Improvement

Links:

Availa4 (ZinPro) - An excellent resource for dairy diagnostics teams. This Web site contains a lameness factsheet, scorecard, economics calculator and video clip.

Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota (access to FinBIn benchmarking)

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (look up current milk price and future contracting)

Dairy Alliance (Penn State) - The mission of Dairy Alliance is to enhance the economic development of the Pennsylvania dairy industry through focused educational efforts.

Midwest Plan Service - Objective University-based publications for agriculture.

Penn State Forage Particle Separator

Understanding Dairy Markets - University of Wisconsin Dairy Marketing and Risk Management Program (a source for market information and price risk management principles)

For more information about using the Dairy Diagnostics Tool Box, contact:

Jeff Reneau
Department of Animal Science
University of Minnesota
205 Haecker Hall
1364 Eckles Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108-6118

Telephone: 612-624-9791
Fax: 612-625-5789
Email: renea001@umn.edu

  
Modified 4/23/07 by Bonnie Rae
©2006 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

since March 2002