Dairy Veterinary Newsletter

“Gradual dryoff” is the practice of skipping some milkings before cessation of milking a cow at the end of lactation. I was taught in agricultural and vet school classes that this was to be avoided; abrupt dryoff no skipped milkings is physiologically superior for the cow. Nevertheless, like most dairy veterinarians, I experienced clients using gradual dryoff sometimes. When I was a resident at Michigan State University, we sometimes obtained cull dairy cows in early to mid-lactation for reproductive and other classes. We had to dry these cows off when they were often milking at least 60 pounds per day because there were neither facilities nor personnel to continue milking them. (We could bucket milk one or two cows for a few days, but nothing more.) I remember one cow that was milking approximately 100 pounds per day, was pregnant, and she was not a kicker either; I always wondered why she was sold. We would abruptly cease milking and infuse each quarter with dry cow treatment tubes. Some cows had large mammary glands, leaked milk, and had to be milked out again, usually in 48 hours, and re-dry treated. That high producing cow had to be milked out again after another 48 hours and re-treated again. But it always ended without cow welfare, milk leakage, or any other problems. To me and other faculty members, this confirmed that abrupt dry treatment was the way to go.