Dairy Producer's Banquet is Thursday, Dec 5 This is a pretty exciting lineup. Dr. Bill Wavrin is our main speaker and will fill the morning. He is a dairyman, a veterinarian, a proclaimed capitalist, and humanitarian from how he sees his employees in his first talk "Organizing Milk Harvest - Producer Perspective on Infrastructure and HR." "What to Expect from Your Future Vet" is his second talk. He says, "Your vet is valuable with a sleeve or a scalpel, but more valuable when they lay them down."

Dr Barb Peterson will keep you awake after lunch with "Bovine Influenza in the rear view mirror and practical biosecurity." She is the practitioner in West Texas that identified H5N1 as the cause of what was then a "mystery disease.' She started her career in West Texas, moved into a USDA slaughter plant, was our Vaccinova Tech service vet enhancing our Salmonella and Pinkeye vaccines, did some time with artificial intelligence and is now back in practice in West Texas.

We have asked Jason Hartschuh, OSU Dairy Extension Educator, to come back. This time he will discuss "Identifying Mold and Mycotoxin Issues in Dairy Cattle". We seem to have more issues with these ornery toxins year after year and we need a plan to deal with them.

FSA Milk Loss Payments due to H5N1

Effective for the 2024 program year, FSA has updated ELAP eligibility regulations to include: • Milk losses due to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus in dairy herds with H5N1 Infection supported by at least one positive test confirmed by USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) at National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL). • Eligible producers must have had reduced milk production as a result of removal of adult dairy cows from the milking herd due to H5N1 infection.

The program provides indemnity payments of 90% of production losses from cows in affected herds that have been removed from production (i.e. placed in a hospital pen or have milk diverted from saleable milk) during a 14-day period before the diagnosis to 120 days after the diagnosis. Production is the average production of a U.S. dairy cow based on USDA calculations. AABP continues to engage regulatory agencies to provide feedback and collaboration as we work through this disease outbreak.
 

USDA Clarifies Travel Restrictions for H5N1 Positive herds do not have movement restrictions on non-lactating cattle, such as moving calves off the dairy to a heifer grower. Lactating cows are restricted from movement. Positive herds are identified by a positive milk PCR test.
 

Herds enrolled in the Voluntary Herd Status Program, and are identified as affected, can be identified as unaffected after two consecutive bulk tank milk PCR negative test results. USDA encourages herds to enroll in the program. Herds enrolled in the program do not have interstate movement testing requirements if they are unaffected.

Affected herds will work with state animal health officials and the USDA area veterinarian in charge to move non-clinical healthy animals to slaughter during the movement restriction time period.
 

The USDA federal order only applies to interstate movement of lactating dairy cattle. Individual states may have their own movement restrictions for intrastate or interstate movement.
 

Trace or Micro Mineral Affects are not Small The main four trace minerals have significant importance in body and immune function. Zinc is needed for skin development, growth, and immune function. Absorption can be interfered with by excess copper, molybdenum, and sulfates in water. Manganese is needed for reproduction function and deficiencies can cause low fertility and abortion. Selenium deficiency is well known in our area and results in decreased immune function and reduced strength of skeletal muscle. Copper is needed for immune function and response to vaccinations, bone growth, helps blood cells mature, and is needed for milk production. It can also be involved in infertility, estrous cycle length, early embryonic loss, and ovarian cyst.

Most balanced diets include adequate levels of the trace minerals, but are they absorbed? The inorganic forms of microminerals are inexpensive, but absorption may be interfered with by antagonists in the diet or in the water. Testing water may be a starting point for any mineral surveillance programs. Malabsorption can be tested with blood tests or better yet, liver biopsies. If levels are inadequate, the water can be treated or we can change the microminerals to the organic forms that have less absorption interference or we can use injectable microminerals in Multimin 90. There are times to use all of these strategies. Treating high dissolved solids water and feeding chelated microminerals, like Zinpro, is almost standard in our part of the world for dairy cows. There are times the injectable Multimin makes sense.

Milk has only limited trace minerals, so an injection of 1 cc of Multimin at birth helps immune function, growth, and appetite. Giving Multimin to cows at the time of scours vaccination during the third trimester increases serum and colostrums, neutralizing antibodies. This results in calves with greater coronavirus immunity in the first two weeks of life.

A Multimin injection at dry check supports mineral levels in the cow, placental transfer of trace minerals to the fetus and improves colostrum quality. Microminerals are needed for proliferation of the polynucleotides (white blood cells) increasing antibody titers and enhancing humeral and cell mediated immunity.

What can you do about mycotoxins right now? Both zearelanone and DON increase in straw stored outside. Covers or buildings are a must. For last year's stored feeds, binders and deactivators can be helpful but are rarely a cure for mycotoxins. Combination products have the best chance of success.

For this year's crop, Hybrid selection, then weather effects result in DON. Ohio Corn and Wheat has a mycotoxin forecasting system. This tool predicts DON contamination with 80% accuracy. The critical time period is 15 days before to 10 days after silking. Fungicide results are variable because of coverage of fungicide, application method, silking variability, ear position, and baseline levels of DON. Once the tassle is out, full silk occurs in 5 days. The fungicide needs to move down the silk plume. Once pollinated, nothing goes down the silk.

There are ear issues and stalk issues with mycotoxins and they may not match. Some varieties don't respond to fungicides. Cleaning contaminated grain can help, but be careful of your own heath with this exposure. Better packing of silage helps reduce mycotoxins. Tillage helps to bury mycotoxins but everybody needs to do it and that's not going to happen. Spores move in the wind.