Dairy Practice
Core concepts
Dairy practice blends individual cow medicine with herd-level production and quality. Understand the lactation cycle, transition period physiology, and the diseases clustered around calving: hypocalcemia (milk fever), ketosis, displaced abomasum, metritis, and retained fetal membranes. Mastitis is the flagship topic - know contagious versus environmental pathogens, somatic cell count interpretation, and the role of milking hygiene and dry-cow therapy.
Herd metrics
Be able to interpret bulk tank somatic cell count, incidence rates, culling rate, days open, and pregnancy rate. Reproduction management, heat detection, and synchronization protocols are tested conceptually. Lameness and hoof health are major welfare and economic issues; understand the lameness scoring approach and the multifactorial causes.
Traps
Questions often test whether you can move between cow-level and herd-level reasoning. Another trap is milk fever versus ketosis confusion - both cause recumbency or poor appetite but differ in calcium status and response to treatment. Be careful with drug withdrawal and milk residue questions; the food-safety dimension is always present.
Worked example
A fresh cow is down and cold-eared within 24 hours of calving. Hypocalcemia is the leading diagnosis; response to intravenous calcium supports it. But the exam answer may ask what to do next for the herd - evaluate transition cow management and dry-cow diet. Rule of thumb: a down fresh cow is a calcium question, and a cluster of them is a transition-management question.