The transition period around calving is the highest-risk welfare period in a dairy cow's production cycle, with metabolic diseases causing significant suffering in a substantial proportion of cows.
The transition period is the defining welfare challenge of dairy production: a physiological storm in which a cow must simultaneously recover from the demands of late pregnancy, begin supporting a newborn calf, and ramp up milk production — all while managing the metabolic consequences of the shift from pregnancy to lactation. The resulting negative energy balance predisposes cows to ketosis, fatty liver, milk fever, and displaced abomasum, all of which cause pain and systemic compromise that affects the entire subsequent production year. The welfare cost is both acute — pain and illness during the transition event — and chronic, as subclinical metabolic disease suppresses immunity and fertility. Evidence-based dry cow nutrition management that prepares cows metabolically for the transition, combined with proactive monitoring and early treatment of transition disease, delivers the most welfare benefit.