The transition period (3 weeks before to 3 weeks after calving) is the highest-risk period for dairy cow welfare and health. Effective management prevents the cascade of metabolic diseases that follow difficult transitions.
Transition period welfare represents the most critical and complex welfare challenge in dairy cow management. The hormonal changes of parturition, the massive calcium demand of milk production onset, and the switch from maintenance to lactation nutrition all occur simultaneously in the highest-stress period of the dairy cow's year. Metabolic disease cascades - hypocalcaemia leading to recumbency, immunosuppression leading to mastitis and metritis, ketosis leading to liver damage - cause significant suffering that is largely preventable with good management. Farms that invest in transition management show dramatically lower disease rates, better reproductive performance and longer cow productive lives.