The fresh pen was stocked at 120%

A 700-cow herd had a clean maternity stall and a sloppy fresh group. Headlocks were 80 for 96 cows. First-lactation animals ate at 22:00 or not at all.

Penn State would have called the intake failure first. Dairyland’s 30-inch / one-stall / about 80% stocking note would have called the pen. Ketosis treatments climbed; uterine treatments followed.

They split a late-fresh group and held the true fresh pen under stall capacity. Intake on heifers rose within a week. Uterine cases lagged — involution does not rewind overnight — but the new calvings stopped repeating the same curve.