dry off

dry off (third-person singular simple present dries off, present participle drying off, simple past and past participle dried off)

1. (transitive) To make dry.
2. (intransitive) To become dry.
3. (transitive, agriculture) To cease milking a cow in preparation for calving.
   • 1986, Eberhart, R. J., “Management of Dry Cows to Reduce Mastitis”, in Journal of Dairy Science, volume 69, number 6, →DOI, pages 1721-1732:

     In an early study with cows producing very little milk at drying off, new infection rates were about equal whether cows were dried off abruptly or after a period of intermittent milking.

   • 2020 September 24, Pornpamol Pattamanont, Marcos Marcondes, Albert De Vries, “Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Dry-off Methods for Dairy Cows”, in edis.ifas.ufl.edu‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-08-11:

     Thus, revenue from milk yield before dry-off is higher for cows that are abruptly dried off.

   • 2023 December 8 (last accessed), “Drying dairy cows off early”, in Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board‎^[2], archived from the original on 2023-02-04:

     If you are drying off more cows than normal you are likely to need to increase the area in which you normally keep dry cows.