The focus of this grant is the development of best management practices designed to improve transitioning cow health while also enhancing product quality and production efficiency. This focus is also structured to develop an accurate, user-friendly, herd health monitoring tool that will correlate the risk assessment of developing metabolic stress at the herd level. These monitoring tools could lead to: 1) improvement in disease prevention strategies, 2) enhancement of animal health and well-being, and 3) optimization of production efficiency in the U.S. dairy industry, 4) reduction of risk of drug residues by preventing common diseases. Research results may support livestock production losses by preventing disease of significant economic importance to the dairy industry.