Mastitis continues to be one of the major disease challenges on the modern dairy farm. We strongly recommend all dairy herds to milk record. Milk recording monitors yield and cell count data on a monthly basis and puts it into a format that can be further analysed if required. Please refer to our Grassroots Herd Check facility for further information http://www.herdcheck.co.uk. We also recommend recording all clinical cases and sampling prior to treatment. Managing mastitis and somatic cell counts without this information is extremely difficult. While mastitis will never be eradicated there are plenty of options for managing it and minimising the cost it has on your business. The average cost of a case of mastitis is around £200.
The Five Point Plan
This was developed about 40 years ago and still forms the corner stone of any mastitis control programme. It is particularly good at dealing with contagious organisms.
- Prompt detection and treatment of clinical cases
- Antibiotic dry cow therapy
- Cull chronic cases
- Milking machine maintenance
- Post milk teat dipping
Full Mastitis and Somatic Cell Count Investigation
We offer a consultancy service where we can look at the whole farm and the processes on the farm to develop a bespoke mastitis solution. We use a number of tools for this and it includes a farm visit and a milking time visit to monitor what happens in the parlour.