Help with staying on top of mastitis

This season you will have noticed that we are rolling out a mastitis focus.  The most recent good news is that we have two complimentary services we would like to offer you to help stay on top of mastitis.

1. Early Season Milk Quality Report.

The first is for those who are herd testing and is known amongst the team as the Early Season Milk Quality Report. This is generated from herd test information held in Infovet and MINDA.

• It is a great way to see how well the dry cow strategy worked this season so you can look at what might need to change down the track.
• It also provides insights into how well you are controlling new infections in the early part of the season. This is a great predictor as to whether you will have difficulty changing milking frequency later in the season and whether you need to do something now to keep options open.
• Finally, it provides you with a list of cows at “high-risk” of passing mastitis to the rest of the herd.  Knowing who they are now helps you manage the risk early and keep that BMSCC down.

What do you have to do to get this?

Well, if you are herd testing and are hooked up to Infovet with Franklin Vets this will come through automatically on the email.  We are working on a MINDA-based version of the report and hope to have this out shortly as well to those who have provided us with access to MINDA.

2. Complimentary teat scoring session

The second opportunity is for a complimentary teat scoring session.  This has been detailed in our mastitis focus newsletter but we are rolling this out over the next few weeks. Late October and November is a great time to have one of these completed. One of our team will join you in the milking shed for about ½ an hour in the afternoon milking and score between 50 and 80 cows. The information derived from the scoring helps you address risks now to keep that BMSCC down.

If you would like to schedule one of these, contact the local clinic for a time.

Dr David Hawkins BVSc - Farm Vet & Consultant