Milk quality advisor with Teagasc, Don Crowley, has raised the issue of cell counts being a continuous challenge for farmers.
Crowley spoke at the Irish Grassland Association (IGA) dairy conference in Charleville, Co. Cork, where he advised farmers to prioritise their freshly-calved cows, by “treating them hard, and treating them early”.
He said that farmers are getting a bad start, and they are hoping that it will sort itself out as the season goes on, “but more often than not, when we get a bad start, it is sticking with us throughout the season”.
Cell counts
Crowley told the farmers in attendance to protect the uninfected cows within your herd: “We are in a period of consolidation, and the heifers aren’t there to mask the issues anymore.
“Farmers are cutting back on the number of heifers coming through, so you won’t have the same leeway,” Crowley said.
He noted that at farm-level, there is a huge issue with heifers coming through, with a lot of farmers now teat sealing – which is masking the problem.
Continuing, he said: “60% of mastitis cases in early lactation are from the dry period, so what we do over the next couple of weeks can have a big impact.
“You need to be liming cubicles twice-a-day ahead of calving, keep the passageways clean, and for heavily in-calf cows, there needs to be a cubicle/cow.”
He advised that milk samples been taken from every single case of clinical cases of mastitis, whether you send them to the lab or not.
Keep the milking routine consistent, and ensure that your milk parlour is ready for the lactation ahead.
“If a cow was in trouble last year and she is trouble again this spring, there is only one place for her – out the gap,” the advisor stressed.
Key management practices ahead of calving:
- New liners should be put on the milking machine before the start of the calving season;
- Use the California mastitis test (CMT) to identify high cell counts cows after calving;
- Clinical cases of mastitis need to be recorded and samples taken for analysis;
- Clips hair on cows tails, flanks and udders ahead of new lactation;
- Cleaning cubicles twice/day rather than once/day;
- Ensure that there is one cubicle/cow;
- Cull chronically infected cows from the herd.
EBI
Crowley also advised farmers not to underestimate the health sub-index within the economy breeding index (EBI).
“It is unbelievably robust, and I have looked at a lot of herds. Go back and look at your herd EBI, especially if you have genotyped, and look at the health sub-index.
“Pick any cow with zero, that means they are all negative for health, and see how many of them last over four lactations.
“They just don’t last, I don’t care how good they are to milk, how fertile they are – they just will not last,” he said.