Targeting udder health at drying off is allowing an Irish dairy farm to retain high-performing cows in the herd for longer.

Drying off is a great opportunity to analyse existing mastitis infections and protect against new ones, which is the approach being taken by Donal O’Connor, who produces milk from the pedigree Streeda herd in Lissadell, Co. Sligo.

Preparation for drying-off on Donal’s farm starts a month beforehand, with milk-recording data used to identify cows with cell counts higher than 250,000 cells/ml.

“We look at how many times a cow has had mastitis; it is a case of trying to be a step ahead of the mastitis if possible,’’ said Donal.

On the day of drying off, high cell count cows are bolused with Maycillin Dry.

“These are cows that have had mastitis during the years but cows we want to keep in the herd,’’ said Donal.

“Keeping cows longer is a lot cheaper than bringing in heifers, if you can do that without problems.’’

The Streeda herd

Cow families in the Streeda herd can be traced back over 80 years, with many cows in the herd classified as excellent (EX) or very good (VG).

The 130-cow Holstein herd is high performing, yielding an annual average of 8,000L/cow with milk sold to Aurivo.

A block of 25 cows calve in October and November and the remainder in a tight block in February and March.

Donal had been using Maycillin during the lactation on cows but introduced Maycillin Dry earlier this year after changes in EU regulations.

The blanket use of antibiotic dry cow therapy is no longer the norm on Irish dairy farms since new regulations were introduced in January 2022.

“We are looking to get cell counts as low as possible and are using more of Maycillin to do that, than drugs,” said Donal

Maycillin and Maycillin Dry, developed by Mayo Healthcare, contains allicin, and is used in bolus form in several countries as an alternative approach during lactation and drying off.

Donal’s antibiotic use has reduced.

“We use it on cows occasionally, but we have used very little antibiotics from spring through to the autumn apart from during occasional spells of bad weather that might stress the cows and cause a problem. We have used very few tubes,’’ he said.

“Putting tubes into cows continually doesn’t work that well, we might get an 18-20% cure rate so if you can do it some other way, without antibiotics, that’s better,” the Sligo farmer said.

“We use a fair bit of Maycillin on cows that are showing up on the milk recording, or if cows just seem that they are about to get mastitis.’’

Donal has been doing his sums too and the figures add up.

Treating one cow with antibiotic tubes for several days and withholding her milk from sale over the withdrawal period worked out at €120/cow in his system.

“If you have to do that several times a year with a chronic cow that’s an awful lot of money, and you won’t cure chronic cows with tubes,’’ said Donal.

He said Maycillin and Maycillin Dry have worked very well and they give him peace of mind in the milking parlour.

“The biggest risk with mastitis cows is getting milk into the tank, it’s a high risk with different people milking,” he said.

“There is no withholding period with Maycillin, no antibiotics, your tank is secure.”

For more information on Maycillin, click here. Alternatively, speak to your local advisor by simply clicking the number below.

MAYO HEALTHCARE