During the early stages of lactation, mastitis can be an issue on some dairy farms, which can have a detrimental impact on production.

Cows are especially at risk of acquiring mastitis in the two weeks either side of calving due to a weakened immune system during these times.

Some recent research conducted by Teagasc has shown that up to 30% of first-calving heifers are calving down with infected quarters.

Mastitis

Ahead of calving – and most likely for a number of weeks post-calving – cows will be lying on cubicle beds, so ensuring that hygiene standards are maintained is important.

Around calving time the workload on farms is greatly increased and this poses a number of challenges, one being negelcting the simple tasks of keeping areas clean.

You should continue to ensure that cubicles are clean and dry; they should be cleaned and limed twice a day.

Unlike the cows, your heifers do not have the added protection of a teat sealer to prevent infection.

For this reason, you should pay particular attention to the hygiene of cubicles used by or for the heifers.

Ideally, when they were housed their tails would have been clipped, but if this hasn’t been done you should do so once they begin milk production.

Bacteria

It is also important to continue to keep straw bedding fresh in calving pens, as contaminated straw beds are a prime source of environmental mastitis bacteria.

You should also, where possible, complete a California mastitis test (CMT) on all cows and heifers before allowing their milk to enter the tank.

The CMT can be a useful tool to identify cows with high cell counts or subclinical cases of mastitis.

Ideally you should keep keep colostrum cows in a separate group and milk them last.

Not only does this reduce the chance of a mistake happening, it also means you can spend more time looking at or monitoring cows for any signs of ill health or mastitis.