1. health and fitness
2. disease

Why Milk Record?
www.progressivegenetics.ie
Tel: 01-4502142
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•
•
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SCC Reduction
Increase milk value for A+B-C
Management Information
Access to Disease testing
Why Milk Record?
Milk Recording & SCC
1. Quickly identify cows which are the most
profitable
2. Identify and isolate cows with subclinical
mastitis infection i.e. High SCC
3. Identify which cows produce the most milk
4. Know the Butterfat % and Protein % for each
cow
5. Know which cows to breed from
6. Improve the reliability of your EBI
7. Increased the sale value of surplus stock buyers will pay more for milk recorded animals.
8. Identify poor performing cows that are not
paying their way or covering their feed costs
and need to be culled
Costs of High SCC
• Penalty for high cells/TBC
• Cost of antibiotics
• Cost of the loss of milk for the treatment
period
• Loss of yield from cow for whole lactation
• Cost of farmer’s time to manage treatments,
recording, collecting the treated milk and
dumping it
• Cost of antibiotic penalty
• Cost of truck of milk if antibiotic present
• Stress
Cell Count Penalty
Components of SCC management
400,000 - 500,000 0.8 cent per litre
501,000 - 600,000 1.7 cent per litre
>601,000
2.0 cent per litre
For example a supplier with 350,000 litres
With an average cell count of 420,000 for all year
around =€2800
Realistically cell count goes up in the Autumn.
September 35000 litres @ 0.8c/l=€280
October
21770 litres @ 0.8c/l=€174
November 16450 litres @ 0.8c/l =€132
Total
€586
Prices guide only, please check SCC bonus or penalty with your own co-op
Contacts
Milk Recording Supervisors
Louise Knight
087-2505723
John Joe Murray 086-2629720
Milk Recording Area Technicians
Mary Coyle
087-9824583
Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Longford
Andy Feeney
086-8298084
Mary Flynn
Ger Maher
086-8298092
Sth Offaly, West Kilkenny
Meath, Louth, Westmeath, Nth Offaly
Joe Lupton
Tommy Malloy
Tipperary
086-8298172
086-8114167
Waterford, South Kilkenny
086-8114147
Wexford, East Kilkenny
Paul McDermot 086-3834685
Donegal
What we can provide:
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Cow SCC
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Mastitis ID
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Problem Cow Reports
•
Agrinet software
086-8114204
Kildare, Wicklow, Carlow, Nth Kilkenny Declan Hynes
086-0416564
Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon
Alan Kavanagh
1.Information
a.
Milk Recording Cow SCC
b.
Problem cow reports
c.
Mastitis ID – key new development
d.
Treatments
e.
Progress reports – Milk Recording
2.Advice
a.Vet
b.
Farm Advisor
c.
Milk Parlour Tech
3.Action
a.
Plan based approach
b.
Based on available information
c.
Follow up
iML: Providing independent
milk testing and disease services
to Progressive Genetics Milk
Recording
Independent Milk Laboratories
Milk recording & A+B-C
• Low milk solids cows are costing money
• If you are being paid on A+B-C the aim is to maximise fat
and protein %
• See which cows are producing high value milk
• You cannot see fat & protein in milk, you must test for it.
Your best cows can surprise you
• Target low value cows for culling or Beef AI
• Very low milk solids cows may not be worth breeding
from
• In order to speed up the rate of milk solids improvement
you breed from your best and cull your worst
Table: Value of high vs low solids milk: Over €200!!
Value of Milk, Fat & Protein may change slightly over time and is a guide only
E-DIY Milk Recording
No up-front meter costs: Meters delivered on day of recording
No ‘stranger’ in the pit or disruption of your routine
Farmer is in control
Meter auto agitates,auto samples
No writing-less mistakes
Quicker results turn-around
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Milk kgs
C
Daisy
Betty
5000
5000
% Pro
3.50
3.20
% Fat
4.50
3.80
Pro Kgs
A
175
160
Fat Kgs
B
225
190
Total Pro+Fat kgs
400
350
€ Pro
€7.23
€ Fat
€3.15
€ Milk (water)
-€0.04
€ / Lact
€1,774
Difference
€1,555
€219
“Manual” Milk Recording
For herds with meters or Jars in Parlour
Milk Recorder visits and records milk volume
and takes sample for analysis
No Labour requirement from farmer
Somatic Cell Count
Yield of fat, protein and milk
Identify SCC infected cows early which facilitates timely treatment
Mastitis ID Test
Identifies bacteria causing high SCC/Mastitis
Allows for selection of appropriate treatment
Identifies management changes which may prevent future infection
Is mastitis environmental or contagious?
Call 01-4502142 or talk to your
Is milking routine to blame or problems with bedding etc?
milk recording technician to book
mastitis ID test
Simple to use
Preserved milk - allows for postage of samples or use of milk recording samples
PCR instead of culture: Sensitive, Accurate and not reliant on bacterial growth - dependable!
Access to easy disease testing
If you require bulk tank screening tests or testing on all cows (eg. for Johnes) using milk samples
makes testing easy:
• Johnes
• Lepto
see www.progressivegenetics.ie and
• BVD
• Liver Fluke
www.animalhealthireland.com for more
• IBR
• Neospora
information
The Value and Use of Milk Recording Somatic Cell Count
Mastitis is the most costly dairy cattle disease. In herds without an effective mastitis control program,
approximately 40 percent of cows are infected in an average of two quarters. It has been estimated that
mastitis costs about €120 per cow per year. This figure may increase unless dairy producers can achieve
a reduction in prevalence of the disease.
How Much Does Mastitis Cost You?
The only way this question can be answered is to know how much mastitis is in your herd. Mastitis robs
you in many ways: reduced milk production; treatment cost; discarded milk; death and premature culling; decreased genetic advancement; and reduced milk quality. Reduced milk production accounts for
approximately 70% of the total loss associated with mastitis. Unfortunately, this loss is often not fully
appreciated by producers. First, it occurs at the subclinical level (the quarter is infected but the milk appears normal) and second, the loss is from less milk produced, which can be difficult to recognize.
How Effective is Your Mastitis Control Program?
Despite the losses associated with subclinical mastitis, most producers continue to evaluate the effectiveness of their control programs based on the number of cows with clinical signs. Since the number
of subclinical cases that eventually show up as clinical is quite variable, a producer cannot rely solely
on a record of the number of clinical cases to evaluate his/her control program. Further, this record may
actually be deceiving if producers expect the adoption of a proven management procedure to result in
a rapid reduction in the number of clinical cases. After control procedures are implemented, their effectiveness must be evaluated over a prolonged period of time and by a more sensitive indicator than
simply recording the number of clinical cases that occur.
Why Measure Somatic Cells?
Because mastitis is frequently subclinical or “hidden”, a number of tests have been developed for
detecting mastitis. Most tests estimate the somatic cell count (SCC) of a milk sample. The cell count for
“normal” milk is nearly always less than 200,000 cells/ml (lower for first lactation cows). Higher counts
are considered abnormal and indicate probable infection. Higher counts are also associated with decreased production.
How Should You Evaluate Your Herd Mastitis Control Program?
(1) BULK TANK SOMATIC CELL COUNTS (BTSCC), if conducted frequently and accurately, provide a general indication of a herd’s mastitis status. Research indicates that losses in milk production associated
with elevated BTSCC are higher than previously thought.
Table 1: Losses in milk production associated with elevated BTSCC.
BTSCC
%
(1000’s/ml)
Production Loss
Reduce SCC By:
200
0
(a)
Correct milking procedures, including milking time sanitation
500
6
(emphasizing dipping all teats immediately after each milking with a product
proven effective under controlled research conditions).
1000
18
(b)
Restore milking equipment to proper operating condition.
1500
29
(c)
Review other management practices such as the basis for culling, source of herd replacements, condition of lots and free stall bedding, etc.
(d)
Evaluate dry cow treatment and management program. Comparing each cow’s SCC before drying
off and a month after calving will give you an indication of the effectiveness of the dry cow treatment
used and dry cow management program.
What Should You Do With High SCC Cows?
The SCC program pinpoints problem cows. Unfortunately, even after problem cows are identified, management options for these cows are limited.
(1) SELECTING COWS FOR MASTITIS ID The major reason for elevation in SCC is intramammary infection.
Monthly individual cow SCC are good indicators of infections caused by the major contagious pathogens, Streptococcus agalactiae and Staphylococcus aureus. This is because these infections are usually
of long duration. Conversely, infections caused by the environmental pathogens (e.g., coliforms and
environmental streptococci) are often of shorter duration. Thus, infections by environmental organisms
may go unnoticed by a test administered only once each month. Although elevated SCC is an indicator
of probable intramammary infection, a distinction between contagious and environmental mastitis cannot be made on the basis of SCC alone. This distinction must be made by Mastitis ID test. Determining
whether problems are contagious or environmental is necessary to enable a producer to make decisions
regarding a herd’s mastitis control program.
An exact SCC threshold which always permits separation of infected from noninfected cows does not
exist. For initial herd screening purposes, selecting cows with a SCC of 500 or greater for milk culture
has been suggested.
(2) LACTATION TREATMENT. Some producers enroll in the SCC program expecting to use SCC as a basis
for treating individual cows. However, research has shown that when cows with a SCC exceeding 400
were treated there was very little effect on milk production during the remainder of that lactation.
Producers in danger of losing their market because of high BTSCC may find it necessary to treat cows
with high SCC during lactation. The last SCC, milk culture results, milk production, stage of lactation, and
age should be considered by the veterinarian and producer when selecting cows for treatment. Early
drying off and dry treatment should be used for cows in late lactation. Milk from cows with the highest
SCC in early to mid-lactation can be withheld from the bulk tank. Using this method, withholding milk
from only a few cows can lower the BTSCC by as much as 50% or more.
The number of times a cow is SCC 250 or greater in a lactation can indicate chronic problem cows requiring special attention. High SCC in early lactation, followed by a decrease later in lactation may
indicate problems with dry cow management, maternity pens, or dry cow therapy (often poor treatment
technique). SCC that generally rise throughout lactation are usually associated with cows infected by
contagious pathogens and may indicate problems with milking hygiene, milking equipment, milking
practices, or housing of the milking herd.
(3) DRY COW TREATMENT. The general recommendation is that all quarters of all cows be treated with
an intramammary antibiotic preparation at drying off. Dry treatment has a higher cure rate than lactation treatment, eliminating existing infections and preventing new infections during the early dry period.
If a producer decides to use selective dry cow therapy, SCC results can be used as a guide. It should be
noted however, that a selection procedure that results in dry treating all cows that had an elevated SCC
(400,000 cell/ml or greater) at any time during lactation will still fail to reach 20 to 50% of the infected
quarters. In addition, quarters not treated at drying off are more likely than treated quarters to become
infected during the early dry period.
(4) CULLING. Culling is often the most practical means for eliminating chronically infected cows. There
is little justification for keeping cows that have consistently high SCC, sporadic flare-ups, and infections
that persist in spite of dry cow treatment. These cows may be reservoirs of infection which may spread
to other cows during the milking process.
(5) MILKING ORDER. Consider managing cows with high SCC as you would cows with clinical mastitis.
Milk these cows last to decrease the spread of infection to uninfected cows during the milking process.
In many herds this may not be practical. An alternative method is to identify cows with high SCC by a
leg band and milk these cows with a separate milking unit.