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Countdown Downunder congratulates Gippsland farmers with bulk milk cell counts in the lowest 5% across Australia
Wet paddocks muddy milk cell issue By: MONICA JACKSON Gippsland's weather patterns cause special problems. MONICA JACKSON reports CLOSE attention to cow management during drying off and calving is essential for preventing mastitis, Gippsland's Countdown Downunder project manager Carol Bradshaw said. Ms Bradshaw
said Gippsland's erratic rain pattern meant some paddocks became muddy very
quickly, which increased the problems of environmental mastitis. ``We've had six inches (15cm) of rain in five days in some parts of south and west Gippsland and the paddocks are pretty wet,'' she said. Ms Bradshaw said most farmers were getting ready for calving and needed to take extra care. This week we list the Gippsland winners of The Weekly Times Countdown Downunder Milk Quality Awards and look at how they achieved being among Australia's best. The awards are co-ordinated by Countdown Downunder, the national program set up in 1998 to equip farmers with information and strategies to lower their herd milk cell count. High cell counts in milk are caused by mastitis. Countdown Downunder director Pauline Brightling said udder infections during the dry period could be minimised by actions during drying-off. ``The aim is to shut down milk secretion and allow the teat canal to seal as rapidly as possible,'' she said. Dr Brightling said cows were especially susceptible to new mastitis infections in the early dry period because the sealing process took about two weeks. She said intermittent milking impeded teat sealing and practices such as ``skip-a-day'' milking greatly increased the risk of mastitis. ``After each lactation, dairy cows require a sufficiently long dry period to allow the udder tissue to repair and rejuvenate,'' she said. A minimum of
six weeks, but preferably eight weeks, was recommended between drying-off and
calving to allow many of the milk-producing cells to be removed and replaced,
she said. |
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