Plan now to reduce mastitis on your farm in 2001

Most of us have a crack at personal reflection and planning as the New Year rolls in. On the dairy farm it’s a good time to step back from the day-to-day issues, and think about how you can plan to keep your cell counts low over the coming year.

Most seasonal herds now have calving behind them. A bit of planning can make a real difference for late lactation and set you up right for the next season.

Did you, for example, have more clinical cases at calving than you wanted? A lot of clinical cases at calving come from infections that start at drying off. So a “repeat performance” could be avoided next year. Drying off is so important for mastitis control and can go so much better with a little planning.

On year-round calving farms there is often a small break from other activities in January that allows some time for planning.

Best practice requires planning

One of the most important (but least read) sections of the Countdown Farm Guidelines is about review and planning. We advise you to “involve all members of staff and family working on the farm in developing and reviewing mastitis control activities and achievements”.  This is easy to say and often much harder to actually do. So here are some tips from farms that are getting results.

Set aside a specific time to talk about mastitis control.

Some of the best farms I work with now have a regular meeting time for staff (employed or family). Just one hour once a week is needed. Start now, and dedicate at least one meeting to mastitis review.

Use someone from outside the farm to help you get the most out of the exercise.

Often when there are a lot of factors or people to take into account, someone from off the farm can help keep everything in focus. A couple of farmers I know run some meetings on each other’s farms. Others get their vet or field officer to help the team work through an issue.

Break down a big topic into “do-able” chunks.

Mastitis control is a big area. It is useful to discuss particular aspects, for example, “what happened with the fresh cows this year?” or “how will we dry off the high producing cows next autumn?”

Use your own records and figures to assess where you are now.

There’s the old saying “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.

Dig into your records to find out exactly what did happen and when. Counting up numbers of clinical cases and looking over cell counts from the factory and herd improvement can provide quite a different picture from first impressions and give a clearer story.

Use your vet or other adviser to help you interpret the numbers.

Listen to every member of your milking team

A farmer recently told me that listening to his milking staff had made more difference to effective milking practices on his farm this year than everything else he had done in the previous 5 years combined. He took the time to get comments from everyone, listened, and acted. This seemed simple but I thought it was actually a pretty gutsy reflection on his part.

Celebrate your successes.

I know it’s easy to pass over reaching a goal, because there is always a “next thing” coming up, but all your staff can share in celebrating a goal reached.

One family farm I know that had a very good run with Bulk Milk Cell Counts for two years running (in the top 10 ranking for their factory) had a night out specifically to celebrate it. I met one of the daughter-in-laws a few months later and she said in passing that they had been having a really hard time over a totally different matter, but she added “I don’t mind him working so hard at the moment, we have to do it, and I know when we did well at the factory his contribution was appreciated”.

Start now

The only way to make progress is to plan. Preparation for drying-off is a good place to start. Sit down with your whole milking team and your adviser, to choose and plan your dry cow strategy and prepare for low cell counts and a 2001 free from mastitis problems.

Pauline

Using the Farm Guidelines to improve milk quality

The Farm Guidelines are recognised by the Australian dairy industry as best practice for mastitis control and over half Australia’s dairy farms have a copy.

The following are some suggestions to help you get the best value from your copy.

• Hold a discussion group meeting on practical mastitis control, using the Farm Guidelines as a resource;

• Keep a copy in the shed for action and a copy in the office for reference
  and planning;

• If you need additional copies get them from your local vet, tech or dairy adviser

The Farm Guidelines give Australian dairy farmers the edge in bringing cell counts down.

We are confident that the Countdown Guidelines are unmatched worldwide as a comprehensive and practical on farm manual to control mastitis. 

From the Farm Guidelines

When do you test your milking machine?

Machine malfunctions cause teat damage and increase the risk of mastitis infection. Regular testing, service and maintenance of milking equipment will improve the speed and completeness of milking, and will help reduce mastitis.

Get a milking machine technician to conduct a complete dry test at least once a year for all systems (or after each 1,500 - 2,000 hours of operation). Use a technician who has a National Certificate in Testing, an AMMTA certificate or equivalent experience.

It's also worthwhile considering a quick series of dry tests after each 500 - 1,000 hours of machine operation as part of your maintenance contract with your milking machine technician. This includes checking the vacuum level, effective reserve, and function of the regulator and pulsators.

You should organise additional and immediate testing if any of the following are observed:

• Cows appear to milk slowly or incompletely

• Teatcups slip or fall frequently

• Teat condition is poor

• Cows appear nervous or uncomfortable

Don't put off making changes because you haven't time to do anything straight away or because you haven't budgeted for them. Ask your milking machine technician to tell you which changes are urgent, and which can be done later on. Make a plan that fits in with your work commitments and cash flow, and set target dates for each of the changes.

Read Farm Guidelines 23-27 for more information. 

Graeme Mein profile

Graeme Mein is one of the driving forces behind Countdown Downunder. Over the last couple of years he has played a major role in writing and editing the Farm Guidelines, Technotes, and the Adviser Short Course.

Graeme is a Victorian boy who did tertiary studies in agriculture in New Zealand before developing his interest in milking machines with the Victorian Department of Agriculture.

During his PhD studies at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, at Reading in England, he worked on the '5 point plan' for mastitis control. 

Graeme’s research into teat physiology and the impact of milking machines provides part of the intellectual foundation to the Farm Guidelines. 

Graeme also established the Milking Research Centre at Werribee in the seventies - the forerunner to the new National Milk Harvesting Centre.

Graeme is currently a Professorial Fellow with the Department of Animal Production, University of Melbourne. He has recently returned to Australia after several years in the United States as a Director of Research in a joint chair between the University of Wisconsin and Bou-Matic.