Are you getting value for money using Dry Cow Treatment? Now is the perfect time to be asking this question because, if you are not satisfied, you can make a change for the better.

Dry Cow Treatment is used to cure existing cases of subclinical mastitis and to protect cows from infection with environmental bacteria during the dry period.

So you can measure the success of your Dry Cow Treatment by:

• The number of cows that cure over the dry period; and

• The number of clinical cases of mastitis that occur at calving.

To work out how many cows were cured of mastitis infection during the dry period you need to assess the herd’s milk recording data. On average, 70-80% of infected cows should cure with effective Dry Cow Treatment. Cows are persistently infected if they have cell counts above 250,000 cells/mL in two consecutive lactations, despite treatment with Dry Cow Treatment in the dry period in between. Your herd improvement organization can help you summarise and interpret the Individual Cow Cell Count data for the year.

Dry Cow Treatment also helps protect udders from new infections and can reduce the number of cases of mastitis at calving.

It is straightforward to assess whether the number of clinical cases at calving was high, provided you have kept permanent records. The Countdown Downunder Farm Guidelines for Mastitis Control recommends that you seek professional advice from your vet and consider Blanket Dry Cow Treatment if there are more than 5 clinical cases per 100 cows in the first month of lactation.

The key to a good Dry Cow Treatment strategy is having the right information available. If you don’t have sufficient information you should:

• Sign on for milk recording; and

• Start keeping records of clinical cases (the sort of information you need is shown in Fact Sheet E of the Countdown Downunder Farm Guidelines).

If you feel that last year’s drying-off strategy could have given better value for money, discuss your plans for this year with your vets. They can help you decide on Blanket or Selective treatment and the most appropriate product for your herd.

This is one example of how to use your records to help plan for change this year. Farm Guidelines 23 – 27 give a checklist of other information to review.

Image and caption
“Set up a sheet in a book or the milking shed to record information about clinical cases”

Countdown Downunder Farm Guideline or Technote
Farm Guidelines 13, 23, 24

Keywords
Dry Cow Treatment, review, professional advice, clinical cases, milk recording

Word length
393