Key Messages

• Heifers are vulnerable to infection because of biological and social changes in late pregnancy and early lactation.
• Take extra care with heifers at calving and in early lactation to minimise mastitis.
• Mastitis in heifers threatens the future profitability of the herd.
• To prevent mastitis, management of heifers must be focussed on reducing the number of bacteria around the teats and ensuring teat tissues are healthy.
• It is possible to minimise mastitis in heifers with activities that are generally low cost.
• Seek advice if more than 3 cases of mastitis occur in 50 heifer calvings.

Contents

1. Manage your heifers before calving to prevent mastitis
   
2. Special milking routines for fresh heifers
   
3. Helping heifers with tight, tender teats
   
4. Will your machines give comfortable, complete milkout in fresh heifers?
   
5. Is heifer mastitis shaping into a problem on your farm?
   
6. All the grabs in MS Word

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