 Choosing
and reviewing teat disinfectant
Teat
disinfectant helps keep your cows’ teat skin healthy and reduces the number of
bacteria likely to cause mastitis. It is important to choose the product you use
carefully. Don’t make a snap decision to change at the moment you purchase a
new drum. Factors to consider are:
Effectiveness:
The dairy industry relies
on the National Registration Authority’s registration process to ensure that
all products are effective in Australian dairying conditions. However, some may
be better suited to your particular situation.
Suitability
given your farm water quality:
Water that’s hard,
alkaline or contains chlorine may reduce the effectiveness of different active
ingredients in teat disinfectants and may form solids in the solution, which
block spray equipment. Testing your water enables you and your adviser to work
out which teat disinfectant is most compatible with the water quality you’re
using.
Occupational
health issues:
Skin reactions on the
hands of milking staff may be the result of an allergic response to a product.
It may also result from heavy exposure due to faulty settings on spray equipment
or poor operator technique. Assess how the disinfectant is being used and
whether the type of disinfectant should be changed if any staff member has an
adverse reaction. A review is appropriate when new staff begin milking.
Teat skin
reactions:
Teats should be regularly
checked to ensure the skin is supple and in good condition. It is important to
closely monitor changes when a new product is used.
Visibility:
You can more easily
assess whether you achieve good teat coverage if you use products, which are
visible on the teat skin.
Price:
Teat disinfectant
products vary considerably in price. To compare it’s helpful to calculate the
cost per cow per milking. To get good coverage Countdown recommends using 20mLs
of solution per cow per milking.
For example:
Product X is an iodine concentrate (Iodine 20g/L) in a 20 litre drum which costs
$110 including GST, and must be diluted 1 part to 3 parts water to make up 80
litres of final solution.
Nett cost =
$100
Cost / litre
of final solution = $100/80 = $1.25
Cost / 20mls
= 125x20/1000 = 2.5cents
Cost per cow
per milking = 2.5 cents
Shelf life:
Ensure that the quantity
purchased – in either concentrate or ready-to-use form – will be finished
prior to the expiry date specified on the label.
Field-testing
of ready-to-use products in Australia has shown good stability on farms,
provided they are stored according to label directions (under 30 degrees
Celsius, out of direct sun and in the original closed container) and used within
their shelf life. There is limited field experience with storage containers of
large volumes (over 1000 litres). Stability of iodine disinfectants may be
reduced if there is a large volume of air in a container, even if it is sealed.
Length:
475 words
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