The majority of Australian dairy farmers use a spray to apply post-milking teat disinfection. Spraying generally requires an application of about 20ml per cow at each milking to achieve good coverage of all the teats, and at current costs this commonly works out to somewhere about 2½ - 3 cents per cow per milking. 

For a 305 day lactation in a year, this means a cost of about $15 - 18 per cow per year for twice-a-day milking. Naturally the cost will increase by 50% for any period of three-times-a-day milking.

The return on investment comes from the reduction in new infection rates – the pay off comes from reduced cell counts, less clinical cases, and the knowledge that teat disinfection is a major part of the farm’s risk management for mastitis.

Having invested in the purchase and preparation of the teat disinfectant, the return on the investment is then highly dependant on the actual application of the product to the cows’ teats.

The maximum return on the investment will come from the cows regularly receiving good coverage of the whole teat surface of all four teats at every milking.

Quite often the difference between good coverage and poor coverage may be only a matter of a second or two. To find out how long it takes your spray system to deliver 20ml, spray into an empty syringe or container and note the time taken to achieve 20ml – this is how long you should be taking with each cow.

The other key factor is the spray technique.  Each dairy and spray system is slightly different – a little time spent during one milking on exploring techniques and spray angles that achieve good coverage will increase the return on investment at no extra cost in time or product!

You’ve spent the money on the spray system and on your teat disinfection product – it is the coverage of the teats that will determine the return on that investment!!

Length:  333 words