There’s money
to be saved by using existing dairy herd records to keep track of clinical cases
of mastitis and taking action before the costs get out of control.
The average
clinical case now costs about $230 – a significant increase brought about by
higher milk prices. This means that every four clinical cases costs about $1000!
Mastitis
treatment records are required for quality assurance (QA) programs, but they can
do much more for us than just pass a QA audit.
They can reveal
how many clinical cases occur each month, how well they respond to different
treatments and which dry cow therapy are likely to be effective in a herd.
On-farm PC
software programs can make the task easier – and they often satisfy QA
requirements as well.
And they can
make the analysis of mastitis records much easier. Simply print a mastitis
report each month and check them against the Countdown triggers.
Countdown
recommends taking action if a herd hits one of the Countdown triggers:
• more than
three clinical cases per 50 freshly-calved cows;
• more than five clinical cases per 100 cows in the first month of
lactation; or
• more than two clinical cases per 100 cows per month during lactation.
When a herd
hits one of these triggers, talk to an advisor. Have your records handy because
they will help to determine why clinical mastitis is occurring and what action
is needed.
Image and caption
"Use your computer to keep
permanent records of all clinical cases that you treat."
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