Conduct a physical exam on your milking system
Just because you perform regular maintenance on your milking system, such as rebuilding pulsators, it does not mean that a routine system evaluation is unnecessary.
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To treat or not to treat: It depends
Does intramammary treatment of heifers pre-calving increase subsequent milk production? Find out what one milk-quality specialist has to say.
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Bulk tank somatic cell count: Lowering the limit?
For decades, the legal limit for the bulk tank somatic cell count (BTSCC) in the U.S. has been 750,000 cells/mL. Above which, producers cannot ship their milk for sale.
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Is mastitis on your “dashboard”?
Do you know how much mastitis chips away at your profitability? To get help in determining this figure, check out this "dashboard" developed by Jeffrey Bewley, University of Kentucky extension dairy specialist. Use it to calculate and illustrate — to yourself and to your staff — the economic impact of mastitis due to lost milk production.
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Readers critical of SCC decision
On Friday, Dairy Herd Network asked how you felt about the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments decision last week not to lower that national standard for somatic cell counts (SCC) to 400,000 cells per ml.
Apparently that decision didn’t sit well with many of you. By a nearly three-to-one margin, poll respondents to this non-scientific poll said that they did not support the choice to leave national standards where they are.
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Proposed changes to SCC regulations defeated
The proposal to lower the U.S. somatic cell count regulatory level was rejected by a one-vote margin Wednesday at the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS).
Conference delegates voted 26 to 25 prior to the conclusion of the biennial meeting in Baltimore, Md., not to lower the U.S. Grade A standard to 400,000 cells per ml starting in 2014. Therefore, the current SCC regulatory limit of 750,000 cells per ml remains in effect.
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Tips to help ensure residue avoidance
Milk quality is of the utmost importance on a dairy. When mastitis management programs include treatment protocols, it is important for dairy producers to focus on strategies to avoid residues in milk and meat.
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Hospital barn procedures
The hospital herd can be milked in a separate parlor on some dairies or in the main parlor on other dairies. The choice is yours. Being in the hospital herd is stressful enough: new roommates, new place to eat and drink and guess what, and usually a new way to be milked.
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Solving a somatic cell count problem
Trying to solve a somatic cell count problem is often like trying to solve a crime.
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Milk quality continues to improve
Each year, test-day data from all herds enrolled in Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) somatic cell count (SCC) testing in the United States are examined to assess milk quality on a national basis. Results highlighted in a new USDA report show an uptick in milk quality due to the downward trend for SCC.
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DCHA tip of the week: Flies and bad habits
"Most of the heifer mastitis I see is related to two things," says contract heifer grower and veterinarian Don Gardner.
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- Showers to slow U.S. corn seedings from blistering pace
- White House urges Senate to cut crop insurance in farm bill
- Corn market reacted poorly to the Crop Progress data
- 4 rules for growing a business or industry
- Corn planting pace turns from record slow to record fast
- Ag markets seemed to follow gold higher Monday afternoon
