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Offering Milk Quality Programs for Producers

Offering Milk Quality Programs for Producers. Brenda Moslock Carter, DVM Keseca Veterinary Clinic, PLLC P.O. Box 267, 1441 State Routes 5 & 20 Geneva, NY 14456 keseca@rochester.rr.com. Why focus on milk quality and do cultures in-house?. New service you can provide

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Offering Milk Quality Programs for Producers

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  1. Offering Milk Quality Programs for Producers Brenda Moslock Carter, DVM Keseca Veterinary Clinic, PLLC P.O. Box 267, 1441 State Routes 5 & 20 Geneva, NY 14456 keseca@rochester.rr.com

  2. Why focus on milk quality and do cultures in-house? • New service you can provide • Generates on-farm consulting opportunities • Win/win for you & client • Improving milk quality improves profits • Allows you to make informed treatment recommendations • Pathogen-specific protocols

  3. Milk Quality & Udder Health Individual cow level • What’s causing the infection? • Does it need to be treated? • If so, what drug and for how long? • Does she need to be handled differently? • Ex – contagious pen Herd level • What bugs are the major players? • What risk factors are present? • Environmental? • Equipment? • Milking procedures? • How are the cows’ natural defenses? • Teat ends?

  4. Milk Quality Programs

  5. Services our lab provides • Individual cultures with specific treatment recommendations • Bulk tank cultures, bedding & towel cultures, bacterial counts (ex. Colostrum, pasteurized waste milk) • Mycoplasma referred out at this time • enhanced mycoplasma surveillance by pooling clinical samples (max. 10/pool)

  6. On-farm ServicesPart I “People & Cows” • Parlor Analysis • Milking routine • Order, timing, consistency • Milk flow (Lactocorder) • Teat-dip coverage • Hygiene (cows, teat ends, towels, units) • Unit alignment • Record any changes made since last visit (teat dip, type of liner, personnel, etc)

  7. Equipment Needed: • Stopwatch • Headlamp (if scoring teats) • Pens, forms &/or hand-held units • Lactocorder if doing flow-analysis • Camera Your very best “big picture” observation skills

  8. Herd scoring • Teat end scoring • Hygiene scoring • *Record current pen-definitions each time you score cows! • (i.e. first calf heifers, late lactation cows, Staph / mastitis pen, etc)

  9. On-farm services Part II“Machinery” • Milking equipment analysis • NMC protocol • Stopwatch, flowmeter, Vacuum Recorder • Milk system cleaning analysis • NMC protocol • Important if troubleshooting high bacteria count problem

  10. On-farm Services Part III“Training” • Sterile sample collection • CMT use • Milking procedures

  11. Data Analysis • Summarize findings from Parlor Analysis • Compare current scores with previous scores • Download regular monitoring reports for vet’s herd health visit • Summarize culture data for vet • Download BTSCC & bacteria data from co-ops

  12. Using the data to look for pathogen trends in DC305 • EGRAPH feature in DCOMP • Select CULTURE event • Check box for “Use Scatter” • Choose “Event Date” for X-axis • Choose “Result/Remark” for legend

  13. Using the data to look for trends

  14. Using trends to identify opportunities 1st calf heifers – who were not yet receiving J5 prior to calving

  15. Putting it all together: annual herd reviews

  16. Successful programs are herd-specific • Need to find out what the dairy’s goals &/or concerns are • Problem-oriented (Ex. Eliminate contagious mastitis) • Quality-oriented (Ex. Reduce BTSCC to achieve the next tier in quality payments) • Efficiency-oriented (Ex. Increase parlor throughput)

  17. Example from herd review Progress made – contagious mastitis

  18. Example from herd review The Economics of Culturing • 522 cases cultured last year • Based on your results: • 18% Treat • 36% Maybe treat (case by case) • 45% No treat • If 50% of the “Maybe”s treated: • 190 Treated • 332 Not treated Cost of culturing = $5350.50

  19. Example from herd review The Economics (cont’d)….. • Drug cost for treating 1 cow for 3 days with Spectramast LC = $9.21 • Milk discard for each treated cow = 6 days (3d tx + 3d withdrawl) • Assuming avg 70 lbs production for mastitis cow & milk price $18.78/cwt: cost of milk discard for tx’d cow = $78.88

  20. “No culturing - treat all mastitis” Cultures = $0 Drugs = $4808 Milk discard = $41,173 Total cost = $45,981 “Culture & treat based on results” Cultures = $5351 Drugs = $1731 Milk discard = $14,822 Total cost = $21,904 Example from herd review “Am I getting a return on my investment in culturing?” Money saved from culturing in 2007 = $24,077

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