Offering Milk Quality Programs for Producers

Brenda Moslock Carter, DVMKeseca Veterinary Clinic, PLLC

P.O. Box 267, 1441 State Routes 5 & 20Geneva, NY 14456

keseca@rochester.rr.com

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

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?

Bacteriology

Data Retrieval & Analysis

Field Observations

& Data Collection

Milk Quality Programs

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)

On-farm Services Part 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)

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

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)

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

On-farm Services Part III“Training”

• Sterile sample collection• CMT use• Milking procedures

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

Hemdale TES Herd Total Mar 2009 - Apr 2010

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Mar-09 Jul-09 Sep-09 Dec-09 Apr-10

Score 4

Score 3

1 & 2

Sep 1

2010

Sep 17

2010

Sep 29

2010

Oct 9 2

010

Oct 21

2010

Nov 2

2010

Nov 12

2010

Nov 22

2010

Dec 2

2010

Dec 14

2010

Dec 24

2010

Jan 5

2011

Jan 1

5 201

1

Feb 4

2011

Feb 14

2011

Feb 24

2011

Mar 8 2

011

Mar 22

2011

Apr 1 2

011

Apr 11

2011

Apr 21

2011

May 1

2011

May 11

2011

May 21

2011

Jun 4

2011

Jun 1

4 201

1

Jun 2

4 201

1

Jul 6

2011

Jul 1

6 201

1

Jul 2

6 201

1

Aug 8

2011

Aug 22

2011

Sep 3

2011

Sep 19

2011

Oct 5 2

011

Oct 27

2011

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

BTSCC Tank 1241

SCC

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

Using the data to look for trends

1st calf heifers – who were not yet receiving J5 prior to calving

Using trends to identify opportunities

Putting it all together: annual herd reviews

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)

Progress made – contagious mastitis

27

59

5 20

10

20

30

40

50

60

2004 2005 2006 2007

Staph Aureus Cultured from 2004 - 2007

St Aureus

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

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

Example from herd review

“Am I getting a return on my investment in

culturing?”“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

Money saved from culturing in 2007 = $24,077

Example from herd review