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

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

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

1 st 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 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 = $ 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