Checklist to investigate SCC results that are out of spec

Suppliers are tested at almost every collection for somatic cell count (SCC) levels. Additionally, every load arriving on site is sampled on arrival and tested for SCC.

Bulk tank SCC should ideally be <150,000 cells/ml. This indicates that udder health and mastitis are under control in the herd. The average of the test results in the payment period will be used for payment purposes.

Somatic cell count (SCC) readings are measured given in thousands of cells, so if you get a text saying 5 – this means your result is actually 5,000 cells/ml, and if you get one of 500, this means your result is actually 500,000 cells/ml.

Results are communicated by either:

1.     An alert text is sent when the result is out of specification. This comes around midday - and highlights that there could be an issue. By alerting you in the middle of the day as soon as the result is available, this should give you time to check out possible problems before the next milking / next collection.

2.     A normal text that communicates all in specification results each evening.

The main areas to look at for investigating somatic cell count rises all relate back to the health of the cow and the milking process. Most critically it is all about stopping the spread of problems between infected cows to uninfected cows.

Check these areas out if you have received an out of spec alert for SCC.  Take corrective action where you identify problems.

CHECKLIST

The CellCheck Programme Top Five list is a great place to start for dealing with SCC issues. By implementing these five things you will drive down SCC and lower mastitis incidence on-farm and improve profitability.  The Tirlán Milk Supply Management team is available to assist with mastitis control.

GLOVE UP

• Ensure all milkers wear clean gloves at every milking. Less bacteria will reside on clean gloves than on your hands, and this will help reduce the spread of mastitis causing bacteria between cows. Do this for 2023 and review your herd’s SCC figure - you won’t believe the difference to SCC and your hands. And don’t worry.....no matter how big your hands are, there are gloves available to fit you!

TEAT DISINFECTION

• Completely cover every teat, of every cow, after every milking. It’s the most effective way to prevent new mastitis infections and reduce SCC.

MILK RECORD

• Milk recording allows you to identify problem cows and top performers. Organise the first milk recording within 60 days of calving to assess how effective your dry cow treatment has been, to monitor new infections and assess heifers early in the season.

CHANGE YOUR LINERS

• Liners should be changed after 2,000 milkings, or every 6 months, whichever comes first. Aged liners can cause slow and incomplete milking, and increase the risk of teat end damage and mastitis. If your herd size has been increasing, perhaps your liners are doing more milkings than you realised?

REGULAR MACHINE CHECKS

• Using simple and quick daily, weekly and monthly checks will keep your machine problem free, and provide an early warning if anything is amiss.

Other tools that will help include:

CALIFORNIA MASTITIS TEST KIT

Quick, cheap and easy to do using a CMT paddle on individual cows in the parlour during milking is the fastest way to identify which quarter is infected. These are available in all Tirlán Farm life branches. We have a video showing how to use these which is available on https://youtu.be/-UqQtng_L2s

MILK CULTURING AND SENSITIVITY

Our Central Lab at Tirlán will test a milk sample from an individual quarter to identify the cause of infection and the bacteria that have infected the cow. This will also help identify if the mastitis causing bacteria are environmental or contagious.

WORK WITH YOUR VET, MILK SUPPLY MANAGER, MILKING MACHINE TECHNICIAN  

Contact your Milk Supply Manager to investigate further.

ECONOMIC COST
The financial costs of SCC can be estimated for any individual farm on the CellCheck Teagasc calculator available on CostCheck Economic Calculator - Animal Health Ireland

CELLCHECK PROGRAMME
Further information is available on the CellCheck website - CellCheck - Animal Health Ireland

Further information can be found on our SCC Milk Quality Factsheet (part of our Milk Quality Factsheet series) HERE or contact your milk supply manager.

First Published 20 December 2022