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Milk Recording – This Autumn
Ideally, do a recording now and then carry out some culturing and sensitivity testing on the high cows to establish what bacteria are present. These results then will help assist you in making a plan with your vet for your on farm approach to drying off cows.
The direction to move away from blanket dry cow treatment with antibiotics, has brought to the fore how important having individual information about which cows need treatment with antibiotics and which need only be treated with sealers.
Without individual milk recording information – you will need to do a CMT test with your vet or carry out separate SCC tests on cows to gather enough information to get the best approach to drying off. Milk recording is much simpler. Even if its only no you get going – you’ll have a Walther of information even after one recording.
Future of milk recording
The future of milk recording is changing with the potential for new technology to make the process easier. Changes in DAFM veterinary legislation also reinforce the need to milk record. The advantages are proven; the data gleaned helps encourage both higher adoption rates and gives better data on individual cows.
Why and when to milk record?
Even if you only now record for the first time - you will be able to immediately identify cows that have problems, including cows that were under the radar but have high SCC and low components. Every time you milk record you learn more about individual cows.
When is the right time to milk record?
It’s always the perfect time!
Carrying extra cows puts pressure on fodder stocks and stocking rates. You can use your milk recording to make better decisions on which cows are not as profitable as others. This is useful for breeding replacements, and to select which cows to keep longest in the herd.
Milk recording also quickly highlights which cows have increased in SCC since the last recording, and those that are not improving despite treatment. It also isolates the cows that contribute the mostto the bulk tank SCC level.
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DAFM Veterinary Legislation Selective dry cow treatment is a key strategy for all farmers to engage with to reduce blanket antibiotic use. This means selectively identifying individual cows in need of antibiotic treatment at drying off, and using teat sealer only to dry off those cows lacking evidence of mastitis. Key DAFM veterinary legislation means that you must have individual cow information for your vet to accurately prescribe dry cow antibiotics. Milk recording gives you and your vet the most accurate information to make the right decisions. |
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Clodagh Sherman – farming in Laois on the family farm and also working with Munster Bovine. “I have been working as a Milk Recording Coordinator and in 2019, we ventured into dairy farming and established our dairy herd. This year we decided to milk record for the first time as we have been aiming to improve our milk quality and put a greater emphasis on SCC. "The milk recording process was very simple – we chose the electronic do it yourself (EDIY) method because we have no sampling equipment in our milking parlour. This involves an EDIY Technician dropping the meters and equipment on farm which gives us time to get set up and carry out the recording ourselves."
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First Published 30 September 2024
Tagged with: Dairy