Somatic
BY
DR. GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. - Mastitis has
been discussed and described for
more than 100 years. With the
advent of milking machines some
80 years ago, the interest in
mastitis intensified because often
it was blamed on the machines.
Yet today’s milking machines are
on the verge of becoming fully
automatic from attachment,
stimulation, detachment to
mastitis monitoring and the
making of milk discarding
decisions.
The most valuable recent
development in mastitis control
has been the use of monthly
somatic cell testing of individual
cows as part of the DHIA program.
This program allows dairy farm
ers to manage herd udder health
much more successfully than ever
before, because somatic cell
counts are directly related to
udder infections.
Somatic cell counts can answer a
number of questions. They can tell
you whether your herd’s heifer
raising program is providing new
springers with clean, uninfected
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Cell Counts
udders. They can tell you if your
dry-cow program has positive or
negative effects on the herd’s
udder health. And they can show if
the daily milking herd en
vironment causes an increase in
udder infections.
The somatic cell count program
is a monthly report card on each
cow with respect to her udder
health. Raw cell counts in 100,000 s
per milliliter milk and a so-called
“linear score” tell the story.
The magic number is “5” on the
linear score because it means
400,000 cells and a normally
healthy udder, although lower
scores do occur. For cows with
linear scores of less than 5, any
culture of their milk will usually be
negative in 90 percent of all
samples. Cows with more than a
linear score of 5 usually have
positive cultures for pathogens.
Linear scores are also an in
dication of milk wasted; that is,
not produced by the cow because of
subclinical or clinical infections.
For each linear score step, an
average 1.5 pounds of milk per cow
per day is wasted, or about 400
pounds per lactation.
A linear score increase from 2 to
7 (5 steps), means a rise in somatic
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cell count from 50.000 to 1,600,000.
That means 7.5 pounds of wasted
milk per cow per day. For the
entire herd, if that score was the
herd average, it means 3,000
pounds per cow per lactation, or
210,000 pounds of milk for a herd of
70 cows. That amounts to $23,100
less income for that herd for the
year due to wasted milk.
So you see how important
somatic cell testing can be when
you’re trying to survive the
present profit squeeze!
High counts on individual cows
can mean several tilings chronic
problems, fresh cows, late lac
tations or acute problems.
Sometimes only one of the four
udder quarters is the problem.
After somatic cell counts, the
next step in diagnosis is to get out
the California Mastitis test paddle
or the electronic cowside con
ductivity meter and check each
quarter for possible isolation and
treatment.
Milking procedures, milking
machine maintenance, the
vacuum, udder and pipeline
washing procedures, teat dipping,
between-cow back-flushing and
dry-cow treatments leave ab
solutely no room for “left-
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handed,” halfway measures.
Somatic cell counts quickly tell
whether every step in the
procedures was exactly right or
only more or less right.
If more than one-third of your
first-calf heifers have linear scores
above 4, suspect udder infection
and start preventive measures on
them.
If somatic cell counts increase as
lactation days increase, sub
clinical mastitis is being spread
during milking and you should
t&pr* -*'~t"«-here.
Sui
(Continued from Page A3O)
milk manufacturing facilities on a
large scale over the years to un
dergird their bargaining purposes
and to guarantee their members a
market. An estimated 77 percent of
producer milk in the U.S. is
marketed through cooperatives.
When the manufacturing facilities
are running near capacity, which
is the case in periods of excess
milk supply, the manufacturing
facilities generally are in a
breakeven to a profit-making
If somatic cell counts are highest
in early lactation, suspect mastitis
causes in the calving stall and dry
cow environment. These causes
could include dirty bedding, mud,
cold concrete -floors on which
udders lie, or just too much
manure where the cows are
resting.
Mastitis waste can be effectively
reduced today using the available
tools. Taking steps to do so is one
way to ease the present profit
squeeze on dairy farms.
/ Management
situation.
A mandatory supply
management program that could
effectively reduce supplies would
lead to a situation of some excess
capacity, higher operating costs,
and lower savings for farmer
members.
Competition for producer milk
would intensify with mandatory
supply management. Producers
would find new pricing and hauling
incentives to switch sales outlets
and memberships.
One effect of the competition
would be to boost producer prices
above the prices stipulated in the
base program. Also, dairy
cooperatives would find them
selves in a stronger position to
bargain for higher over-order
premiums. The strong upward
pressures on producer prices that
a supply management program
would generate could mean that
the program would have to in
corporate price ceilings as well as
price minimums in order to serve
the public interest.
Imports
A last market implication that
should be reorganized is that a
tight supply-demand situation
brought on by a base program
could invite increased imports of
dairy products. In 1973 and 1974,
import quotas were relaxed
substantially when milk produc
tion dropped abruptly and markets
were short of milk.
A supply management program
cannot be managed or ad
ministered perfectly and ad
ditional imports could be required
again to assure adequate supplies.
Finally, a word about the politics
of supply management is ap
propriate. It will never go
anywhere in Federal legislation
until a large majority of milk
producers clearly indicate that a
mandatory base plan is what they
want.
If a vote were taken today, it is
not clear that 67 percent or even 51
percent of the dairy farmers in this
country would support mandatory
bases. The difference among dairy
farmers would be everywhere—
between neighbors, between dairy
cooperatives, and between
regions.
Beyond that, Congress has its
doubts, and the current Ad
ministration has already drawn its
line—NO. So we are looking at a
program that is three to five years
away at best.
A quota program is a serious
alternative. Our challenge is to
further evaluate its long-term
benefits and costs in formulating a
dairy price policy that effectively
serves its objectives. We should
look closely at all the aspects of
this approach before we leap.
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