In an attempt to analyze the herd's udder health status it is helpful to study
infection patterns by lactation number, stage of lactation and seasons of the year. My last
column focused on herd SCC trends by stage of lactation and by seasons of the year.
Near the center of the Raleigh Herd Summary Report is a table that groups the
herd by Ist lactation, 2nd lactation, and 3+ lactations. A portion of that table is shown
below. I labeled it as Table 1
NUMBER
AVERAGE
*o£
COWS
ISTLACT
2ND LACT
3♦LACTS
ALL
LACTATIONS
Table 1, in this example, shows a disturbing trend. Normally, we expect two-year-
olds to be relatively free of mastitis. In this example we see problems in the Ist lactation
group. Almost one-fourth (22%) are severely infected; 11% have code 5 level of
infections and another 11 % are very severely infected at SCC codes of 7 and above!
This causes one to ask, what happened in the two-year old group that caused them
to be so high? Were a lot of these heifers sucked? Did you make changes in your heifer
program over the last two years housing, feeding, etc? Are the Ist lactation cows housed,
fed and managed separately from the older cattle? Were they exposed to different bedding
materials? Did they have a lot of calving problems? Whatever the cause, the problem merits
immediate attention.
There are several places where you can conveniently compare test-day SCC data for
individual cows. In the Penna. system, these comparisons can be made on the Monthly Lactation
Report and on the SCC Management Report. Both of these reports show cow's SCC codes for
the last test day.
On the Raleigh system test-day SCC comparisons for individual cows can be made on the
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Swathar'a Cholcm is a liquid hay drying agent that will reduce curing time by
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GLENN’S
UDDERINGS
Table
PROJECTED ME
305 DAY
AVG
PEAK
TEST
DAY
PROD
HAY CHEMICALS AND APPLICATION EQUIPMENT
HARVEST
TEC
By
Glenn A. Shirk
Lancaster Extension
Dairy Agent
)UNT rOf
% COWS SCC SCORE
0 12 3
PROTEIN
BELOW
142000
264 000
565 000
(42000
213 000
76
available from
Available from: • Hoober Mill 717-768-3431
• David O. Fink 215-767-1408
Monthly Report (DHI-200 or the DHI-210 report) and on the SCC Custom Management Report.
The DHI-200 Monthly Report and the SCC Custom Management Report. The DHI-200
Monthly Report and the SCC Custom Management Report show codes for this test day as well as
for the previous test day. The DHI-210 Monthly Report lists SCC codes for the last 10 months.
A section of the DHI-210 report is shown in Table 2.
Table 2
mENT M(
several examples. Cow 5 has had elevated counts both lactations. She went dry with a
7 0 9
OVER
t 130 000
566 000
1 130 00(
code 4 and freshened with a code 5, and continued to climb for 2 months. Is she chronic
and did she fail to respond to dry treating? Or, was she not dry-treated? Was she treated
after the 3rd test and was it successful? Did cow 32 pick up an infection at calving time?
Cows 16 and 89 have consistently good scores.
treatments on individual cows.
and may not be a true indication of individual cows infection status. Thus, it should not
be used as a guide for deciding which cows to treat. However, it is an excellent guide for
spotting problem and suspect cows that need to be cultured or checked with a CMT
paddle or by various other methods,
is useful when troubleshooting udder health problems and when evaluating herd
management practices
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Sa/er'a Cholct is a buffered propionic acid preservative that will allow for baling
up to 30% moisutre without corroding equipment.
The 10-month comparisons can be very useful, which I will try to illustrate with
The DHI-210 report can help you evaluate the effectiveness of various mastitis
The SCC information on your DHIA reports reflects what has happened in the past
The DHIA SCC data is very good in revealing trends and infection patterns, which
Penn State Cooperative Extension is an affirmative action, equal opportunity,
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 5, 1993-A29
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