02-Uncaster Fanning, Saturday, December 18, 1998 _ . _ _ _ _ Central Milk Testing Lab Notes (Continued from Page C 4) the cell count doubles and milk production, decreases accord ingly. For each increase of one linear score, the average loss is 1.5 pounds of milk per cow per day for,cows with multiple lac tations. For first calf heifers the milk production loss is estimat ed at 0.75 pounds per day per cow. This loss in milk produc tion adds up over time, espe cially when many cows in the herd have high linear scores. Much information about your herd’s performance can be gained when reviewing the sheet titled PENNSYLVANIA DHIA SCC MANAGEMENT REPORT. RAW SCC and MEAN LS; The effectiveness of your mas titis control program can be summed by by evaluating the Raw SCC and the Mean LS. The Raw SCC is calculated by multiplying the SCC times the pounds of milk produced, then divided by the number of milk ing cows. The Raw SCC is converted into the Mean LS. Raw SCC is not a true aver age of the herd’s SCC, but weighted by milk production. Therefore, it can give an indi cation of milk quality. The Raw SCC will be different from your bulk tank count be cause not all milk may be go ing into the bulk tank. Some milk may be withheld because of treatment or other reasons. LOSSES DUE TO HIGH SCC LEVELS: Producers need to be concerned about what mastitis is costing them in lost milk production. Losses due to high SCC levels spells out how milk was not produced by your cows this month and how much this affected your milk check. CURRENT INFECTION STATUS offers another way of looking at your herd’s mastitis situation. The cows are subdi vided into first lactation and multiple lactation groups. It is important to understand each category. New listing will be any cow with a LS of 4 or higher for the first time during this lactation. Cows with a current infection have LS of 4 or higher this month. This will include the new cows. Chronic cows have LS of 4 or higher for two months. They may not neces sarily be consecutive months, nor do they need to be a current infection. Since a cow can be entered in one or more categor ies, the numbers will not need to add logically. DAYS IN MILK: The in formation at the bottom of the page takes the above data and looks at it in a different light by showing the percentage of mastitis infections in each stage of lactation. USING AGE AND STAGE OF LACTATION TO HELP CONTROL MASTITIS PROBLEMS Since heifers should not be exposed to the organisms caus ing mastitis before freshening their LS should be low. Hope fully only a few cows in this group will become infectec during their first lactation. Exposure to organisms caus ing mastitis increases through out the lactation period. Infec tion rates often increase after 200 to 250 days in milk. In crease in LS at this time is due to a mastitis infection and not a decrease in milk production. When setting up a mastitis con trol program, set herd goals. A high percentage of your cows should have LS below 4. A very small percentage should have LS above 6 or 7. If you have a small herd, one cow with a high LS can throw the percentages off. Another way to set your mastitis control goals is by planning to cut your Raw SCO in half every year. For farms with a moderate to high Raw SCC, this goal should be easy to achieve. Re member efforts to lower an al ready Raw SCC will mean more milk going into your bulk tank. While trying to understand your herd’s mastitis problem, you need to look for patterns that have been set by your herd. This means looking at informa tion on individual cows. This is found on the report named COWS WITH HIGHEST LINEAR SCC THIS MONTH. Of all that is on this sheet, three columns will offer the most information concerning what led to this month’s masti tis problem. They are the Per cent-Bulk Tank, Times Severe, and Date First Infected. When thinking of milk qual ity, you need to know v 1 mals are putting the so matic cells in the tank. This is true especially if you’re close to losing or have lost your pre mium. On this sheet, cows are listed in descending order by their Testday SCO Linear Score. The Percent Bulk Tank gives the percentage of cells high SCC cows are contribut ing to the bulk tank. It may be desirable to withhold milk from high SCC cows until their count is lowered. DATE FIRST INFECTED: To gain ideas to possible caus es of your mastitis problems, look at the date of first infec tion colufnn. Determine what months had the most numbers of new infections. During these times something caused a breakdown in your mastitis control program. Ask yourself several questions. Was there a new milker? Were some milk ing procedures changed? Was there a breakdown in the milk ing equipment? Was a newly purchased cow added to the herd that could have brought in contagious organisms? Or can it all be blamed on the weath er? Now that you have an idea where the breakdown occur red, make changes to correct or prevent them from happening , again. By looking at how many times a cow was severe during her lactation will help in decid ing her disposition. She will be listed as severre each time her LS is 4 and above. Of course deciding to cull her or to dry her off early will depend upon several factors. Her age or numbers of lactations, and if she is confirmed pregnant are just a few considerations. To be able to fight mastitis successfully, knowing what bacteria is causing problems is helpful. Have your veterinarian or a trained person take ascep tic milk samples from a repre sentative group of cows with SCC scores 5 or higher. These cows should not have been treated for at least 5 days prior to sampling. Samples should be cultured to leam what or ganisms are causing the masti tis. They should also be checked for antibiotic resis tance to determine the best drug therapy. In summary, what you can leam from the individual Cow GEORGE CUDOC JR. Consulting Dairyman STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) Dairy farmers and peo ple that provide service to them are changing at a very rapid rate. One of the biggest changes is in the use of in formation on farms. It is a vast change that the dairy industiy is beginning to embrace and is brought on by several key is sues. First in line is the concept that information is power. The very first step to implementa tion of new management ideas is to be able to evaluate what was done in the past. Perform ance records are a guiding light to the future by studying past and current milk production and factors that influence them. Knowing where we’ve been and why is the key to future goals and how to achieve them. Second, we see the dairy in dustry relying less on tradition. Even though past generations did as they saw best for the time, modem dairies often need to break tradition and operate completely different than that of their immediate predecessor. Less fear of being different is apparent on many farms, and willingness to change and be different accel erates progress within any in dustry. Tradition is now used as a learning tool for progress and not accepted as the way to do things just because Dad and Granddad did it that way. Thirdly, we have greater ac cess than ever before to infor mation. Computers have cre ated this change by being able to retrieve large amounts of statistics and manipulate those statistics into trend setting ideas. As we advance further into this new world we com pare the past with the present more easily. This alone will create faster changes in the fu ture. ' Til~ Lastly, DHIA plays a heavy role in creating change for the future. Those participants in a DHIA program provide the vast majority of information that generates change. Gene tics, milk quality, reproductive management, disease control, and nutrient management all rely totally on the review of SCC can give you an idea on how to lower your herd’s Raw SCC and Mean LS. By finding chronically infected cows, management procedures can be practiced to help meet your goals. 1. Milk high SCC cows last. 2. Dry high SCC cows off early. 3. Don’t put milk from high SCC cows in the bulk tank, es pecially if close to losing pre mium. 4. Don’t buy mastitis. Check SCC before purchasing. SCC should be less than 4. CHECK LIST THAT HELPS TO LOWER SCC 1. Have all milking equip ment checked by a qualified Information On The Farm statistical information com piled in the DHIA system. PA DHIA has faced these is sues in the past and intends to do so in the future. The newest attempt at making records work for the industry is provid ing consulting services. Dairy Operations And Marketing STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) A very aggressive mar keting plan has been put into action at PA DHIA which has resulted in a high substantial amount of new owner sampler herds. Since October 1997, there has been a very success ful 37 percent increase in herds which includes a 5,000-cow in crease in just one year. These statistics, are a direct result in technician willingness to pro mote their product in a positive and knowledgeable manner. The low cost owner sampler program, which is USD A ap- The 1997-98 PaDHIA test year was completed on Septem ber 30, 1998. Pennsylvania DHIA averages for breeds with 15 or more herds are listed below. Herds averaged 72.7 cows per herd, an increase of 1.5 cows over the last year. Com- Breed Ayrshire 18 Guernsey 20 Holstein 2286 Jersey 92 B. Swiss 15 Mixed 173 All Breeds 2609 Cow Removals Data from the 1997-98 PaD HIA test year show that 32.3 percent of the cows in tested herds were removed. This is up from 31.1 percent for the previ ous year. Removals can be divided into two categories: voluntary and involuntary. The Aggressive Marketing Proves Successful DEAN AMICK Director Of Field 1997-98 PaDHIA Statistics Herds service person twice a year. 2. Use good milking hygiene when prepping before milking. Use single service paper towels to wash teats. 3. Dip all teats after milking. 4. Dry treat all quarters when cows are dried off. 5. Keep udders clean be tween milkings. 6. Prevent injuries to udder and teats. 7. Cull chronic problem cows who don’t respond to treatment. 8. Keep housing and loafing areas clean. 9. Identify predominant or ganisms causing mastitis in herd by culturing. farm personnel and the advis ors that service them can use this tool to interpret DHIA in formation. A better under standing will lead to dairy farm improvement that will keep up with the fast changing world around us. proved, allows today’s modem dairymen the proper manage ment tools to make proper de cisions within their herd. An other way of utilizing this pro gram is to cash in on young sire benefits available through your AI company. Currently, PA DHIA is the national leader with 83 percent of all records being used by USDA. This is direct reflection of the training and professionalism our tech nician force demonstrates. Our competition doesn’t even come close to meeting these useable record requirements. Call 1-800-344-8378 to see how you can benefit from partici pating in a testing program through PA DHIA. pared to last year, production was up 714 pounds of milk, 30 pounds of milkfat and 21 pounds of protein per cow. This is the second year in a row that major gains have occurred in production per cow. Milk 15206 14502 20377 14357 17988 16555 19814 ratio of involuntary culling (83.2) to voluntary removals (16.8) is widening with each -passing year. This is an unfa vorable trend. Comparisons with other regions of the coun try are scarce although Virginia recently reported a removal rate of 36 percent on 502 herds. Protein 502 508 646 532 625 541 633
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers