DHIA
Question: Bulk tank SCC
has increased for the past two
years in our herd, yet we are
not seeing any more signs of
mastitis. Can this be from
differences in SCC testing?
DHIA testing of SCC has not
changed significantly m recent
years. Bulk tank SCC or weighted
SCC as it is sometimes referred to
is the raw count of cells per
volume of milk multiplied by the
total volume of milk. DHIA then
reports the calculated SCC of the
total milk produced by the herd.
This should be similar to the SCC
measurement of a representative
sample of milk taken from the
bulk tank.
Let us first look at some of the
recorded DHIA information for
the herd. Actually I want to look
at some very specific parts of the
herd to see why it is not apparent
that the WSCC is going to be
higher. The following will look at
the past two years of cows and
their SCC as they are tested for
the first time following calving.
The left side of the chart is the
information about fresh cow
infection for the period two years
ago and we see that the summer
months are the most troublesome.
June new infections were double
the average for the year. If we
then look at the right side of the
chart we see that the summer
months were again the start of a
lot of new infections. The
difference now is that the problem
is persistent through late summer
and fall months.
The other thing to note about
the changing trend in this herd is
that the fresh cows are the ones
that are infected at a higher rate
and of course make more milk
than cows m later lactation. In
this case we may actually treat
less cows for mastitis in the herd
and still the WSCC will go up due
to the larger impact of the higher
producing cows that are infected.
DHIA statistics prove their
value in cases like this because
Infections Fresh Infected Date
Date
# Cows # Cows %
Mar-98
Apr-98
May
-98
Jun-98
Jul-98
Aug-98
Sep-98
Oct-98
Nov-98
Dec-98
Jan-99
Feb-99
average
even the best observers can be
fooled by the severity of a SCC
problem when we use head counts
to evaluate mastitis controls We
should also take the time to find
out what part of the herd is
affected the greatest. This will
lead to better plans of attack and
may avoid a step backward for
every one forward.
Average Farm Feed
Costs for Handy
Reference
To help farmers across the state to
have handy reference of commodity
input costs in their feeding operations
for DHIA record sheets or to develop
livestock feed cost data, here’s last
week’s average costs of various ingred
ients as compiled from regional reports
across the state of Pennsylvania.
11.11%
10.00%
22.22%
41.67%
31.82%
30.00%
37.50%
18.18%
11.76%
18.18%
17.86%
25.00%
22.94%
Remember, these are averages, so you
will need to adjust your figures up or
down according to your location and the
quality of your crop.
Corn, No.2y 2.36 bu., 4.22 cwt.
Wheat, N 0.2 2.31 bu., 3.85 cwt.
Barley, N 0.3 —1.39 bu., 2.96 cwt.
Blue Mold Hotline Ready
LANCASTER (Lancaster
Co.) Blue mold on tobacco is
showing up in various places in
the county.
A tobacco blue mold hotline
was recently established to
inform growers about the dis
ease.
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$12.0° per stall
North Brook Farms ggfl
Toll Free: 877-624-2638 H* ■■■ MWA
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July IS, 2000-A33
Infections Fresh Infected
# Cows # Cows %
Mar-99
Apr-99
May
-99
Jun-99
Jul-99
Aug-99
Sep-99
Oct-99
Nov-99
Dec-99
Jan-00
Feb-00
average
Oats, N 0.2 —1.47 bu., 4.57 cwt.
Soybeans, No.l 4.48 bu., 7.49 cwt.
Ear Corn 75.23 ton, 3.76 cwt.
Alfalfa Hay —120.00 ton, 6.0 cwt.
Mixed Hay 97.50 ton, 4.88 cwt.
Timothy Hay —105.00 ton, 5.25 cwt
Updates are provided by Bob
Anderson, Lancaster County ex
tension agent, or John Yocum,
manager of the Penn State
Southeast Research Laboratory
in Landisville.
The number, toll-free, is (888)
632-8590.
HOPE POLYBOARD
Milk houses,
manger liners,
MUDGUARD
non woven
geotextile
Get out of the mud l
12 50%
0.00%
20.00%
43 75%
52 38%
26.67%
31.58%
28.57%
29 41%
29.41%
17 65%
30 43%
26.86%
Martin’s Farm Supply
Gretncastlc
717-597-4283
Martin Construction Co.
Kutztown
610-683-6120
Ammon Fisher
Ronjia
717-687-0349
Farmer Boy Ag Systems
Myrrstown
800-845-3374