Thanks for coming along to our Roadshow, or joining our webinar. Here are some tips and tricks to help you with good mastitis management to produce more milk of higher quality.
Tips to prevent mastitis
Colostrum herd:
If teats are dirty, wash them with a low pressure hose
Teat spray colostrum cows before and after milking to kill bugs and improve teat condition
Strip quarters to check mastitis at every milking
Milking herd:
Teat score cows regularly for early warning of any problems
Teat spray will promote healthy teat skin that will slow bacterial growth
Overmilking can damage teats. Use the Milksmart app to optimise milking efficiency and reduce damage to teat ends
Click here to download our Managing Mastitis on farm poster
How to manage clinical mastitis?
Mastitis is painful - treat with pain relief such as KetoMax to reduce pain and inflammation.
Know the bug, know the drug - take a milk sample and test on-farm with Mastatest
Wait 24 hours for the Mastatest result and treat based on the result to improve cure rate and reduce antibiotic use
10% of samples have no bacterial growth and 12% of samples are coliform/Gram negative, both do not require antibiotics, saving money on unnecessary treatment costs. The most appropriate treatment is the use of 3 days KetoMax (but also call your vet if the cow is sick).
How to manage high SCC cows and culling decisions?
Know the bug - test RMT positive cows and high SCC cows after herd test and at dry off with Mastatest HiSCC cartridge
Decide management options - use the results along with the cow's mastitis history to implement an effective management plan, such as milking last, dry-off or culling decisions.
Click here to download the Mastitis Treatments Flowchart.
