No place for huge mastitis costs in post-quota dairying

Net profit on a 40-hectare dairy farm plummets from more than €30,000 to less than €12,000 per year if the somatic cell count (SCC) goes over 400,000, according to new findings by Teagasc, Animal Health Ireland, and University College Dublin.

Information from hundreds of herds is being examined, in an investigation of the specific costs of mastitis in Ireland.

Early results show that milk production loss per cow per annum ranged from 177 litres for an SCC under 100,000 cells/ml to 601 litres for an SCC of 400,000. And the proportion of the herd culled due to mastitis increased from 2.81% to 12.57%.