Mastitis: New tool to help farmers measure losses
It is funded by the research stimulus fund of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It tells farmers the scale of their herd mastitis problem, motivating them to implement improved mastitis control. Farmers will use their own data to estimate how much mastitis costs them in terms of milk production losses, treatment, culling and penalties.
A bulk milk cell count reduction of 150,000 cells/ml (from 300,000 to 150,000 cells/ml) on a 300,000 litre quota is expected to increase farm profitability by €5,929 per annum at a milk price of 22c/l, and by €7,436 at a milk price of 35c/l.
