Vet on the Moove: Cell Check - you’ve got mail
The environment we put cows to dry off influences the chance of self-curing enormously. The ‘spa holiday” treatment is what we should all be aiming to give our cows this year, writes farm vet Hazell Mullins.
It was such a surreal experience to visit Venice last week, knowing that Cork was morphing into its duplicate.
We had a wonderful holiday, yet it was hard to stitch off entirely from the news of the flooding horrors occurring in Cork.
I left with most of the animals still out but arrived home to them all snug inside, apart from the weanlings that are still braving the elements on our higher ground.
We said “Ciao” for now to our beloved Italy; It was great for Jonathan and I to have a break after the ordeal of house moving and ahead of spring madness.
A letter addressed to Dad and I was at my parent’s table patiently awaiting my return, to my surprise, it was an invite to the Animal Health Ireland Cell Check awards ceremony in Naas Co Kildare this November.
It is an event to acknowledge the top 500 low Somatic Cell Count (SCC) herds that supplied milk nationally in 2022.
I honestly don’t think I have ever been more excited about a letter; it has given me the motivation to keep striving for results with SCC and that our hard work with our cows is paying off.
A few years ago, we would not have even dreamt of making this shortlist, in 2021, our cell count was averaging around 170, which then lowered to under 70 in 2022.
What did we do to cause the reduction? I don't think it is down to one particular action however, the introduction of milk recording in the herd has certainly been the most impactful change we made.
The knowledge that milk recording has given us about individual cows is mind-blowing. Before we guessed which cows were high cell count cows, we had a good idea of the "millionaire" ladies, but apart from that, we were in the dark.
Cows that were in the last lactation, that did not cure over the dry period are cows that are real red flags in the herd and should not stay in the herd long term.
These chronic cows act as vessels for potentially contagious bacteria that can spread in the parlour in the next lactation, for example harbouring Staph Aureus, which can lay dormant in the udder until the immune system is compromised.
We were also able to identify which cows needed special attention coming up to drying off. With the help of calving dates and the milk recording results, we chose cows individually for more precise dry periods and also extended dry periods if they needed to cure over this period.
As discussed in my last article, the environment we put cows to dry off influences this chance of self-curing enormously. The ‘spa holiday” treatment is what we should all be aiming to give our cows this year.
Hygiene in the dry cow sheds improved from 2021 to 2022, we started to clean cubicles and lime twice a day religiously. The scrapper frequency was increased from four to five times a day to encourage clean feet and, therefore, cleaner cubicles.
The heifer group hygiene during the dry period is critical to preventing heifers from becoming spreaders of infection later in their lactation.
We made sure to treat their cubicles as we did their older cow companions and made sure that there were enough cubicles to encourage laying.
We always brought the heifers into the parlour for a little ration to help with the transition to milking life, we always spayed their teats, however, last year, we added an external sealer that lasts up to five days as a sealer on the teat end to further help reduce infection risk.
Every fifth day they were in the parlour, we would use the external sealer, and the smell of acetone would magically transport me to the nail salon for a few brief moments. Discuss with your vet the best solutions for the heifer in the dry period; we need to start early to prevent future high SCC cows from establishing in the herd.
On the cell check report, there is a useful figure at the bottom that tells us the amount of heifers that calved into the herd with an SCC over 200 - the target of which is more than 15% of the total heifer group.
With the introduction of Animal Health Ireland Dry Cow Consult training for vets, I have found a whole new appreciation for the basics of preventing mastitis and cell count issues. Animal Health Ireland has provided the vets in Ireland with the most comprehensive training days, webinars and refresher sessions focusing on the topic of the dry period.
The AHI Dry Cow Consult is a fantastic free-of-charge opportunity for farmers to discuss in depth their drying-off routine, dry period hygiene and for help in selecting cows appropriately for sealer-only therapy.
You can check your eligibility for signing up for an AHI dry cow consult on AHI.ie and nominate your local vet to undertake the consult.
I would always encourage to have up-to-date culture and sensitivities performed on known high cell quarters before undertaking the consult, the more knowledge the vet has available, the better.
At home, I have begun to look at what cows need to be dried off for January calving and also infected cows with >200 SCC that require a longer dry-off period of greater than eight weeks plus antibiotic tubes to allow the best chance of curing.
And speaking of getting prepared, I better find a dress for the awards and make sure Dad’s suit is dry-cleaned and ready for the road to Naas! It is an absolute honour for us to be able to attend, and we are looking forward to a wonderful evening.
- Hazell Mullins BVM BVS, is a large animal vet based in Carrignavar, Co Cork.
