The critical factors that determine when a cow should be dried off are:
- Her current body condition score.
- The body condition score you want her at calving (should be 5).
- The amount of feed available to maintain her, grow a calf and put condition on.
Dry off low-yielding and high somatic cell count (SCC) cows early to assist the feed budget:
- A low-yielding cow is one producing less than 5 litres per day
- A high SCC cow is one above 500,000 cells per ml
Check your records of clinical cases of mastitis and individual cow SCC. Decide on your dry-cow strategy in consultation with Totally Vets. Discuss the likelihood of cure.
- Cull persistent clinical offenders
- Cull persistent high SCC cows (> 500,000)
- Cull non-responders to previous dry cow antibiotic treatments
What to do with ‘new' late lactation clinical mastitis or sudden rises in individual SCC? (>1,000,000 cells per ml). Check that these are ‘new' cases and not recurring ones. Treatment with lactating antibiotic followed by dry cow antibiotic can be an option with these "new' late infections.
Dry-cow therapy
The choice between blanket or selective dry-cow therapy (DCT) is determined by your herd's mastitis history, your milk quality aspirations and your aversion to risk. Mastitis history will also indicate if there are benefits to be gained from treating heifers pre-calving. Other management options may also be identified to improve milk quality and reduce mastitis.
DCT treats existing infections; it promotes formation of the keratin plug in the teat canal; and it prevents new udder infections. Which product is best for you will again depend on your herd's mastitis history and your milk quality aspirations.
DCT guidelines for use
- insert immediately after the last milking and clearly mark treated cows if the rest of the herd is still being milked
- Treat every quarter of every cow
- Sanitise teat ends using swabs moistened in 70% methylated spirits or medicated teat wipes before treatment
- Insert the nozzle of the DCT tube no more than 3mm into the teat canal
- Spray teats immediately after treatment
- Don't leave cows in races or yards
- Complete full record treatment
- Strictly observe withholding times
The drying-off process
- Dry off abruptly - no skip-a-day milking
- Put cows in a clean paddock and feed at maintenance levels for seven days before increasing feed intake to increase body condition
- Ensure adequate water is available at all times
- Check quarters of dried off cows 7-10 days after drying off for mastitis
- Look, feel and only strip if they have mastitis
If you discover a clinical infection after dry-off, strip the quarter out completely and treat with a lactation antibiotic using a full course of treatment. Dry cow antibiotics are not suitable at this time.
Teat spray every time cows go through the dairy.
