Mastitis: Mastitis, and particularly SCC levels, have been on the increase at co-op level for a number of years now. Reasons are many. See how the best are performing in the special Focus supplement this week. Now is a great time to set a preventative programme for 2015. Dry cow therapy results in the reduction of new cases of mastitis by 50%-90%. It also heals cows with mastitis, particularly young cows.

Some farmers have had high cure rates on young cows with a slightly longer dry cow period – 15 weeks dry at least. However, a cow that has chronic mastitis will not be healed and even with the best dry cow treatment she will have mastitis next year. So, giving a chronic mastitis cow dry cow treatment is a waste of money. A chronic mastitis cow is one that will have had two to three cases of clinical mastitis during the year and/or had SCC levels greater than 500,000 on two or three tests during the year.

Remember, don’t dry off too many cows together. Select small groups and dry 10 to 15 cows each day. Also note that some farmers make the mistake of massaging in teat sealer. It should only be placed in the top of the teat canal to form a plug – it does not need to be massaged in.

Clover problems: We have reported on the exceptional milk solids results from the west Cork Clonakilty mixed grass/clover trial previously. In the last week or two, given the large amount of clover in paddocks, farm staff have encountered problems with bloat in milking cows. The problems are at their worst when cows go into very low covers of grass (less than 1,200kg). Farm Manager Fergal Coughlan explained despite having bloat oil in the water, some cows are still susceptible to getting bloated and very quickly could die.

Fergal has changed his grazing management now to allocating grass for 12-hour rather than 24-hour allocations. The 12-hour allocation forces the cows down into the sward quicker so they don’t have the same chance to select clover only. On days when the weather is very wet, Fergal is also dosing the cows individually in the morning before they go out with 50ml of bloat oil. He continues to use his water trough dispenser for putting up to 50ml of bloat oil per 500kg of liveweight into water troughs. However, on wet days, cows might not drink too much water, hence individual dosing is required. The other important point is not to let the hungry cows into a new paddock of clover.

Condition score: Sort out any cows or heifers that are poor on condition score and if you are over quota then it will pay you to dry them up and give them a chance to put on condition. Sort out your calving chart for next spring and see what cows are calving in February and in poor condition score now. Some farmers have already selected thin cows for drying. Lame cows and young cows will lose condition very fast if they are milking on heavy covers of grass or indoors on silage. Condition score loss can also be very big if they are walking long distances during the last rotation. Watch condition score loss carefully because things can change very quickly especially in mixed weather.