Regulations around the sale of dry cow tubes have changed and farmers will no longer be able to use dry cow therapy on all cows. The thinking behind the rule change is that healthy cows don’t need antibiotics and because antimicrobial resistance is such a big issue, they shouldn’t get it.

Farmers can be split into two camps when it comes to mandatory selective dry cow therapy; those with good information and engaged in the process and those without good information and not engaged in the process.

The Animal Health Ireland guidelines state that herds consistently achieving less than 200,000 SCC, less than 10% new infection rate over the dry period and that have good records, such as milk recording and mastitis incidence recording, can use teat sealer only on cows with an SCC of less than 100,000 and no incidence of mastitis during the lactation.

Using selective dry cow therapy in herds with higher SCC and incidences of mastitis is much harder. A vet can prescribe antibiotics to a cow with no evidence of infection if the risk of infection is high and the welfare implications are severe.

Poor hygiene

The legislation states that antibiotics cannot be used to compensate for poor hygiene or poor farm management.

Herds that have not participated in milk recording are encouraged to take up at least one recording before the end of lactation. This would need to be booked in as soon as possible to ensure it can be arranged.

The results of this will give good information to the vet on what cows can get teat sealer only and which ones need antibiotics.