In 2010, before the CellCheck programme started, only 26% of milk recorded herds were achieving Somatic Cell Counts (SCC) below 200,000 and 23% of milk recording herds were above 400,000. Fast forward to 2014 and now over 53% are below 200,000 and 10% are greater than 400,000. So a big improvement has been made. I asked programme manager Finola McCoy what were the main drivers behind the change?

“The biggest change over the last four years has been in awareness – both on the farmer and milking machine technician sides. The focus now is on reducing SCC which may not have always been the case before.

On farm workshops are now our main activity. We have eight fully trained regional co-ordinators and they deliver the workshops to discussion groups and other groups with input from vets, technicians and milk processors and advisers.”

Finola said that over the last two years they have run 23 training sessions for service providers (technicians and advisors) with over 400 people attending. In addition to this she said that over 2,000 farmers have participated in on-farm workshops where the focus has been on teaching best practice and showing good routines.

SCC trends

On average, SCC has fallen by between 50 and 70,000 on farms across the country. One of the main focus areas for CellCheck in the future is to get more accurate data on SCC trends, particularly on farms that have participated in CellCheck to see the impact of training on SCC and tailor the training courses accordingly and offer more targeted training depending on requirements.

A third stage of training is planned for service providers, to equip them with the skills for advanced problem solving where a one to one farm specific service can be delivered where problems are occurring.

Read more from our special focus supplement on Dairy Equipment here.