With me having recently been on an advanced mastitis course, that makes three of us on the team who have completed it – meaning we have a full toolbox of tips and tricks we can share with you if you ask us for advice.

I found the course really great as it covered all of the environmental, shed equipment, milking management, and bacterial factors that can cause mastitis or a spike in somatic cell count in a cow.

There are several services we can provide to support you to milk quality excellence:  

Culturing milk – we can culture milk samples from cows with clinical mastitis, cows who have had a positive RMT (rapid mastitis test), and cows with high somatic cell counts, with the results enabling you to make more informed decisions for individual cows, leading to better antibiotic usage and improved recovery rates.   

RMT scoring – we can RMT your whole herd, which can be a great help for a BTSCC (bulk tank somatic cell count) grade bust, or for helping you make dry cow therapy choices if no herd testing data is available.   

Teat scoring – we can teat score your cows to discover factors that are likely to be contributing to mastitis amongst your herd, as changes in the teat can indicate how milking practices, milking machines, and environmental challenges are impacting udder health.  

Identifying risk factors on your farm – we can visit your farm during milking to look for things that might be leading to an increased risk of mastitis, this includes taking measurements of the milking machine pressures, teat scoring some cows, and other observations that can lead to valuable insights for mitigating risks.  

Give us a call if you'd like any of these services or if you'd like to have a chat reguarding the mastitis or high somatic cell counts you're dealing with on your farm.