Consider this. Think about a day when you’ve had a good night’s sleep, enjoyed breakfast or your morning cup of joe, and planned and completed your to-do list – a time where everything went smoothly with no hiccups. Some of you might be laughing and thinking, “I can’t remember the last time I had a day like that.”

Adrianne Trennepohl

Content Specialist / ABS Global

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But humor us for a minute. If you had a good day like that, how many more tasks would you get done? Let’s hope the answer to this silly but simple thought-provoking exercise is significantly more.

When your environment is in tip-top shape and everything is firing on all cylinders, productivity typically increases. Morale is better. Performance is better. You end the day feeling accomplished and see a task list with loads of things crossed off.

Why would we not think the same would hold true for dairy cows?

It is no secret that as a dairy producer, the most ongoing daily challenge you face is maintaining milk quality and quantity. To circle it back to our human example above, increasing productivity and managing milk quality is directly related to a cow’s comfort in her environment. To effectively manage milk quality and boost production, it is essential to ensure that cows are comfortable in their environment. Therefore, paying attention to proper udder care is crucial; neglecting it could jeopardize your operation’s bottom line.

Managing udder health matters

Improper udder care puts your dairy at risk for contracting costly diseases and unstable milk production. Udder care should be a top priority for two reasons. 

The number one reason you should prioritize udder health is mastitis control. Mastitis is one of the most expensive health problems in the dairy industry. To demonstrate its impact on your bottom line, research shows that the average case of clinical mastitis costs $444 per cow, meaning it costs a dairy more than any other disease. Not to mention, it has a significant role in lost revenue because of lower milk production and amplified milking inefficiencies. With insufficient germicidal effectiveness and improper cleaning, you are putting your dairy at risk of harmful bacteria being left behind and causing a mastitis outbreak.

The second most important reason to manage udder care is teat health. Healthy, well-maintained teats are indicative of overall teat health, which is linked to higher milk quality. Dry, cracked or chapped teat skin can make a cow more susceptible to infections. Keeping the teat skin in good condition helps lower the risk of infection, enhances cow comfort and increases profitability by ensuring more efficient milking.

Prevent or control mastitis with this decision tree

The purpose of this article is to provide you with a few questions to consider when evaluating udder health and care on your dairy. These questions fall into two categories – mastitis control and mastitis prevention – and are designed to help you determine if mastitis is affecting your herd and support you in identifying steps to take to improve udder health on your dairy.

If you find yourself battling lower milk production, milking inefficiencies or seeing an increase of cows heading to hospital pens, it may indicate you are fighting mastitis and need to work to control it. Ask yourself the following questions to determine treatment plans.

1. Is my herd currently impacted by mastitis?
   1. If yes, is something in the herd’s environment making them more susceptible to contracting it?
   2. If no, be sure to review your current udder care protocol to ensure cows are protected, while also considering adjusting for potential future environment changes. 
2. How many cows are in the hospital pen and why? What is the herd’s somatic cell count? 
   1. According to the National Mastitis Council, it is ideal to have less than 2% of cases in the hospital pen classified as mastitis.
3. If you are seeing increased clinical cases, do you know which type of mastitis you are fighting? 
   1. Are you testing cows and treating them based on what the problem is, or are you generically treating with a blanket product? 
   2. If you don’t know what you are fighting, it would be beneficial to take a sample from the bulk tank or hospital pen and test it to identify the proper treatment plan with your veterinarian.
   3. If you’ve identified the type of mastitis you are fighting, review your udder care product protocol to ensure its effectiveness, evaluate your team’s product application procedures and offer training when necessary.

The best way to reduce your risk of the costly effects of mastitis is through proper prevention of the disease. To determine if you are accurately preventing mastitis or just reacting to it, ponder these questions.

1. Are you trying to prevent mastitis correctly through udder care protocol plans designed specifically for your dairy and adjusted as situations change? 
2. Are you routinely reviewing protocol compliance with employees and providing necessary training when needed? 
3. How often do you review milking procedures or udder care protocols? 
4. Are you using the right udder care product at the right time?
   1. The key to a successful udder care protocol is using the right product at the right time to ensure maximum effectiveness while controlling cost. 
5. Have you considered booking an udder care consultation with a specialist to look at the following factors for your dairy?
   1. Training and consultation milking procedures
      • Equipment testing
      • Facility and environment review on-farm
      • Records analysis
      • Barn and parlor audits
      • Bilingual milker training
      • Cow flow
      • Review the true cost of a case of mastitis
      • Recommendations for situational rotation of products
      • Set up teat dip application system
   2. Hygiene and teat scoring
   3. Teat and udder health

Most mastitis case flare-ups on a dairy can be traced back to two root causes – lack of protocols and noncompliance. The key takeaway in this discussion is to protect yourself against this costly disease by uncovering potential problem areas and to identify where you can prevent new cases from occurring through training and proper udder care protocols. Are you taking all the right steps to prevent mastitis from impacting your bottom line?