It’s human nature to love a celebration – whether it’s your favorite sports team winning the big game, a party for a long-awaited engagement or a milestone birthday bash. Why should celebrating major successes on your dairy be any different?

Skin can chap due to frequent washing, repeated wetting or exposure to cold, dry or windy weather. Teats are subjected to these processes during every milking. Teat dips with effective emollient packages can rejuvenate dry teats. Skin conditioners come in many varieties.

Monthly test-day somatic cell count (SCC) reports from the Dairy Herd Improvement system have been used for decades to manage bulk tank SCC or decide which cows to cull from the herd.

Although somatic cell counts (SCC) have long been used as an indicator of udder health and milk quality, several common myths and misunderstandings remain. Dr. David Kelton, veterinary epidemiologist and professor at the University of Guelph, dispelled some of those myths at the American Association of Bovine Practitioners 50th Annual Conference, Sept. 14-16, 2017.

Stony Brook Farms in Amsterdam, New York, has a closed Holstein herd of 525 mature cows, 470 of which are milked three times per day – 9 a.m., 5 p.m. and 1 a.m. – in a double-10 parallel parlor. Although the parlor could readily be expanded to a double-14, this dairy farm has been operating at maximum capacity for four years and is not interested in milking more cows.

The number of females attending colleges of veterinary medicine surpassed the number of male enrollees in 1986. And with current nationwide enrollment hovering around 80 percent women, most vets who retire in the coming years will be replaced by a female practitioner.

Happy cows have healthy teats. Keeping your herd’s udder health in tip-top shape, however, is proving to be more challenging. If your cows are experiencing dry and cracked teats, you can guarantee two things are happening:

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a major concern for human and animal health worldwide. Consequently, there is increasing pressure to reduce antibiotic use in food-producing animals.

Mastitis is the most common bacterial disease on most dairy farms. According to Pamela Ruegg, a veterinarian for Michigan State University, 65 to 85 percent of all antibiotic handlings on-farm are used to treat and prevent mastitis.