“I don’t know if there’s a secret,” says owner Margreet Dijkstra of Sylvanside Dairy’s award-winning milk quality. “We just have an eye for details.” She also credits excellent cow comfort, no shortcuts and consistency.

We often hear that mastitis costs the U.S. dairy industry $2 billion per year. But what does this mean on a case level?

The Gagnonval Farm in Sainte-Hénédine, Quebec, has been equally owned by brothers Marc and Daniel Gagnon since 1994. If its name rings a bell for you, it’s most likely due to the exceptional quality of milk produced there.

The hospital pen or group is often the most disliked pen on a dairy. These are the cows that have abnormal milk and may or may not be sick. These animals must be isolated and identified so their milk does not enter the milk supply. The better the program for handling these cows, the lower the risk of spreading to the clean cows in the herd.

Keeping somatic cell count low isn’t just about producing high-quality milk; it’s about minimizing milk losses and maintaining a sustainable, efficient operation.

Cow people create environments for cows to thrive in. This is common knowledge to many in the dairy industry, but for Allen Bent and the team at A & J Bent Farms Ltd., it is integral to achieving a somatic cell count (SCC) of 56,000 in a herd of 150 Holsteins.