At certain times of the year and in certain climates, environmental bacteria can be a real challenge. Bedding conditioners have been developed to help reduce bacteria levels in the stall.

High bacteria counts are always a concern for a dairy, but fluctuating bacteria counts can signify even more complex problems. The CIP detectives recently visited a 300-cow dairy in northwestern Wisconsin that was facing such a problem.

The foundation of all mastitis control programs revolves around two very simple things. One is reducing the amount of bacteria on the cow’s teat, and two is preventing those bacteria from getting into the cow’s udder. Three areas need to be addressed when attempting to achieve progress on these two factors: milking equipment, milking technique and the environment itself.

Choosing a liner is a complex and difficult task – and an extremely important one. Liners have a huge impact on teat-end health as well as parlor efficiency. Often a particular liner is settled on by a trial-and-error process. With so many liner designs and choices, this process can be quite lengthy. I will attempt to describe the most popular types of liners available.

How low can you go? That’s what producers from California to Pennsylvania are asking after installing a new oval-barrel milking liner designed to operate at very low vacuum levels while maintaining milking speed.