Believe it or not, your refrigerator could be one of the most important aspects of your animal health program. If you have more than one refrigerator, my guess is that your newer refrigerator is in your kitchen, while the older one is in the garage, porch, tack room, barn, etc. The one in your kitchen may have $75 worth of food, while the ole clunker in the barn may have several hundred dollars of animal health products. The appearance of the refrigerator where you keep your animal health products is not important, but how it functions may be critical to your animal health program. Refrigeration is required for most animal health products (i.e. pharmaceuticals, vaccines). These products should be stored according to the label directions, but generally, these products are labeled to be stored between 35° and 45°F (2° to 7°C). If a product is not stored properly, there is a good chance that it will not be as efficacious as it should be, or may not work at all. Freezing is particularly detrimental to some products and can cause separation of their components.

TRENDING TOPIC ARTICLE: MANAGEMENTPublished: October 12, 2010 print issue of Progressive Dairyman In this article, University of Wisconsin’s extension specialist Jerry Clark outlines several attributes that a successful manager must have, including leadership, empathy and teamwork. to jump to the article. Because this article was so popular, we asked Clark a follow-up question: Of the attributes listed in your article, which three are most critical for a manager to have in 2013?

As I have worked with the Boy Scouts, I have gained a greater appreciation for the Constitution, and for the Founding Fathers, who set up this nation of free people. I am one of those people who believe that Jesus Christ had a hand in setting up the Constitution. I believe the Founding Fathers spent a great deal of time on their knees communicating with Deity.

Muddy conditions resulting from wet weather constrain best management practices; animals, feed and the environment can all be negatively affected. Under these conditions, two major ailments can affect dairy cows: mastitis due to environmental bacteria and lameness. Cows with mastitis decrease production, have greater treatment costs and can eventually be culled or die. Lame cows incur higher production losses, lower fertility and greater culling rates.

Mastitis continues to be the most costly disease on dairy farms. It decreases profit as a result of decreased milk yields, treatment costs, discarded milk, premature culling and death, decreased genetic potential and decreased reproductive performance. High somatic cell count (SCC) milk also decreases cheese yield and reduces fluid milk shelf life. The best way to reduce SCC is by focusing on prevention. If your SCC is higher than desired, one way to tackle the problem is to consider forming a milk quality team. Include key employees, veterinarian, dairy plant field representative, dairy equipment personnel, extension personnel, etc. Work with them to develop a systematic game plan for reducing your SCC based on your farm’s information. Mastitis is a disease that is well understood and often an aggressive plan of attack will get it under control.

The LPC test is doing a standard plate count on pasteurized milk. The mastitis pathogens are killed and what remains are organisms that keep on growing in the milk and reduce shelf life. These organisms are not from cows’ udders. They are usually spore–formers, like bacillus or pseudomonas, which live in rubber hoses and some water supplies. If a high LPC count is present (250 to 300 cfu/ml is the usual cut-off point), use the following procedures to ensure you stay below these levels. 1. Milk clean, dry, pre-dipped teats and udders. Sand bedding and muddy lots are big suppliers of non-cow bacteria. Milking wet and/or dirty teats will load up the tank with them.

Producers have a variety of informational tools available to monitor both the mastitis in their herds and the quality of milk being shipped to processors. Somatic cell counts (SCC) are a measure of mastitis in a dairy herd. The SCC will increase in a quarter as a result of an infection. The increase represents white blood cells entering the quarter to fight the infection. The bulk tank somatic cell count (BTSCC) reflects the total number of infected mammary quarters in the herd that are actually being milked into the tank. The bacterial count is another primary measure of milk quality. Bacteria are present in milk as a result of milking infected mammary quarters, contamination from the environment during milking, dirty milking equipment and growth during milk storage.

The first 10 days following calving are critical to lactation success. Producers must help cows transition smoothly from the dry period and into early lactation high production. Cows in good body condition with adequate access to a properly balanced ration, and plenty of housing and cooling, will have the necessary foundation for a successful transition period. In addition to meeting critical transition needs, producers should develop protocols to manage fresh cows and identify signs of post-fresh challenges. “The transition period sets the stage for the entire lactation. Cows that successfully come through this challenging time will achieve higher production and better lactation performance,” explains Todd Birkle, DVM, fresh cow reproduction manager, Pfizer Animal Health. “It’s important for producers to put systems in place that prepare all cows for success while catching those that experience post-calving challenges.”

There will be a financial incentive to increase milk sales available to each farm. Assuming milk sales increase over the previous year, an additional incentive will be paid for high-quality milk as measured by somatic cell count (SCC) for the herd. The SCC is the number of cells, primarily leukocytes, per milliliter in milk. Leukocytes, or white blood cells, are produced by the cow’s immune system to fight an inflammation in the mammary gland or mastitis – either clinical or sub-clinical. The SCC also increases during a myriad of stress conditions. Monitoring SCC is especially critical in diagnosing cows with subclinical mastitis, because no visible signs of an inflammation are observed by the dairy producer. That was the original intent of the California Mastitis Test that estimates SCC of individual cows by stripping milk into a four-part plastic paddle, adding the test solution and then swirling the contents to visually measure the gel formation.