As domestic and global food supply chains attempt to sort themselves out during the COVID-19 pandemic, many dairies are being asked to cut back on milk production to mitigate the dumping of milk.

For the dairy industry, and me personally, the end of calendar year 2017 was a rugged stretch. With the release of the latest dairy undercover video just before the Christmas holiday, there were six separate videos released since the middle of November.

In veterinary school, students are taught that there are three types of cases for many diseases. Those cases that will cure, no matter what we do; those cases that will never cure, no matter what we do; and those cases we can reasonably improve the outcome of with medical intervention.

Let’s agree that not all mastitis infections are created equal. Some infections are more severe than others and actually make the cow sick, while others result in only a few flakes or clots in the milk that are difficult for technicians to detect.