Efficiency is key to making the milking system as profitable as possible. Parlor turns can greatly impact milk collected per stall, and milkabilty measures of individual cows, like milking speed and milking duration, will impact how quickly cows make their way through the parlor.

Clinical mastitis cure versus bacteriological cure … is there a difference between the two? Does it really matter? In a word, yes. In a few more words, it matters because the difference between achieving one and not both can be the two things that make or break a dairy’s bottom line: lost productivity and increased costs.

When you make a teat dip change, plan for at least three to four weeks to start seeing a difference – and that’s if all other variables remain the same. Remember, you are using a teat dip to help prevent mastitis, not cure it.

In my 50 years of experience, managing the level of SCC and mastitis in fresh heifers is critical to achieving excellent milk quality. There are many important ways to improve milk quality on your dairy, but don’t let fresh heifers contribute to your issues.

At the heart of the approach of harvesting high-quality milk is ensuring farmers have a thorough understanding of key milk quality parameters, including milk composition, somatic cell count (SCC), bacterial count and the absence of contaminants.

U.S. milk producers again saw a decrease in average somatic cell counts (SCC) based on an annual summary of Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) test-day results.

Controlling pathogen outgrowth in recycled manure bedding is possible. When a bacillus-based bedding additive was tested on-farm, a significant reduction in bulk tank SCC and mastitis cases was noticed.

All we have to do is balance the ration to maximize fat, right? Regarding the number of variables involved in ration formulation, few diets are ever truly balanced. Consider the word “optimized” instead. Let’s look at several key nutrients that must be optimized for maximum butterfat production.