somatic cell count

case 5150

does anyone ere use a digital reader of some sort to test for scc on the farm, are they any good and where i get one

freedominacup

case 5150 wrote: »

does anyone ere use a digital reader of some sort to test for scc on the farm, are they any good and where i get one

Have you an SCC problem? Are you milk recording and teat dipping? If not why not? Those are the two things that will have an effect on your cell count problem.

The other thing you should check is to get a milk machine service if one is due.

Finally you should consider changing your dry cow tube. When you have the above steps taken without any result you could look at the gimmicks.

p.s. if you are doing all of the above and still have bother then I'm sorry for your troubles.

Timmaay

Have to agree with freedom on this, none of those fancy expensive scc readers offer a silver bullet solution, best approach is to deal with the cause of the problem, rather than throwing money time and effort at trying to measure everything! SCC comes and goes in cycles and often by the time you catch the cow causing the spike in the bulk tank reading, her SCC is reducing but she has spread it to another cow! You hold her milk which is actually now ok, and the next cow is a millionaire in the scc reading so the bulk tank reading doesn't go down! Meanwhile you are under massive pressure in the pit trying to strip every cow, and measure scc with either the fancy reader or the likes of a CMT, and you could well be sacrificing time spent washing down cows, or overmilking some! (ok that's basically what had been happening with me over the winter!)

Anyways, SCC is more about averages rather than just finding a cow with a high reading and curing the problem! Good practice in cubicle and milking hygiene to stop the spread certainly will make a difference, as will milk recording over the whole year, to show you the cows that persistently cause problems, and through culling you can reduce the problem.

Some good reading here in fairness from AHI on the whole problem: http://www.animalhealthireland.ie/page.php?id=135

delaval

case 5150 wrote: »

does anyone ere use a digital reader of some sort to test for scc on the farm, are they any good and where i get one

To answer your question Gregg Care were doing one google them. CMT hard to beat and very cheap

case 5150

thanks guys.

i do milk record and service the parlour yearly and change liners every 5 months regiously and pull liners every 10 weeks, cull consisent hgh scc cows but every yr i end up with a bxxxh that gets mastitis and wen i treat her i like to check reguraly between recordings her scc, precautionary more than anything

TEAT SQUEEZER

you should have just said :D

i have used the porta scctest (buyrite /magenta) for the in between recordings check but wasnt happy with the ease of reading the results .. anyone any experience...

Timmaay

case 5150 wrote: »

wen i treat her i like to check reguraly between recordings her scc, precautionary more than anything

Most of those electronic SCC testers don't actually give out a scc reading, just the conductivity of the milk. This varies between cows, in particular between cows with different levels of solids, so there is no easy way to read the scc from them. They are mostly useful for telling you if a quarter is either high or low in scc, and by looking at the other non effect quarters you can get an idea of what the scc is, or that's what I gathered from reading up on them a while back. So in fairness the CMT does a very very similar job, but for a fraction of the price. The only cost with the CMT is the liquid used, however I always use watered down washing up liquid (1/4 fairy, 3/4 water), if the quarter is high in scc you can tell very quickly with the CMT.

Finally, are you with Glanbia? They offer a very very good service to test for scc, get a box of test tubes off them, leave samples out for the milkman, and afew days later (usually quicker than the milk recording) they will text you out the results! Cost 2quid per sample, which is very similar to the milk recording cost, and the likes of the porta scc tester.

whelan1

have a cow calved 6 weeks has high cell count was treated twice since calving, in all quarters... still high, no cruds ever just high cell count. i blood tested her the other day, would you
A. Put her on dd as suitable for calves
B. dry her off and fatten her
C bring her to mart
?????????????????????????
she would be hard to fatten imo

moy83

whelan1 wrote: »

have a cow calved 6 weeks has high cell count was treated twice since calving, in all quarters... still high, no cruds ever just high cell count. i blood tested her the other day, would you
A. Put her on dd as suitable for calves
B. dry her off and fatten her
C bring her to mart
?????????????????????????
she would be hard to fatten imo

Is she BF ? Could you put a calf sucking her and flog her on that way ? If she had an aa calf with her she might sell at alright money even if she wasnt that fat

whelan1

no not br/fr, could stick 2 fr bulls on her and sell her like that... what would you ask for her?

moy83

I dont know ,would 900/1000 for the three of them be a bit much or about right ? A nice aa heifer with her would be a much easier sell

td5man

whelan1 wrote: »

have a cow calved 6 weeks has high cell count was treated twice since calving, in all quarters... still high, no cruds ever just high cell count. i blood tested her the other day, would you
A. Put her on dd as suitable for calves
B. dry her off and fatten her
C bring her to mart
?????????????????????????
she would be hard to fatten imo

What do you treat them with?

whelan1

tetra delta tube, thats what the sensitivity tests recommended for my herd

6480

whelan1 wrote: »

have a cow calved 6 weeks has high cell count was treated twice since calving, in all quarters... still high, no cruds ever just high cell count. i blood tested her the other day, would you
A. Put her on dd as suitable for calves
B. dry her off and fatten her
C bring her to mart
?????????????????????????
she would be hard to fatten imo

what is your bulk tank scc test count at the min ,

whelan1

295. with this ones milk out. will go down when cows are out

6480

whelan1 wrote: »

295. with this ones milk out. will go down when cows are out

if you have all calved and out in 3 weeks time on grass do you see this cow as a problem as she is not worth alot for any job at the minute as i can see it

whelan1

6480 wrote: »

if you have all calved and out in 3 weeks time on grass do you see this cow as a problem as she is not worth alot for any job at the minute as i can see it

she was high last year too, am keeping her milk out , whats the point in feeding her to dump her milk, shes not making me any money as she is... put 2 calves in with her and she's beating 7 shades of ****e out of them

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

she was high last year too, am keeping her milk out , whats the point in feeding her to dump her milk, shes not making me any money as she is... put 2 calves in with her and she's beating 7 shades of ****e out of them

Are you milking her seperatly? Is she high in more than 1 quarter?

whelan1

delaval wrote: »

Are you milking her seperatly? Is she high in more than 1 quarter?

did cmt on her a few times , its 2 quarters even though it looks normal cmt shows it up, treat her and send sample with milk man... milk recorded yesterday morning so will have results next week, all tests over 2 million

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

did cmt on her a few times , its 2 quarters even though it looks normal cmt shows it up, treat her and send sample with milk man... milk recorded yesterday morning so will have results next week, all tests over 2 million

She is a cull but if you are milking for calves be sure to milk last so as not to spread

whelan1

delaval wrote: »

She is a cull but if you are milking for calves be sure to milk last so as not to spread

she is milked and cluster and jar washed out..

delaval

By the looks of your Scc you have a few more to take care of

whelan1

yup, have lowered it from last year:pac: have another one i dried this evening, wasnt in calf at scanning, do cmt on regular offenders and 3 of them going to mart on tuesday... alot of work done and alot more to do... milk recording tells alot also... being housed for so long doesnt help also

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

yup, have lowered it from last year:pac: have another one i dried this evening, wasnt in calf at scanning, do cmt on regular offenders and 3 of them going to mart on tuesday... alot of work done and alot more to do... milk recording tells alot also... being housed for so long doesnt help also

We are in the same boat. We have been so tied up increasing numbers these last few years that we were happy to be below fine threashold. This policy in not sustainable so this year our primary goal is get Scc <150. A guy in my group took swift action in May last year when all cows were calved. He recorded, Cmt'd all high ladies to identify quarter. He treated all offenders and re did Cmt. Any cow still infected in 2 quarters was culled and any with one had that quarter dried off. His method was mark 3 spinner well and no antibiotic for fear of her being milked accidentally.

His Scc was 60k for all summer and peaked at 120 this spring at height of calving.

Timmaay

How are people doing on SCC, giving the weather, and cows still inside? I certainly find having the cows out makes a massive difference, probably highlighting issues with cubicle hygiene for me! I got mine down to 140ish afew weeks ago, but back up to 360 afew collections ago, at the 250mark now. I have about 6cows that I've identified that are high enough at the minute, ie above 500ish, which I've discovered are high through either the milk recording, or the CMT. Two of those are persistently high, and will be dried off soon to be culled (one is 14yrs old anyways!!!!). With our spreadout calving we don't have a huge demand for milk at the minute, so with some of them I'd milk the 3 good spins, let that off, then milk the bad spin. Time consuming but more milk in the tank at least!

Timmaay

delaval wrote: »

and any with one had that quarter dried off. His method was mark 3 spinner well and no antibiotic for fear of her being milked accidentally.

How do yous dry off one spin, especially in a fresh calver? By not milking a spin with high SCC aren't you are going to have a serious risk of mastitis? The only spins we tend to dry off are where the cow has a serious case of mastitis and stops producing milk on that spin anyways.

delaval

Timmaay wrote: »

How are people doing on SCC, giving the weather, and cows still inside? I certainly find having the cows out makes a massive difference, probably highlighting issues with cubicle hygiene for me! I got mine down to 140ish afew weeks ago, but back up to 360 afew collections ago, at the 250mark now. I have about 6cows that I've identified that are high enough at the minute, ie above 500ish, which I've discovered are high through either the milk recording, or the CMT. Two of those are persistently high, and will be dried off soon to be culled (one is 14yrs old anyways!!!!). With our spreadout calving we don't have a huge demand for milk at the minute, so with some of them I'd milk the 3 good spins, let that off, then milk the bad spin. Time consuming but more milk in the tank at least!

Forget bad spin. Ours is now at 173 and all I did was stop milking infected spins.

delaval

delaval wrote: »

Forget bad spin. Ours is now at 173 and all I did was stop milking infected spins.

OOPS me and my big mouth just got results of yesterday's collection 273:eek::eek:

whelan1

well teat spraying properly does make a difference its just a pain in the butt when you are doing all you can and you are still getting high results, went to ahi workshop which was very interesting...

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

well teat spraying properly does make a difference its just a pain in the butt when you are doing all you can and you are still getting high results, went to ahi workshop which was very interesting...

Teat spraying????????????

cosatron

good year so far with scc. milking 36 and were getting results below 100. spiked with the cold weather and isolated the cow and her mastitis is gone. milking 14 heifers this year and it helps allot. We clean the cubicles morning and evening and put sawdust and cubicle lime on them, and spray the cows pre and post milking. we haven't let the cows out yet and first cow calved before xmas.

Timmaay

delaval you notice any difference between the scc in the JExs and FRs? Supposedly JExs are lower!

Viewtodiefor

Timmaay wrote: »

How are people doing on SCC, giving the weather, and cows still inside? I certainly find having the cows out makes a massive difference, probably highlighting issues with cubicle hygiene for me! I got mine down to 140ish afew weeks ago, but back up to 360 afew collections ago, at the 250mark now. I have about 6cows that I've identified that are high enough at the minute, ie above 500ish, which I've discovered are high through either the milk recording, or the CMT. Two of those are persistently high, and will be dried off soon to be culled (one is 14yrs old anyways!!!!). With our spreadout calving we don't have a huge demand for milk at the minute, so with some of them I'd milk the 3 good spins, let that off, then milk the bad spin. Time consuming but more milk in the tank at least!

Scc is around 5000 varies 10k each way, however I've had two mastitis cases tubed them n they seem to Hav cleared. Anyone throw any light on the subject

Viewtodiefor

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Scc is around 5000 varies 10k each way, however I've had two mastitis cases tubed them n they seem to Hav cleared. Anyone throw any light on the subject

Sorry that should be 50k!

mahoney_j

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Scc is around 5000 varies 10k each way, however I've had two mastitis cases tubed them n they seem to Hav cleared. Anyone throw any light on the subject

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but thats a serious problem,Presumably you are forestripping cows before milking and ur finding no clots.are cows teats clean and in good condition at milking time.Sounds very like staph auerus or uberus which are pretty hard to clear
My advice would be firstly check out ur milking machine,Secondly cmt all the cows and if u find something there take a sample and get it cultured to see what bug it is.Also if ur not wearing goves milking start doing it
We got our vet do give a talk on scc to our discussion group and for chronic cases of high scc with no visible clots his advice was if a cow comes to parlour clean dont strip her just cluster on cluster off and good teat dip

Viewtodiefor

mahoney_j wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but thats a serious problem,Presumably you are forestripping cows before milking and ur finding no clots.are cows teats clean and in good condition at milking time.Sounds very like staph auerus or uberus which are pretty hard to clear
My advice would be firstly check out ur milking machine,Secondly cmt all the cows and if u find something there take a sample and get it cultured to see what bug it is.Also if ur not wearing goves milking start doing it
We got our vet do give a talk on scc to our discussion group and for chronic cases of high scc with no visible clots his advice was if a cow comes to parlour clean dont strip her just cluster on cluster off and good teat dip

It's fifty thousand mahony j not 500k. Strip, wear gloves pre spray n post spray, just wondering where the two cases came from, some teat on one r two cows r sore but not anyone's that had case mastitis

whelan1

:rolleyes:tbh you have little to be worrying about

Timmaay

mahoney_j wrote: »

We got our vet do give a talk on scc to our discussion group and for chronic cases of high scc with no visible clots his advice was if a cow comes to parlour clean dont strip her just cluster on cluster off and good teat dip

What about cluster dipping? I'd usually dip the clusters after any of the high scc cows, and started doing it before most of the heifers since the tank scc went up. I use to do it after every single cow when I was having serious problems during the winter, but you end up using a big amount of peracetic acid, cows with any cracked spins etc really didn't like it also!

Viewtodiefor

whelan1 wrote: »

:rolleyes:tbh you have little to be worrying about

Yeah whelan but u never know!

whelan1

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Yeah whelan but u never know!

your cases could be hereditary... could be anything really...

delaval

Timmaay wrote: »

What about cluster dipping? I'd usually dip the clusters after any of the high scc cows, and started doing it before most of the heifers since the tank scc went up. I use to do it after every single cow when I was having serious problems during the winter, but you end up using a big amount of peracetic acid, cows with any cracked spins etc really didn't like it also!

FFS Tim would you ever seperate them,milk last and stop fannying about

6480

delaval wrote: »

FFS Tim would you ever seperate them,milk last and stop fannying about

easy up there on the man he s only telling us all his problem he didnt say any thing to insult you mr DELAVAL

whelan1

6480 wrote: »

easy up there on the man he s only telling us all his problem he didnt say any thing to insult you mr DELAVAL

think the weather is finally getting to him

mahoney_j

whelan1 wrote: »

think the weather is finally getting to him

Either that or he got a whopping feed bill for hulls and ration!!

6480

whelan1 wrote: »

think the weather is finally getting to him

its getting to us all but no need for that

6480

he cant blow all he wants but cant change the weather with them wee crossbred s

Viewtodiefor

whelan1 wrote: »

your cases could be hereditary... could be anything really...

Time will tell I suppose. How's ur protien mine is on d floor at 2.90

whelan1

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Time will tell I suppose. How's ur protien mine is on d floor at 2.90

mine is better than yours 3.04:) will be interesting to see if it goes up with them going back out today

delaval

6480 wrote: »

easy up there on the man he s only telling us all his problem he didnt say any thing to insult you mr DELAVAL

Think you'll find that Tim didn't take offence and none was meant. He seems to be putting a lot of work on himself. If I got a suggestion that would help reduce my load I would be grateful

delaval

6480 wrote: »

he cant blow all he wants but cant change the weather with them wee crossbred s

case 5150

scc running at 250 today, coming back, recording tues evening, protein 3.01 the other day, cows out fulltime tonight, they ate about 2 kgs silage this evening along with 3 kgs meal, that should keep them going with the grass and help solids