Mastitis Pattern Analysis Tool Launched
Thanks to a new cross-industry initiative, dairy farmers can now access automated mastitis reports from their milk recording organisation in order to help identify the latest pattern of mastitis on their farm and therefore which control measures will be the most effective to focus on.
The reports will be generated automatically after you have milk recorded, and you can select if you want your vet and consultant to receive them too (at no cost!). You can ask for your reports to be sent monthly or quarterly depending on the current level of mastitis in your herd.
Why should I be interested in this?
All dairy farms have mastitis albeit at differing levels within the herd. But for every case of clinical mastitis you get it will cost your business approximately £250/case, and that’s before the recent milk price rises!
Sorting out mastitis issues is complex. There are a wide range of management factors that need to be considered when investigating an outbreak of mastitis, some which will help and others which will make no difference. Extra time and money spent on improving your milking cows environment will be wasted if your problem is a Staph aureus one. It all depends on the type of infection you have and how it is being transmitted on your individual farm.
The tool aims to show you:
- What your current level of mastitis and SCC is and whether it is currently improving or deteriorating.
- What are the trends of the different types of mastitis on your farm.
- Do you need to be focusing on dry period or lactating period management in order to improve from where you are now?
- How have the management changes you have recently made impacted on the current level of mastitis in your herd?
If you do not have time to look at this information, then your vet and/or consultant should, in order to help you reduce the financial impact of mastitis on your business.
What do I have to do to get these reports?
The only real commitment you need to make is to make sure that your clinical mastitis records are given to your milk recording organisation and are kept up to date, so that they can be analysed in conjunction with your SCC results from your latest milk recording. If you have not been recording clinical cases to date, you can either input them online via the milk recording website or print them out and give them to your milk recorder (keep a copy just in case!). In order to get meaningful information, you ideally need to have clinical records for the past 18 months. So, we recommend that you initially go back and put in at least the last 12 months data when you first start. Then adding the monthly results from then on is not too onerous.
In order to sign up for the mastitis pattern analysis report service you need to do the following:
1. Go to https://cloud.remedy.farm/mpat
2. Sign up and select which milk recording organisation you use, give email addresses of who you want to receive the reports and select how often.
3. State your milk buyer information – do not worry they are not given any of your data.
Once this is done you will start receiving the reports either monthly or quarterly automatically once you have milk recorded.
What does the Mastitis pattern analysis report cost me?
You already pay for your milk recording service, and this is an add on that is being provided free of charge in order to help you make better use of the service.
If you don’t look at these reports, then either your vet or consultant should be in order to provide you with the best possible advice that they can to help you make your business run more efficiently.
If you require any advice/help, please call Douglas Green on 01666 817278 or email douglas@douglasgreenconsulting.co.uk
