Minnesota DHIA News

A PUBLICATION OF MINNESOTA DHIA                                                   Volume 7, Issue 8                                                             August  2007

DHIA Scholarships Deadline Approaching

 

September 30 is the deadline for applications for $500 DHIA Scholarships.  DHIA members and DHIA employees and their families are eligible.  Applications are available from your DHIA Field Rep on sample day, on the National DHIA website www.DHIA.org, or by calling our office at 800-827-3442.  Last year, there were 11 winners from Minnesota DHIA membership.

 

Fastest Service

If you have internet access, you can access your reports within seconds of processing being completed.  This will be a nice feature (and its free right now) for weekends and holidays.  You will get a message at logon that says there will be a $2 charge.  That will be covered by MN DHIA, so there will be no charge to you.  This access will save you time and if you choose to access data here instead of by mail, it will save costs to MN DHIA. 

1.       Logon to www.DRMS.org

2.       Select “Producer Services” from the top green bar.

3.       select “DHIA Reports” under the “Producer Products” header

4.       Go to the second gold bar called "Web Reports" and click to sign in (set your password the first time in) – you will need your herd code and your access code (the one you give consultants).  You will soon receive a letter from us reminding you of your Release Code.  Please call if you need it sooner.

5.       View this months reports as well as past months (only for months you have processed there)

 

If your Field Rep has entered your email address into their software, you will receive an email telling you when your herd has processed, and providing a link to the logon page on the DRMS website.  Our goal is to attach reports to an email again after some other projects are completed.

 

If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Minnesota DHIA at 800.827.3442, and press 14, 19, or 35 to share your ideas with us. 

 

Consultant Access to Your Data

Consultants will be able to access the reports on the web as well. They will need your release code and herd code to access any of your data.  They will be charged $3 per herd to view reports.  Most consultants already receive the Condensed Report and cowfile, so they will not need to access your reports on the web.

 

Dairy Metrics provides consultants with the ability to look at benchmark data, comparing your herd and their other herds to a variety of groups of herds including most of the country.  Consultants who are currently customers of Minnesota DHIA will be automatically enrolled and given access to the Dairy Metrics system that enables benchmarking.

 

Minnesota DHIA only provides your Release Code only to you.  It is then up to you to provide it to the consultants you work with to allow them access to your data electronically.  If you want to change your Release Code, please call Minnesota DHIA at 800.827.3442.

 

Does Quarter Milking make a Difference?

 

Following the discussion at spring Field Rep conferences, some Field Reps volunteered to help us evaluate the impact of quarter milkers.  To participate, they got permission from the herd owner, and then took a separate milk weight and sample from the quarter that was milked separately.  The labs at Zumbrota and Sauk Centre donated the lab analysis and helped with data movement.  DHIA staff then assembled the data and calculated the impact on the tank SCC if the quarter milk had been added to the tank.  In the chart below, “DHI SCC” is the weighted raw SCC average from the herd summary.  “T SCC” stands for total SCC for the herd or tank, if all the quarter milked quarters were added to the tank.  “T-D” is the difference, or the bottom line of how much the tank or herd SCC was impacted by not including those bad quarters in the tank.  Note the wide range of impact on the tank, from negligible to very significant.  Note that herd R quarter milked 2 bad quarters, totaling 14 pounds out of a tank total of nearly 1900 pounds and the difference in the tank was 40,000 SCC.  Herd B withheld about the same amount of out of about the same tank volume but the impact was only 3,000 because the quarters withheld were not nearly as high in SCC as the quarters in herd R.

 

 

DHI SCC

T SCC

T-D

# cows

!/4 cows

% 1/4

Qmilk

T milk

A

140

141

1

126

1

1%

4

4441

B

82

85

3

57

2

4%

12

2094

C

162

171

9

133

3

2%

32

5111

D

280

290

10

89

1

1%

6

3946

E

204

216

12

93

1

1%

4

3823

F

165

178

13

155

3

2%

22

6124

G

305

319

14

125

1

1%

5

4391

H

234

249

15

63

4

6%

26

2557

I

267

284

17

136

1

1%

12

6296

J

211

229

18

150

1

1%

8

6625

K

118

138

20

84

2

2%

19

3263

L

140

160

20

126

1

1%

15

4441

M

278

298

20

135

1

1%

17

4471

N

225

248

23

51

2

4%

22

2041

O

292

317

25

393

6

2%

34

13192

P

68

98

30

55

2

4%

15

2123

Q

141

178

37

104

4

4%

45

4122

R

107

147

40

44

2

5%

14

1891

S

394

438

44

60

3

5%

15

2464

T

164

246

82

88

6

7%

23

2603

U

53

160

107

68

13

19%

604

2279

V

261

373

112

135

3

2%

31

4333

W

539

833

294

25

2

8%

41

410

 

 

 

    42

    108

          3

3%

45

4045

 

Averages appear to be a bit skewed due to 2 herds in this very limited study.  Note that herd U is quarter milking 19% of their cows, and that herd W is withholding 2 very bad quarters on only 25 cows and those unusual situations have a big impact.  If we remove these two herds and the two with the least impact on quarters (because this is a limited study) we see the average herd reduced tank SCC by 30,000 by quarter milking 2 cows in an average herd size of just over 100 cows.  We do note that the amount of milk in the bad quarters was often very close to the average amount of milk in the other 3 quarters.  There were 11 cows in the study with quarter milk that exceeded 10 million in SCC, and ranged as high as 26 million.  There were 12 cows/quarters being withheld where the quarter milk was under 200,000.  Thanks to Charlie Clobes, Jo Pedersen, Nathan Voth, Eugene Stoeckel, Steve Stang, Kevin Knoblach, Tiffany Lesmeister, Josh Johnson, Bruce David, Lester Perschbacher, Rosalie Egge, and Jim Schwingler for their help, and special thanks to the labs.

 

Lower your SCC - Advice from Dr. Jeff Reneau:

Cow hygiene score card.  A University of Minnesota study showed that in herds where environmental mastitis predominate, hygiene of the lower rear legs and udder correlated to SCC.  Cows with higher cow hygiene score also had a higher SCC.  The average hygiene score for rear legs and udders for cows in this study was 2.95 (on a hygiene score scale of 1-5 with 1 being spotlessly clean and 5 being very dirty) and the average SCC for the 1191 cows studied was 405,000.  For the cows in this study, every 1 unit score improvement in hygiene resulted in a 50,000 reduction in SCC.  Using the cow hygiene score card, also found on the above mentioned website, you can determine the potential SCC impact of keeping your cows cleaner.

 

 

Cows are dirtier in early lactation.  Unfortunately this is also the time when they are most vulnerable to getting new mastitis infections because their immune system may be somewhat depressed.  Therefore, more intense bedding and stall management should be given to maintain clean and dry stalls for close-up dry cows, fresh and early lactation cows.

 

University of Minnesota Diagnostic Lab culture records indicate that most of the mastitis in Minnesota dairies is coming from environmental pathogens.  That is why the bottom line for reducing Minnesota BTSCCs boils down to hygiene.  More effort in keeping cows cleaner and more effort in cleaning teat surfaces prior to milking will always pay off in lowering BTSCC.  How about it?  Let’s all initiate a “cleaning” in a concerted effort to get Minnesota’s SCC back on track.

 

 

Farm Safety Message:

Consider these maintenance items that could save your life as well.

n       Stick a new SMV emblem over the old faded ones so motorists can see you better on the road. It's cheaper than defending yourself in a lawsuit if a car runs into your unmarked equipment.

n       Apply the reflective markers that outline the extremities of your equipment.

n       Repair any lights that are not working on your tractor, combine or drawn equipment.

n       Check all guards and shields for proper function and replace any that are bent, broken or missing. Lubricate PTO spinner shields according to the owner's manual so they will telescope and spin freely.

n       Starting a tractor while standing on the ground kills a farmer nearly every year.

n       Order a ROPS kit and seat belts for your older tractors that don't have them. (Tractor roll-over is the number one killer of farmers—without a ROPS you have a 20% chance of survival; with a ROPS and fastened seat belt you have better than a 99% chance of walking away.)

n       Install a fire extinguisher on your tractors and combine. A first aid kit is a good—and inexpensive—idea too. Consider providing a means for two-way communication (a cell phone, CB, or business radio) so you can call for assistance from the field if needed.

Some think of preventive maintenance as a way to save time and mon