CONTROL OF JOHNE'S DISEASE IN DAIRY CATTLE HERDS
State of Minnesota Board of Animal Health
Johne's disease is a herd problem not just an individual animal problem. Johne's disease can be controlled and even eliminated from infected herds, based on a thorough understanding of the disease. Half-hearted attempts to prevent or con- trol Johne's disease will generally fail. Once a herd becomes infected, control of Johne's disease takes time. Usually, the infection has been spreading through the herd for a number of years before clinical cases are noticed. In most cases, the first visible signs of the disease do not appear until 2 to 5 years later. A typical herd clean up or control program may take 5 years or longer. Faster programs are possible, but may be more expensive.
The new herd summary includes a table entitled "Current SCC Evaluation". This is an evaluation of the herd's current mastitis status based on somatic cell count. The information is categorized by first, second and other lactation animals as well as an average for the entire herd.
Linear scores of 0 to 1 are considered negligible with respect to mastitis. Scores of 2 and 3 are suspicious. Scores of 4 or greater are positive for mastitis. Scores of 7, 8 or 9 indicate that cows are shedding extremely high numbers of somatic cells and are not only on the verge of clinical cases, but are seriously affecting milk quality if allowed into the tank. A goal should be to have 80% of the animals with linear scores below 4.
The average SCC score for Holstein herds producing 24,000+ pounds is 3.0.
Did you ever want a pocket size list of information on your cows to look at in the barn? If you are an on-farm Dairy Comp 305 or Scout user, now you can have that very thing!
In Dairy Comp 305, type in the following command on the command line to get a "4 quardrant" report. You can then cut the sheets into quarters, staple them together and put them in your pocket.
LIST ID STRG MILK RPRO DSLH SCC BY STRG FOR LACT>0 \CUEH
This will give you a list of all milking cows by ID, their milk weight, their reproductive status, days since last heat and somatic cell count. You can subsitiute "bname" for "id". You can also change any of the other items, but you can only have a total of 6 items on the report.
In Scout, you can change a report by changing the sort to "strg" (this will work even if you don't use strings) and changing the switches to "CUEH". Here again you can only use 6 items on the report.
Mastitis continues to be one of the leading profit robbers and a major source of frustration for dairy producers. It remains an all-too-common disease, costing the U.S. dairy industry billions of dollars a year.
There are several types of bacteria associated with mastitis (eg. staph aureus, strep. ag, non-ag strep, coliforms, staph epi). The source of each type varies. In order to reduce or prevent mastitis problems and implement a proper control program, the type of bacteria must be identified.
Are you losing money to this silent and stealthy thief? Do you know which pathogen is causing the problem? Minnesota DHIA and the University of Minnesota have teamed up to offer a mastitis detection service - Bulk Tank Culture Testing.
How does it work? A trained DHIA field rep will come out to your farm with a testing kit and demonstrate how to take culture samples. You collect a sample from your bulk tank for 5 days and freeze them. The rep will pick up the samples on sample day when they come, and send them to the University for testing. Your results will be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to you and your veterinarian within a couple of days. That's all there is to it. The program is designed to serve as a monitor from month to month. When the Field Rep calls to arrange a sample date they will remind you to start taking the samples for culture.
The follow-up service of individual cow culturing is in development now and should be available late this year.
Proper meter care is essential to getting accurate milk weights. Meters are a precision piece of equipment and need to be handled as such to maintain optimum accuracy. Here are a few tips for keeping meters clean and in good repair.
Cleaning:
Other:
Meters should be brought to your farm clean and in working order, and they should leave your farm clean. Thank you for making accomodations for washing and sanitizing.
Jerry Steuernagel retired from the University of Minnesota on September 29. He will continue to do consulting work for the National DHIA and AgriTech Analytics. Jerry spent most of his career developing and supporting Minnesota DHIA. His contributions to us and our customers are immeasurable. He developed standardized ME, Management Level Milk, the first Reproduction Report in DHIA, and much more.
The Michel Brothers of Ottertail County are selling 2 registered Jersey heifers and 1 grade Holstein heifer. For more information, please call Trenton in the evening at 218-863-5749.
Cows For Sale is a service of Minnesota DHIA. Members can advertise for just $2.50 per animal with a maximum of $50 per herd (good for 60 days). For more information, talk to your Field Rep on sample day or call us at 800-827-3442.
"Mister, why doesn't this cow have any horns?" asked the young lady from a nearby city.
The farmer cocked his head for a moment, then began in a patient tone, "Well, ma'am, cattle can do a powerful lot of damage with horns. Sometimes we keep'em trimmed down with a hacksaw. Other times we can fix up the young 'uns by puttin' a couple drops of acid where their horns would grow in, and that stops 'em cold. Still, there are some breeds of cattle that never grow horns. But the reason this cow don't have no horns, ma'am, is 'cause it's a horse."
John Kelzer was honored earlier this year as one of six Outstanding Field Reps. Although John hasn't been testing very long, the time he has been with Minnesota DHIA has been well spent. He is currently testing 70 herds with 5,519 cows. John visits his herds every 36.9 days or about 10 times per year. His average turn around time is well below the state average at 1.87 days.
John is very dedicated and willing to go that extra mile. When other Field Reps in neighboring counties quit, John took over their herds and almost doubled his workload, going from 39 herds a year ealier to a total of 70 now.
Herd owners are John's first concern. If questions come up, he readily calls or sends notes to get the answers as quickly as possible. He actively promotes on-farm software usage, and now has 3 Scout and Dairy Comp herds. We really appreciate all your hard work, John. Thank you!
If the low price of milk has you down, please check out this offer. From now til Oct. 31, we will install SCOUT on your farm for the price of 100 lbs of milk!
In other words, for just pennies on the dollar you can get one of the premiere dairy management software programs at your fingertips. SCOUT will provide you with fast, accurate, cost effective information on individual cows and your entire herd. With more than 30 easy-to-use graphs and reports available, you can quickly see where you may need to make some changes and where you are aleady making improvements. It is a great management tool.
Both SCOUT and Dairy Comp 305 are sold and supported by your Minnesota DHIA staff. For more information, ask your field rep or call 1-800-827-3442 today!
SCOUT WINDOWS VERSION will be available very soon. It is already in the beta testing stage and will be sent via CD to all current Scout users in 1-2 months.