COPING WITH WET PADDOCKS

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Considering shifting the fence on the allocated grazing area two to three times during the day.

Using di erent gateways to put cows on and o the paddock if possible.

Allocating the pasture to be grazed in square or rectangular blocks rather than long, narrow strips.

Slowing the grazing rotation to match pasture growth rates. Aim to have cows going into plenty of pasture (at least 2500 to 3000kg DM/ha) and leave post grazing heights of 4cm to 6 cm between clumps.

Avoiding the temptation to speed up the planned rotation length. Stick to the plan.

Grazing paddocks that are likely to have a wet soil problem early in the season.

Sacrifice paddocks and stand-o areas

Some form of stand-off area is required for ‘on-off’ grazing when cows are taken off the paddock. A ‘sacrifice paddock’ is the simplest and a low cost option suitable for most farms.

Ideally this should be a paddock with better drained soils on higher parts of the landscape, with run-down pasture requiring renovation and away from waterways.

Other areas that can be used to stand cows off on include:

Laneways: should only be regarded as a short term option as significant damage to the track surface can occur.

Feedpads and the dairy yard — cows should have room to lie down requiring at least 3.5 square metres/cow, or 5 square metres/cow if cows are on

After cleaning the teat end, the first few squirts of foremilk should be discarded and then a 5ml sample of milk should be collected into a sterile container. To reduce the risk of contaminating the milk sample during collection, the teat end must not touch the sample container, and nothing should touch the inside surface of the container lid.

The cow’s number, quarter sampled and date of sampling are useful to record on the sample container before delivery to the testing site (many veterinary clinics offer rapid mastitis testing service).

Even when the likely cause of infection has been established and an effective treatment protocol is put in place it is prudent to collect a milk sample before treatment in case of treatment failure.

Some bugs can protect themselves from antibiotic treatment by producing a special slime coating over their surface or may even have genes for antibiotic resistance.

If your initial treatment is unsuccessful, contact your veterinarian for further advice. The stored milk sample can be used up to six months from collection date.

Prevention of new infections

Understanding the types of infection is the first step in preventing infection.

If the cause of the mastitis in your cows is infection by bugs living in the environment (environmental mastitis), the focus of prevention must be to either decrease the exposure of your cow’s teats to dung and dirt or increase the protection in your cow’s teats.

Clean calving paddocks and avoiding calving cows on feedpads will reduce teat-end contamination.

If you are getting several cows coming in with mastitis on day one of milking, the use of teat-sealant products should be considered.

Teat-seal forms a physical barrier to udder invasion from environmental bugs.

Some bugs are difficult to culture as they hide inside cells in the udder and are not shed in the milk all the time, but the bugs can cause great damage to the udder tissue (cow associated mastitis).

Such bugs are found on the skin of the udder and their presence inside the udder suggests that there is a problem with cow hygiene or milking plant function allowing skin bugs to invade the udder. This may occur with uneven cup removal, high vacuum or short milk liners damaging teat ends.

Unless the cause of teat-end damage is stopped you will continue to have new mastitis infections occurring in your cows.

Milking practices begins with understanding how to implement effective, efficient stockmanship and care in milking processes on farm.

These include careful movement of stock to and from the paddock, thorough application of teat spray (two litres per 100 cows, per milking applied over the whole teat after milking), gentle even cup removal, avoiding over-milking and regular timely changing of rubber-ware.

These will all assist in reducing the incidence of new mastitis infections.

Good-conditioned cows with supple teats that have clean teat ends are more resistant to mastitis infection than cows in poor condition with low immunity, cracked teats and damaged teat-ends.

Having a good consistent milking routine, healthy cows and clean calving environment will minimise the incidence of new mastitis infections in your herd.

MMM program can help

The Dairy Australia Milking Mastitis Management program will help your farm team understand how to achieve good milking practices.

The MMM program is valuable for induction of farm staff entering the dairy industry as foundation for good milking practices while more experienced employees and farm mangers/owners will often gain practical useful information to improve operations, attention to detail and in turn milk quality.

For more information about the MMM program, contact Ross Read on 0438 906 613 or rread@murraydairy.com.au

– Ross Read, Murray Dairy regional extension officer animal performance them for more than two days.

Purpose-built containment areas or loafing pads.

Supplementary feeding strategies

Supplements should be used in wet conditions as a tool to help maintain a slow grazing rotation and ensure cows are fully fed, especially during prolonged wet periods.

Well-fed cows cause less pugging damage as they are more content and do less walking around the paddock.

Where possible, feed supplements in the dairy, on the feedpad or other stand-off areas.

If feeding in the paddock, put out the feed before the cows enter the paddock and if small amounts are being fed, feed it under an electric wire.

Animal health

Prolonged wet and muddy conditions place the herd under additional stress. Increased stocking rates in sacrifice paddocks can increase the risk of mastitis, lameness and magnesium deficiency. Keep a close eye on all stock and treat any conditions as soon as possible.

For more information, visit feed. dairyaustralia.com.au