Mastitis is an ongoing challenge for dairy farmers. Reducing its occurrence is critical to minimise animal welfare issues and financial losses. This week we head to the British Mastitis Conference (BMC) where industry experts will share the latest advice and developments about preserving the udder health of your herd.
Mastitis prevention pays off
Mastitis is still the biggest disease cost on dairy farms. Mastitis in the dairy herd costs on average £225 a case, and if individual cows have multiple mastitis cases across a lactation, the costs soon add up. As cost inflation bites, feed and fertiliser prices soar and subsidies are cut, mastitis control is key to dairy operations.
Now installed on four NMR RABDF Gold Cup winning farms and having done 4,590,620 milkings to date*, Lactalign is helping to control the disease among high-yielding herds in these busy rotary and rapid exit parlours.
While milk prices have increased during the past year, feed prices have also gone up. Finding ways to optimise performance and reduce costs on your dairy unit is well worth the effort in light of escalating input prices.
As noted by Metcalfe Farms in North Yorkshire where Lactalign has been installed since December 2020, the support units had paid for themselves within three to four months. That takes into account the lost value of waste milk – and that was before the current uplift in milk prices plus the cost of antibiotics and reduced milk output from individual animals while getting back up to previous yield levels.
Mastitis aside, the device is popular among milking teams for convenience such as the time saved on reattachments and reducing disruptions such as dealing with liner slip, which is also very uncomfortable for cows during milking.
Lactalign’s first rapid exit parlour
Lactalign is now installed on a rapid exit milking parlour. We look forward to the units bringing benefit to the herd of 800 cows that pass through the parlour three times a day.
Cut the cost of mastitis
By using Lacatlign, you can save a lot of the avoidable costs associated with mastitis, such as ongoing production losses, discarded milk, vet and medication bills. Combine these quantifiable factors with those perhaps harder to put a price on, such as time saved by reducing liner slip and kick-offs, the significant savings all add up. Get in touch to find out more.
The BMC 2022 is being held at Sixways Stadium, Worcester on Wednesday 9 November, with the Workshop on the 8th. The full programme and details on how to register be found here
* Milkings as of 5th Nov 2022