Autumn drying-off tips

Did you know that your approach to drying off cows has a major impact on the amount of mastitis you will get at calving?

Up to 30% of mastitis cases around calving are due to bacteria that infected the udder at dry-off. The bacteria can sit happily in the udder, not causing visible signs, until the cow’s immune system is stressed and a large source of food is available (i.e. milk!), both of which occur at calving.  Suddenly the bacteria have the ideal environment to multiply to a level that result in clinical mastitis.
 
Many autumn cows are to be dried off in the next 2 months.  They are often doing higher production than spring cows at the same stage of lactation, meaning they are often more challenging to dry off appropriately. Here are some tips:
 

• Use dry-cow therapy (DCT) and/or Teatseal™ to protect the quarter until the keratin plug forms
• Ensure you are scrupulously clean when inserting DCT or Teatseal™ into quarters. The bottom 2cm of the teat should be so clean that you would be happy to drink from it!  Any dirt left at the teat-end can result in nasty bacteria infecting the gland.  Many of these bacteria are not sensitive to dry-cow antibiotics and can cause severe illness and death
• Be as gentle as possible and introduce only 3mm or less of the tube nozzle into the teat when using intra-mammary tubes. This will minimise damage to the teat sphincter; the tissue that produces the keratin plug
• Keep DCT syringes dry when drying-off.  If you need to warm syringes to facilitate insertion of the DCT, do so by placing hot water bottles in the bucket of syringes
• Ensure cows are dried off onto clean pasture – keep them away from effluent-sprayed and wet paddocks. Try to minimise break-feeding in the first week as this tends to result in high faecal contamination of udder and teats
• Keep cows away from the shed for at least a week. This is to prevent involuntary milk let-down that could potentially upset the formation of the keratin plug. Dripping milk also acts as a great wick for bacteria to enter the gland
• Don’t bring cows onto a feed pad for at least 10 days and ideally longer, as faecal contamination make pads great breeding grounds for the bacteria that cause mastitis
• Do not use skip-a-day milking before drying off, as studies show this increases mastitis
• Do not restrict access to water to reduce milk production – water must be freely available at all times
• If cows are doing over 12 litres at dry-off, a change of feed should be included in you dry-off plan to reduce the level of milk production by the gland. Talk to one of our vets to discuss the most appropriate plan for you.