I had to call our electrician again last week. The very old building that is the basis of our vet practice seems to defy all logic when it comes to wiring. At one point, when we installed electric gates, they only work when the sensor on the back door lights up. Still, our excellent electrician continues to call when you need it, despite what’s waiting for them.
After he fixed the complex issue, he began to explain to me the ins and outs of our building issues. I cut him short and said, “I’m standing on the walls today and as long as it’s fixed, I’m happy”.
As I went for my next call, a meeting with a farmer discussion group, I realized what I had just done. Like an ostrich, I buried my head in the sand. I knew there were bigger issues in our building that needed to be addressed, but, in my mind, I was too busy accepting them. Today was fine and we’ll tackle tomorrow, well, tomorrow. The interesting thing is that I did exactly what I was trying to persuade the farmers not to do in my meeting.
The discussion focused on the recording of milk and the analysis of the data coming from it. Milk recordings give us enormous amounts of data and an excellent insight into the trends and performance of individual cows in the herd. SCC (Somatic Cell Count) is the main focus for most of the farmers and it is a thorny issue to discuss.
SCC is not like other diseases in the herd. For example, if there is an outbreak of IBR in a herd of cows, the vet comes out, treats the sick cows and takes samples. The samples come back positive for IBR and are put into the vaccination programme. Bob’s uncle, problem solved. Unfortunately, this is not the case with SCC. To resolve an SCC issue in a swarm, it must involve a comprehensive approach. The cubicle shed, feed space, calving box, collecting yard and parlor should all be checked for any defects. Any high SCC cows or cases of mastitis should be cultured to determine the main bug that is causing the issues. An aggressive killing policy should be implemented for repeat offenders and many tough decisions will need to be made to kill the “great cows”.
I can almost hear some of you at this stage taking a long, frustrated exhalation. In fact, you have heard all this before and in my farmer meeting last week too, I noticed that some people are starting to lose interest.
Growing up on a dairy farm, I can see why. Presently farming is a stressful environment. Costing costs are rising and the amount of cows needed to support a family is increasing rapidly. Add to this the constraints that are being imposed on farmers to comply with EU rules. In some co-operative societies the cut off point for bulk milk SCC is as high as 400,000. If your flock doesn’t go to it, you don’t get fined. Many farmers have neither the time nor the desire to address the SCC problem as long as the herd remains below the cut-off.
So why bother at all? We have to refer to the antibiotic regulations that we now need to follow. Until now, you could get whatever mastitis tube you liked and whatever dry cow tube tickled your fancy. Antibiotics that a doctor in a hospital has to jump through hoops to use, any farmer can freely use on 200 cows.
Overuse and misuse of antibiotics is leading to resistance. Bacteria are getting smarter and learning how to develop defenses so antibiotics can’t kill them.
Some cases of mastitis will resolve without any antibiotic treatment – anti-inflammatory drugs alone will do. In other cases antibiotics will be needed but certainly not high level. Similarly, some cows do not require antibiotics when dry (selective dry cow therapy). The reality is that antibiotics have been covering the cracks in many agricultural systems for the past several years and we have now reached a critical point. There are two options. One, bury our heads in the sand like ostriches, or option two, solve the problems at hand.
It is important to point out that both options are viable depending on a number of factors. As a vet, there is a page on this with some questions that I and the farmer should answer before starting a mastitis/SCC investigation. This may sound a bit “airy-fairy”, but indulge me for a minute. Does the farmer want my help and are they ready to listen? Do they have the time and commitment? Do they want to be in business in 10 years’ time?
Often, the answers aren’t just yes or no, but we need to find out if it’s worthwhile at all before we begin, because if it’s not, we won’t get results and everyone will be disappointed. The vet also has a very important question to ask of itself: Do I want to help? Each individual vet is different and for reasons such as time constraints, overwork or personality conflicts with the farmer, there may not be the best vet in practice at the time to take on the project.
If everyone is on board to address the issue, compliance with antibiotic regulations will be the basis of a plan. Any mastitis case, or even a quarter that has been identified as having high SCC, should be sampled. Over the course of the year, you will be able to build up a bank of information that will tell you which bug in your flock is causing the problem and which antibiotic will best treat it.
The cost of sampling may seem expensive initially, but if it saves even just one cow/calf, it will pay for itself 10 times. The beauty of routine milk sample analysis is that it not only helps with the bottom line, but it stands up to scrutiny if/when you observe drugs.
Like me and my dodgy electrics, you can still bury your head in the sand. The only thing about it is, if your head is in the sand, your rear end is in the air and it won’t take long to kick.
Eamon O’Connell is a veterinarian with Summerhill Vet Clinic, Nenagh, Co Tipperary
