Facing up to the cost of poor cell counts

摘要

The financial cost of clinical and sub-clinical mastitis can be considerable. Here, National Milk Records business development manager, Douglas Batchelor, explains where the losses lie and suggests how farmers might work towards cutting their losses.The average dairy herd loses over 10,000 pound a year on mastitis and cell counts above 200,000 cells/ml indicate that mastitis causing bacteria are present. More than 60% of our herds have cell counts above this level. If all mastitis incidences were clinical more farmers would make low cell counts top priority. But 70% of lost income is hidden in depressed milk production through sub-clinical mastitis and, unlike clinical cases, there are no visual symptoms of sub-clinical cases.