Hoard's Dairyman: Getting the mastitis numbers we need Getting
the mastitis numbers we need by David A. Rhoda D.V.M The author
is a senior partner in the Evansville Veterinary Service,
Evansville, Wis. Consistency is an important factor in caring
for cows, and in no place is it more important than during
milking. Ann could recite the milking technique that was used on
her dairy quickly, and the words haven’t changed in years.
However, some milkers had changed through the years. Several of
the measures relative to the udder health in her herd had
changed, too. She couldn’t understand why because she felt
nothing in the milking routine or housing had changed. Of the
measures she watched, some of the changes appeared to be
positive and some negative. She had set a goal to reduce the
number of clinical cases, and that goal had been met, but the
bulk tank cell count had gone up, and that concerned her. Let’s
start with a few definitions relative to udder health because
these two trends seem in conflict. We need to