Focus

Dairy practitioners and producers are struggling daily with monitoring production and diseases on dairies. To achieve this, they will, or, more often, their herd health software will compute different indices that they can consult. They then have to decide whether…...

Escherichia coli is a major mastitis pathogen and a well-known cause of clinical mastitis in dairy cows. Ubiquitously present in organic material like manure and bedding, E. coli can reach high concentrations in the cow’s environment. Although being described as…...

Bovine mastitis is a very common disease in dairy herds worldwide. In Switzerland, the incidence density is 32.7 cases per 100 cow years (Stärk et al., 1997), resulting in total costs of about CHF 130 Mio. per year (Heiniger et…...

Since the 1950’s, computers have been used as a management tool in dairy farming (Lissemore, 1989). Over subsequent decades, dairy herd management software has evolved consistently and the personal computer has emerged as an important management tool to primarily monitor…...

The milking machine is unique as it harvests food from a living animal on a regular basis. It must work very efficiently so that cows are milked swiftly with minimal effects on udder health. It is essential that teat heath…...