Balance the bias
Lactalign is a new and relatively simple retro-fit device designed to counter the often costly impact of uneven weight and vacuum distribution of a milking cluster.
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#33-2022
Care and constancy key to quality milk
The secret to the Banville family’s on-farm success can be summed up in one word: Diligence. While the word itself does little to describe just how thorough they are when it comes to hygiene and herd health, the many trophies they’ve collected over the years are proof that what they’re doing works.
Patrick and Carmel Banville have been dairy farming since they took over Patrick’s parents’ farm in 1990. The Banvilles have been on the farm since 1919 when Patrick’s grandfather married into a dairying family, making Patrick and Carmel the third generation. The couple has three children, John (21), Brian (18), and Orla (16). Their hope is that they will one day take over the farm.
The Banvilles milk 140 Holstein-Friesian cows and raise 40 replacement heifers in County Wexford in the southeast of Ireland. Theirs is a pedigreed herd. They deliver approximately 836,737 litres of milk to dairy cooperative Glanbia Ireland. Butterfat averages 4.23%, and protein 3.52%.
Every year, Ireland’s National Dairy Council (NDC) and Kerrygold single out farm families that attain the highest standards of excellence in dairy farming with a focus on milk quality, animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. This year, they selected 12 families from eight counties to receive the Quality Milk Award, an award they’ve now dubbed the ‘Oscars of the Dairy World’. The Banvilles won Best Milk Quality and were overall runners up.
Nominated by Glanbia Ireland, the Banvilles were an obvious choice. Awards are not new to the family. Patrick’s father won similar quality milk awards from Wexford Creamery where they delivered their milk when they were farming. Since 2014, they’ve received the Teagasc Animal Health Award five times. They’ve also received the Cell Check award, given to those farming families who achieve less than 73,000 SCC annually. Of the 18,000 dairy farmers in Ireland, only about 500 receive this award each year.
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Online training contributes to accessible knowledge transfer and global connection | Part one
International dairy consultant Maaike Leistra developed and trained online groups of maximum 15 participants from October 2021 until August 2022 for the Dutch Dairy Training Centre. The trainings were attended by teachers, trainers, advisors and leaders who are responsible for practical training in their home countries. The overall aim was to define the most important factors in farm management and to have insightful knowledge on how to influence these factors.
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New kid on the block: Corynebacterium uberis
Bacteria are extremely diverse and there is an incredible number of species we have yet to discover. Nevertheless, it is very exciting to find a new potential pathogen. Modern methods of diagnostics allow us to differentiate bacterial species more easily. Thus, we could isolate a new species of Corynebacterium frommastitis milk samples, which was probably overlooked previously.
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Biomarkers for bovine mammary gland involution and disease
At dry off, the mammary gland of the early dry cow undergoes a multitude of morphologic, immunologic, metabolic, and biochemical alterations known as mammary gland involution. During involution, the mammary gland is vulnerable to bacterial infection, particularly if milk leakage occurs. Increased risk of milk leakage and infection are associated with high milk production at dry off. Therefore, as advances in dairy cow management and fertility continue to increase milk production- more cows will be at risk for infection during early mammary involution. However, much remains unknown about optimizing mammary involution.
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Impact of nutrition and feeding management on risk of mastitis in dairy heifers
Mastitis risk in dairy cows and heifers is multifactorial and changes with time and interaction with causal factors. This complexity can make it hard to troubleshoot and help farms maintain a low level of mastitis. As a consultant it is difficult to be aware of daily changes and duration of those changes occurring on client dairies.
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Impact of intramammary infections with non-aureus staphylococci on udder health and milk production in dairy heifers
Non-aureus staphylococci (NAS) have become the most prevalent cause of intramammary infections (IMI) in dairy cows in most parts of the world. The current body of literature on IMI caused by NAS has reported debatable and contradictory conclusions on their relevance for udder health and milk production. The aims of this thesis were to precisely estimate the impact of NAS IMI on somatic cell count (SCC) and milk yield (MY) at the quarter-level.
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Establishing the bacterial cause of clinical mastitis through questioning
When a herd has a problem with clinical mastitis it is very helpful to have accurate mastitis records and bacteriology results to establish the cause of the infection. Computerised records that allow easy mastitis analysis are invaluable. In most developed dairy countries farmers are required to keep accurate mastitis records, however, in other dairy areas records might be missing or inaccurate. Some farmers carry out regular bacteriology sampling from clinical cases while others might have none. An accurate diagnosis of the bacteria causing mastitis allows targeted steps to resolve the problem. It is helpful to be able to breakdown mastitis infections into contagious and/or environmental, lactation and/or dry period infections and the specific bacteria causing mastitis.
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In conversation with Professor Simon Dufour, Université de Montréal, Canada
M²-magazine spoke to Professor Simon Dufour about his background and education, his work in veterinary practice, at the University of Montreal, Canada and with external organisations; and about life outside of academia.
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New challenges, new opportunities
Research and innovations accumulated over decades have advanced the dairy industry with better quality milk and a generally satisfactory sanitary situation as results. However, the treatment of intramammary infections has stayed in the background, with the traditional option of undiscriminating treatment. Recently, the European 2019/6 regulation on pharmaceutical products, particularly antibiotics, has thrown a severe challenge in the face of veterinarians and dairy producers.
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