Bactoscans

[jerseycowsman]

Over the last 6 months our average bactoscan has gone from the mid 20’s, to floating around the 50 mark, meaning some months we are being penalised. Nothing is different, everything has been checked.
Any body had problems like this? I’ve heard rumours that a lot of people are having trouble with no real explanation

 

[More to life]

Have you changed your teat dip in this time ?

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

Over the last 6 months our average bactoscan has from the mid 20’s, to floating around the 50 mark, meaning some months we are being penalised. Nothing is different, everything has been checked.
Any body had problems like this? I’ve heard rumours that a lot of people are having trouble with no real explanation

Always below 20 normally single figures, last 6 months in the 100's and nothing we do changes it.

 

[___\0/___]

Over the last 6 months our average bactoscan has from the mid 20’s, to floating around the 50 mark, meaning some months we are being penalised. Nothing is different, everything has been checked.
Any body had problems like this? I’ve heard rumours that a lot of people are having trouble with no real explanation

We are exactly the same. Had lots of problems with tanker drivers and tank washes which doesn't help things.

 

[Scholsey]

Speak to whatever company you buy your chemicals off and get a fieldsman out with a test kit first job and arrange a milk recording and a bactobreak down if you don’t already.

Find out where your nearest NML lab is, maybe QMMS if they do it, take a sample from the collection vessel or even pipe before it goes into the tank and a sample from in the tank, if a direct line parlour milk 2 sides in just the one side of the parlour and just sample that milk and visa versa.

to be consistently in the 100s there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Normally it's always the tank.

However I'm aware some teat dips have changed formulation, due to a change in regulation I think.

Only found out as the products I use were discontinued.
Currently trialing the *new versions and watching bactos like a hawk.

 

[Headless chicken]

Your not alone. I’m not 100% happy that it’s an on farm problem although with us due to lack of shed roof and substantial increases in cell count we’re having here because of it I cant really argue it.

we finally got it to consistently sub 100 which it hasn’t been for probably 6 weeks which was a huge weight off our of heads. Now to get it sub 50 is the next challenge

 

[lazy farmer]

Ours has been much more random than normal this autumn.like others it’s normally the tank.this year however have found nothing wrong with the tank. It has coincided with going inline testing and nmr issues. Haven’t lost any money and am hoping cows will go straight to grass after calving eliminating that as an issue.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Must admit NML's ongoing issues don't help for confidence in the results.

 

[Hill Dairy]

Yeah we've had very similar problems this autumn finally got it down to around 40 mark.

 

[Horn&corn]

Borehole or mains? I’m sure our borehole smells funny sometimes and water troughs cloudy but water tests always say it’s ok. Bacto jumps all over the place ?

 

[som farmer]

14 months, been driving us mad, and cost £1000's
water, borehole, all tests are fine, we have tested all through the pipework, all fine, just in case, we have installed 2 UV's, before dairy, as further insurance, all dairy water cholinated,
the whole parlour has swabbed several times, no problems anywhere, the airline is regulary,(very)flushed out.
bulk tank, is 4 years old, all chemical amounts, on auto wash, checked, and rechecked, temp correct, chems correct,
plate cooler, taken apart and checked, not 100% happy, so new plate cooler, no change.
chemicals, everyones chems, are better than anyone elses ! a lot come out of same factory, but we have tried all types, mixes, no lasting changes.
we are in a hard water area, so have installed a softener.
we have been washing the tank out by hand, as well as auto wash,
we have had a different firm check the bulk tank, all fine.
we are trying a much stronger acid in tank wash, this has just about kept us around the 50 (payment threshold) so is helping, but that pushed the thermodurics through the roof, which, up till now, have always been under 500.
bacto breakdowns have not really helped, using them, for targeting specific bugs, nothing changed.
so, results, it could be a cow, anything with cc issues, high then low, etc, has either been dried off, or sold,
could be the plant, everything checked and rechecked, opinion, by using overkill washes, should temp bring down bacto, not.
parlour routine, pre-dip, individual wipes, post dip, all done carefully.
bulk tank, checked and rechecked
water checked
the latest, expert report, 'perplexing'.
WTF are we mean't to do ?

 

[Scholsey]

14 months, been driving us mad, and cost £1000's
water, borehole, all tests are fine, we have tested all through the pipework, all fine, just in case, we have installed 2 UV's, before dairy, as further insurance, all dairy water cholinated,
the whole parlour has swabbed several times, no problems anywhere, the airline is regulary,(very)flushed out.
bulk tank, is 4 years old, all chemical amounts, on auto wash, checked, and rechecked, temp correct, chems correct,
plate cooler, taken apart and checked, not 100% happy, so new plate cooler, no change.
chemicals, everyones chems, are better than anyone elses ! a lot come out of same factory, but we have tried all types, mixes, no lasting changes.
we are in a hard water area, so have installed a softener.
we have been washing the tank out by hand, as well as auto wash,
we have had a different firm check the bulk tank, all fine.
we are trying a much stronger acid in tank wash, this has just about kept us around the 50 (payment threshold) so is helping, but that pushed the thermodurics through the roof, which, up till now, have always been under 500.
bacto breakdowns have not really helped, using them, for targeting specific bugs, nothing changed.
so, results, it could be a cow, anything with cc issues, high then low, etc, has either been dried off, or sold,
could be the plant, everything checked and rechecked, opinion, by using overkill washes, should temp bring down bacto, not.
parlour routine, pre-dip, individual wipes, post dip, all done carefully.
bulk tank, checked and rechecked
water checked
the latest, expert report, 'perplexing'.
WTF are we mean't to do ?

tried mains instead of borehole?

 

[Beef farmer]

PPV in the teat dip caused me some havoc. Have always been on 0.52% iodine as 0.5% was minimum inclusion by law. That changed and firms went to 0.3% but added some other gimmicks (ppv) causing a build up of a synthetic bio film in the parlour, near invisible to the naked eye unless. Normal parlour chems wont shift synthetic bio films. Pulled my hair out for 2 months, had the world and his wife crawl over the place. Changed back to my old cheap cheerful teat dip and dropped the bacto from mid 80s to mid 30s.

I did also 4 months ago change to a cheaper parlour chem, have since chamges back to tried and tested GEA chems. That didnt help 1 bit, but I question if i had kept on GEA chems but changed teat dip, weather the expensive chems would have prevented the build up of the bio film.

Few "friends" kept telling me it's always the tank. Well this time pullers it was the teat dip.

*normally its always the tank

 

[Real cool]

Yea we get farmers always in the tank then you get there and the routine is crap acr not working correctly and pulsation sh!t But it’s always the tank

 

[pappuller]

PPV in the teat dip caused me some havoc. Have always been on 0.52% iodine as 0.5% was minimum inclusion by law. That changed and firms went to 0.3% but added some other gimmicks (ppv) causing a build up of a synthetic bio film in the parlour, near invisible to the naked eye unless. Normal parlour chems wont shift synthetic bio films. Pulled my hair out for 2 months, had the world and his wife crawl over the place. Changed back to my old cheap cheerful teat dip and dropped the bacto from mid 80s to mid 30s.

I did also 4 months ago change to a cheaper parlour chem, have since chamges back to tried and tested GEA chems. That didnt help 1 bit, but I question if i had kept on GEA chems but changed teat dip, weather the expensive chems would have prevented the build up of the bio film.

Few "friends" kept telling me it's always the tank. Well this time pullers it was the teat dip.

*normally its always the tank

I ve heard a similar story to this and in my experience it is usually the tank but from your experience it does sound like your friends got it wrong.

 

[som farmer]

tried mains instead of borehole?

no longer an option, just possible for real emergencies. We stopped our main feed in, the meter, to dairy was just over 1/2 mile away, through 3 different farms, and road verge, constantly giving trouble, leaks etc, the only other mains, is very low pressure, and could pee faster!!!!! but all tests have come back fine, 5 yrs since we went all bore hole, and UV's, are changed correctly, and added hypo through a flow meter for extra care.
it's either 1 specific place in the parlour pipe work, that isn't getting the wash, or bulk tank, finding out what is the problem. If it went really high, and stayed there, easy, but staying 50-100 is, apparently very hard.

PPV in the teat dip caused me some havoc. Have always been on 0.52% iodine as 0.5% was minimum inclusion by law. That changed and firms went to 0.3% but added some other gimmicks (ppv) causing a build up of a synthetic bio film in the parlour, near invisible to the naked eye unless. Normal parlour chems wont shift synthetic bio films. Pulled my hair out for 2 months, had the world and his wife crawl over the place. Changed back to my old cheap cheerful teat dip and dropped the bacto from mid 80s to mid 30s.

I did also 4 months ago change to a cheaper parlour chem, have since chamges back to tried and tested GEA chems. That didnt help 1 bit, but I question if i had kept on GEA chems but changed teat dip, weather the expensive chems would have prevented the build up of the bio film.

Few "friends" kept telling me it's always the tank. Well this time pullers it was the teat dip.

*normally its always the tank

my gut feeling is tank, but whatever we have done/tried makes no difference. will discuss teat dips tomorrow, but I think we must have tried every chemical out there.

 

[jimmer]

PPV in the teat dip caused me some havoc. Have always been on 0.52% iodine as 0.5% was minimum inclusion by law. That changed and firms went to 0.3% but added some other gimmicks (ppv) causing a build up of a synthetic bio film in the parlour, near invisible to the naked eye unless. Normal parlour chems wont shift synthetic bio films. Pulled my hair out for 2 months, had the world and his wife crawl over the place. Changed back to my old cheap cheerful teat dip and dropped the bacto from mid 80s to mid 30s.

I did also 4 months ago change to a cheaper parlour chem, have since chamges back to tried and tested GEA chems. That didnt help 1 bit, but I question if i had kept on GEA chems but changed teat dip, weather the expensive chems would have prevented the build up of the bio film.

Few "friends" kept telling me it's always the tank. Well this time pullers it was the teat dip.

*normally its always the tank

Your friends were probably correct, as the huge surface area of the tank would have had more pvp film on it than the rest of the plant
Just a thought from a fellow moo man

 

[Beef farmer]

Your friends were probably correct, as the huge surface area of the tank would have had more pvp film on it than the rest of the plant
Just a thought from a fellow moo man

Surface area of the plate cooler is massive in comparison

 

[Scholsey]

The heavy rainfall wouldn’t cause a contamination issue with the borehole water?