Dry cow treatment

[jerseycowsman]

Ok, it's that time of the year when I am thinking of drying them off.
Thinking about just a sealant on cows with average SCC below 150 and an antibiotic and sealant on the rest.
What's everybody else's thoughts and experiences?

 

[Headless chicken]

Go for it. I use a dry tube on everything that had mastitis in the last lactation and a sealant.

Everything else just had a sealant seemed to work

 

[Sandpit Farm]

If you are with NMR, there is an icon on Herd Companion that gives you an indication as to where reservoir for mastitis is. It looks at SCC of cows going through the dry period

Ie high to high, low to high, high to low and low to low.

That will give you an indication of how effective your DCT is and whether the 'low to high' group is likely to cause a problem.

 

[newholland]

Scrub each teat with surgical spirit and cotton wool. Repeat as many times as needed until cotton wool is coming away perfectly clean. Orbseal and then post teat dip.
Nothing else. Never even used 1 dry cow tube this year.

Surgical spirit, cotton wool and lots of time in aclean parlour is the answer, wish we had done this before, it made the difference

 

[Tullyvernon]

Go for it. I use a dry tube on everything that had mastitis in the last lactation and a sealant.

Everything else just had a sealant seemed to work

Have been doing the same as that this past few years, and thankfully I will be able to use just sealant on all cows this year!!

 

[Bruce Almighty]

I have belt & braces approach of both DCT & sealant with excellent results.

@newholland I admire your method. I think this is what we will all be doing in the future. I ought to pluck up the courage to follow suit.

 

[Headless chicken]

The thing I love about no antibiotics is the fact that I can take first milking for calves and then get her in the tank so no faf with dump buckets

 

[jimmer]

cephaguard and orbeseal for everything giving more than a certain amount which i decide at the time
just orbeseal for low cell low yield

 

[jimmer]

The thing I love about no antibiotics is the fact that I can take first milking for calves and then get her in the tank so no faf with dump buckets

cephaguard in after one milking

 

[Tullyvernon]

I have belt & braces approach of both DCT & sealant with excellent results.

@newholland I admire your method. I think this is what we will all be doing in the future. I ought to pluck up the courage to follow suit.

You wont regret it, took me a wile to relax with drying a cow off and only using sealant

I now have a 3/4 full bucket of DC tubes and they will be out of date before iv them used!!!

 

[Tullyvernon]

The thing I love about no antibiotics is the fact that I can take first milking for calves and then get her in the tank so no faf with dump buckets

I like that about it too, just keep enough for the calf, and I can relax better if not milking myself as there is no chance of antibiotic milk in the tank

 

[newholland]

It focuses your mind not using antibiotics - it was harder for us as farmers - the cows soon got their act togther and learned how to stay heathly.

 

[Keepers]

Scrub each teat with surgical spirit and cotton wool. Repeat as many times as needed until cotton wool is coming away perfectly clean. Orbseal and then post teat dip.
Nothing else. Never even used 1 dry cow tube this year.

Surgical spirit, cotton wool and lots of time in aclean parlour is the answer, wish we had done this before, it made the difference

Exactly what is done here, plus cows with a high SCC are not put in calf so are culled at drying off time

 

[multi power]

agree with newholland, spend the time getting them clean, alough i tube any high cell counts or mastitis that lactation, tube about 10% of the herd

 

[Mr Jones]

Go for it. I use a dry tube on everything that had mastitis in the last lactation and a sealant.

Everything else just had a sealant seemed to work

How many days can a cow go in her dry spell with a teat sealant only? Are we talking a couple of months or weeks.

 

[Headless chicken]

If you me in the tank? The day after you've used it.

If you mean how long a period can you give it..... Some of mine had 3 months and as far as I know indefinitely. Aslong as it is cleaned and sealed then it's all good

 

[Tonka]

The thing I love about no antibiotics is the fact that I can take first milking for calves and then get her in the tank so no faf with dump buckets

Not sure how long a cow "gives colostrum for" after calving - but I don't like the sound of only keeping 1 milking out and then putting her in the tank

 

[Mr Jones]

If you me in the tank? The day after you've used it.

If you mean how long a period can you give it..... Some of mine had 3 months and as far as I know indefinitely. Aslong as it is cleaned and sealed then it's all good

The latter, i had two cows last year who had a 4/5 month dry period. Got sick and tired of re-applying dc tubes every 5 weeks or so.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

If you me in the tank? The day after you've used it.

If you mean how long a period can you give it..... Some of mine had 3 months and as far as I know indefinitely. Aslong as it is cleaned and sealed then it's all good

I think you'll find orbeseal or equivalent has a 96 hour/ 8 milking legal milk withhold.

 

[jimmer]

I think you'll find orbeseal or equivalent has a 96 hour/ 8 milking legal milk withhold.

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Pfizer_Limited/Orbeseal_Dry_Cow_Intramammary_Suspension/-30848.html