Is teat sealant worth it ?

[Headless chicken]

We've gradually shifted from A/B everything at drying off to 5% A/B (SCC over 200 only) and everything else teat sealant over a 3 year period. Only really started using the teat sealant to stop losing quarters in dry cows late summer due to flies. Previous year had 5-6 cows with summer mastitis and last year with teat sealant didn't lose any. Didn't notice any difference last year from cutting out A/B so just started using teat sealant instead.

I'm thinking this year just using teat sealant when flies are a problem and only other treatment A/B tubes over 200 SCC.

I must admit I’m quite tempted to do the same. Rough maths puts my sealant bill at 6500l …..

 

[Beef farmer]

If you had leaking milk.

Because we watch the cows like hawk's after drying off

 

[frederick]

Question is is leakage bad?.
What are the cows doing when leaking.
The sealant is designed to stop things getting in that doesn't mean to do its job it has to stop things getting out.

If there is positive pressure in the udder high enough then surely leakage is good.

If your noticing it when walking dry cows to their new shed and the udder is swinging is fine. If your noticing it a week later whilst theyre lied down that might be more management and how they are drying up.

The big value of sealant is in the 7 days before they calve. If everything is perfect then no need. Sometimes when it's raining in August I am far from perfect.

 

[jimmer]

Question is is leakage bad?.
What are the cows doing when leaking.
The sealant is designed to stop things getting in that doesn't mean to do its job it has to stop things getting out.

If there is positive pressure in the udder high enough then surely leakage is good.

If your noticing it when walking dry cows to their new shed and the udder is swinging is fine. If your noticing it a week later whilst theyre lied down that might be more management and how they are drying up.

The big value of sealant is in the 7 days before they calve. If everything is perfect then no need. Sometimes when it's raining in August I am far from perfect.

Been musing exactly the same thoughts all morning, glad you put it more eloquently than me in a post

 

[lazy farmer]

Because we watch the cows like hawk's after drying off

In the field ?

 

[Beef farmer]

In the field ?

Yes.

 

[jimmer]

In the field ?

Add beefy on Snapchat
He has a sunburnt right elbow by June

 

[Hill Dairy]

Watching with interest. We dry off in a month and will turn them out for a few weeks pre calving late March quite tempted to try some low scc heifers with nothing.

 

[More to life]

As a high percentage of dairy cows never produce a natural seal, they've lost the ability to do so. I'm at a loss as to why we'd stop giving them an artificial seal.

 

[frederick]

Watching with interest. We dry off in a month and will turn them out for a few weeks pre calving late March quite tempted to try some low scc heifers with nothing.

I expect you insure your tractors but don't claim on it very often.
How many cows do you need to save a quarter on over 10 years to pay for the sealant.

I think you'll find the sealant is a far better return. You can just afford losing a quarter or two but you can't afford to risk loosing your tractor.

 

[Kiss]

I expect you insure your tractors but don't claim on it very often.
How many cows do you need to save a quarter on over 10 years to pay for the sealant.

I think you'll find the sealant is a far better return. You can just afford losing a quarter or two but you can't afford to risk loosing your tractor.

Shall we go back to blanket ab then? the cost of not using ab over loosing a cow doesn’t stack up to me neither but feel it’s more a moral than financial obligation,

 

[Hill Dairy]

I expect you insure your tractors but don't claim on it very often.
How many cows do you need to save a quarter on over 10 years to pay for the sealant.

I think you'll find the sealant is a far better return. You can just afford losing a quarter or two but you can't afford to risk loosing your tractor.

Your probably right and would definitely not jump in to deep to start with. 15yrs ago we would have taken some convincing to just use sealant now only 10% get ab's.
We're not high yealding and milking nz frisans which are pretty tough. This idea will never be pushed by the industry as there's no money in it for them....
when do you calve @onesiedale

 

[onesiedale]

Your probably right and would definitely not jump in to deep to start with. 15yrs ago we would have taken some convincing to just use sealant now only 10% get ab's.
We're not high yealding and milking nz frisans which are pretty tough. This idea will never be pushed by the industry as there's no money in it for them....
when do you calve @onesiedale

spring block

 

[Barmyfarmer]

I get angry when you put plenty of effort into a clean sterile environment to put the sealant into and the stupid tw@ts go running for freedom in the dry cow field and teat sealants spraying everywhere like confetti

 

[Farmer Keith]

As a high percentage of dairy cows never produce a natural seal, they've lost the ability to do so. I'm at a loss as to why we'd stop giving them an artificial seal.

Is that all dairy cows or just certain breeds?

 

[Farmer Fin]

I think you have to remember that sealant was invested to stop new environmental mastitis acquired during the dry period resulting in mastitis cases during the dry period or the first month or so of lactation. If your management of cows during the dry / calving period is good then you may be low risk and hence not see the benefit.

Also remember that antibiotic dry cow is only effective for the first few weeks. After this point the antibiotic is most likely below the level that kills any bugs although it will still be detected in the milk.

 

[Hotspur]

@jimmer Why not try using an external sealant like T-Hexx?

 

[coomoo]

Some read this. Odd ones leak milk dried 5 yesterday all look fine today. One out of a group of 4 week past that were dried is still leaking. Ain’t no way any of us here aren’t able to apply it properly.

 

[Stuart1]

Some read this. Odd ones leak milk dried 5 yesterday all look fine today. One out of a group of 4 week past that were dried is still leaking. Ain’t no way any of us here aren’t able to apply it properly.

When you say leak milk, you mean anything from it pissing out of them to just a drip?

 

[jimmer]

More

@jimmer Why not try using an external sealant like T-Hexx?

We do our best to keep dry cow beds clean and dry, we will use antibiotics on 15-20% of cows and they're mostly giving less than 10L at dry off
I think we have all bases covered just wondering if sealant is necessary in our case

As was mentioned earlier in the thread there is probably more mileage in sealant doing something in last 2 weeks of dry period hence why people who seal heifers say it's a viable treatment