The Milk Producer - July 2012 - (Page 24)

COVERSTORY Compiled and Edited by Bill Dimmick Photos by David Barr Counting Down To 400K On Aug. 1, we adopt what is now the world standard for somatic cell counts T he adoption of a somatic cell count standard of 400,000 cells per millilitre by most Canadian provinces Aug. 1 puts you on the same footing as dairy farmers in other advanced dairying nations. These include the European Union, New Zealand and Australia. Although the U.S. SCC standard officially remains at 750,000, the EU has pushed the American dairy industry into accepting 400,000 as the new reality. Essentially, U.S. dairy farmers who want to sell milk to a processor that exports dairy products have to meet the higher standard. Here at home, producer delegates to the Dairy Farmers of Canada annual policy conference in 2007 agreed to having the SCC standard changed to 400,000 from 500,000. The change has been widely publicized in virtual24 | July 2012 | MilkPRODUCER ly every province over the past several months leading up to the new standard taking effect next month. On the following four pages, we take a closer look at reasons to keep SCCs well below regulatory limits, and key steps you can take to ensure you ship only high-quality milk. Where to ﬁnd more information: The Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network. You’ll ﬁnd information and valuable tools for mastitis control. Sign up for Mastitis-Flash, the CBMRN’s monthly e-newsletter. www.medvet.umontreal.ca/reseau_mammite/en. Special thanks to the CBMRN for permission to reprint material from its website in this section. National Mastitis Council. An international organization with about 1,500 members in more than 40 countries, NMC provides factsheets, articles and columns. www.nmconline.org. Dairy Farmers of Ontario. DFO has set aside a full page of its website to provide factsheets on key udder health topics and links to other udder health information sources. www.milk.org/Corporate/view.aspx?content=Farmers/SomaticCellCount. University of Wisconsin Milk Quality. Numerous articles and factsheets explore major aspects of milk quality with practical guides for on-farm programs. milkquality.wisc.edu. http://www.medvet.umontreal.ca/reseau_mammite/en http://www.nmconline.org http://www.milk.org/Corporate/view.aspx?content=Farmers/SomaticCellCount http://milkquality.wisc.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - July 2012

The Milk Producer - July 2012
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFO Chair's Message
Dairy Update
Farm Finance
DFC Promotion
Producer Profile
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New 'N' Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - July 2012