Milk Producer - April 2010 - (Page 32)

APPLIEDSCIENCE Trevor DeVries, Simon Dufour Daniel Scholl and Julie Baillargeon True or false? The conventional wisdom of keeping your cows on their feet after milking to prevent mastitis may not be so wise eeping your cows on their feet right after milking helps reduce mastitis infection risk: True or false? In theory, at least, this statement of conventional wisdom should be true. Longer standing time should let their teat canals close, reducing the opportunity for bacteria to enter their teats when they lie down. What seems true initially, however, doesn’t necessarily stand up under close scrutiny, as our recent research into this theory shows. Our study’s first objective was to determine whether providing your cows with fresh feed around milking impacts the length of time they remain standing after milking. Our second objective was seeing whether the udder infection risk varied with this timeframe. Thanks to the Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network’s National Cohort of Dairy Farms, we had the opportunity to collect relevant data for the project. We worked with 90 cows, 15 each from six tiestall dairy herds in the Ontario cohort. They milked twice a day and used straw bedding. K Infection and lying patterns monitored We took quarter milk samples from each cow every three weeks for a total of three samples per cow. Bacteriological analyses of each milk sample detected any presence of new udder infections and identified responsible bacteria. These data helped us estimate the association between time spent standing after milking and the risk of acquiring a new infection. To compile data on lying behaviour To determine when the cows lie down after milking, an electronic device was attached to one leg of each cow studied. 32 | April 2010 | MilkPRODUCER

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milk Producer - April 2010

Milk Producer - April 2010
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFO Chair's Message
Dairy Update
DFC Policy
Industry Roundup
DFC Promotion
Industry Initiative
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New 'N' Noted
Back Forty

Milk Producer - April 2010