The Milk Producer - July 2012 - (Page 4)

EDITOR’SNOTES By Bill Dimmick Stuff we left out A mind-boggling amount of information about SCCs and mastitis—more than we could ever publish B ack in 1948, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 21-minute documentary about mastitis in the Canadian dairy industry. At the time, it was reliably estimated mastitis cost Canadian milk producers $30 million a year. The NFB’s online inventory describes this film, available in English and French, as a study of “causes, prevention, recognition and cure.” This obscure fact is one of many unearthed as we put together this month’s special section on the countdown to Aug. 1 when the new 400,000 cells per millilitre standard takes effect for somatic cell counts. It is also among the mass of material we had to omit due to limited space. There has been enough research done and enough material gathered over the years that you could write a book on bovine mastitis. Actually, many books have been written. You can choose from among 146 hardcover or 48 paperback books on the subject available through online bookseller Amazon.ca. Given the volume of resources available, our special section starting on page 24 is hardly comprehensive. We opted instead to provide a few carefully selected, practical items. Some of this information, reprinted from past issues of The Milk Producer, certainly bears repeating. Among the omitted material were findings by University of Georgia researcher Stephen C. Nickerson who has studied the relationship between fly control and SCCs. Since we’re well into fly season, here’s the bottom line: implement a simple fly control program along with other THE I PRO U R TH E MI LK PRODUCER is published monthly RODU e m nthl hly by Dairy Farmers of Ontar o, 6780 Campobello Dai Farmers of Onta airy r tari b Road Mississauga, Ontario, Road, Mississauga, Ontar L5N 2L8 ad, ssis a t EDITOR: ill D m ick EDITOR: Bill Dimmick ITOR ASSISTAN EDIT R ASSISTANT EDITOR: Sharon Laidlaw SISTANT ITOR ai law Co-ordinated by Communications Co-ordinated by Co -ordinat s and Planning Div and Planning Di ision, n Bill itch Bill Mitch Assi tant Director. chell, ssis Chan Chan of address notices should be sent to: ange u be sent to: THE MILK PRODUCER 6780 Campobello Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2L8. s 8 Subsc pt Subscription rate : $26.88 for one year, $49.28 bscr ates ye $49.28 ear, 9 for two years and $67.20 for three years in o w year n r e yea in ears Canada (includes HST), $36 per year in the nada (includes l s U.S. $36 per year overseas. Single copy: $2.50. U.S., $36 per year overs S., r vers Make cheques payab Make cheques payable to Dairy Farmers of heque able iry ir Ontario. Ontario. tari proven mastitis controls and you will lower your bulk tank SCC. Our regular contributing photographer, David Barr, even has great photos we could have used to illustrate the piece, as shown on the right. Given a few more pages, we would also have included a graphic presentation of a calculator you can use to pinpoint how much mastitis costs your individual farm. Originally developed by Dutch researchers, it has been adapted for your use by the Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network. You can download it from the CBMRN website. By the way, the CBMRN folks gave us carte blanche to reprint any content from their website. The CBMRN calculator shows high SCCs and clinical mastitis cost an average of $300 per cow per year. Since the 2011 census shows we have about 960,000 dairy cows in Canada, we’re looking at a total cost of $288 million or so. Wonder if the NFB might consider doing an updated documentary? not constitute endor stitu ndor tute orsement or approval by The or t The Milk Producer or Dairy Farmers of Ontario of f products or services advertised. The Milk Producer welcomes letters to the i oduce cer comes et e editor about magazine content. bout g bo maga ine content. t t. Phone: (905) 821-8970 ( 0 821-8970 1-89 Fax: (905) 821-3160 (905) 821-3160 1-31 Canada Post Publications Mail Sales Product d tions Mai Sale P oduc a e uct Agreement No. 40063866. Return postage 0063 66. Retu postage 3866 turn o 38 guaranteed. Circulation: 10,000. io 0,000 o 000. ISSN 0030-3038. SS Prin Print d in Canada. inte n nada. a National Nation Marketing Manager tion eting Manager ana James Fitz James Fitzgerald tzg 154 Jean 154 Jean Street, n RR 5, Strat ord, Ontario N5A 6S6 5, Stra ratf Toll-fre Toll-free advertisers only: 1-888-460-6212 ll-free Phone (519) 393-5292 Fax (519) 393-5293 5292 52 51 29 E-m E-mail: milkjim47@quadro.net @quadro n ro.n Opinions expressed herein are those of the ed herein are thos f the erei hose author and/or editor and do not necessarily ditor and not necessarily e aril reﬂect the opinion or policies of Dairy Farmers n or policies of Dair Farmers lici iry of of Ontario. Publication of advertisements does P lication dvert sements does erti ment E-mail: bill dimmick@milk.or bill immick@ k org ll.d mick sharon.laidlaw@milk.org nl Website: Go to publications at www www ww.milk.org g 4 | July 2012 | MilkPRODUCER http://www.Amazon.ca http://www.fsc.org http://www.milk.org

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