This is a subscriber-only article
This week we report from the most recent research from Moorepark on drying off cows without antibiotics.
The study shows that drying off cows using only teat seal and no antibiotic dry cow tubes is possible, but that teat-seal-only cows are 2.9 times more likely to have an SCC greater than 200,000 in the four months after calving.
On average, though, their SCC is 26,000 higher than the teat-sealed and dry cow-tubed cows and 80% of the cows in both treatments had an SCC of less than 200,000.
I suppose the reassuring thing is that not using any antibiotics is possible, but remember that the trial was conducted on Teagasc farms, where hygiene standards are generally higher than the average farm.
The conclusion is that selective dry-cow therapy in herds with an average bulk tank SCC of less than 200,000 and good hygiene standards should be practised.
The advice from the researchers is that when giving just teat-sealer, teat disinfection at drying off is crucial.
As for choosing a teat-sealer, each of the three most commonly used products have the same level of bismuth subnitrate at 65%, so select the product based on price.
Elsewhere, in relation to teat-sealing heifers, the best practice is to do it four to six weeks prior to calving, so it is still too early to consider it for February-calving heifers.
SHARING OPTIONS: