Smart milk sampling designed to reduce mastitis costs

Udder health is important for cow health and good milk production and the use of Somatic Cell Count (SCC) has proven to be a highly useful insight to predict a case of mastitis, Lely says.

Cows, however, naturally tend to fluctuate on SCC which makes it hard to monitor and treat and to avoid use of medicines it is critical to treat cows at the right time, Lely says.

“Lely now introduces SMART sampling on the MQC-C, an optional device on the milking robot which measures the SCC of the milk, to ensure continuously smart monitoring with a saving on reagent and milk.

“During robotic milking, all milk is continuously monitored. This provides the dairy farmer with vital information on mastitis, fat and protein and lactose for managing milk quality and cow health, allowing him to respond quickly and achieve optimal milk quality.

“Preventing mastitis can save farmers a lot of income through reduced milk‑production, medical and labour costs. The optional MQC‑C SCC measurement is of great importance in monitoring udder health. The integrated system monitors the SCC in a highly efficient manner,” the robotic milking manufacturer says.

It says that this new sampling method is developed to minimise the number of samples which reduces costs, while maintaining enough information to monitor cows properly. Lely says that with SMART sampling every third milking per cow will be sampled.

For cows with increased SCC the sampling frequency will automatically apply to each milking for as long as necessary and by showing the development of SCC values the farmer can decide how to treat the specific cow, it says.

“This is also highly beneficial for cows in late lactation. A fact-based decision makes effective dry cow treatment easier. In return this will lead to getting the next lactation off to a great start.

“In addition the structured monitoring makes the attention list more accurate and precise. Information is clearly shown in the Lely T4C management program which gives valuable information on individual cow- level.

“For example the SCC values will also indicate on which level an individual cow is contributing to the bulk tank cell count. Lely MQC-C SMART sampling is continuously monitoring each individual cow and accurately predicts when cows need the farmers attention,” Lely says.