Products & Services

This month’s VAS DC305 tip is on clinical mastitis. Clinical mastitis is a very costly disease. Although poor milk procedures, dirty environments and faulty equipment can predispose cows, most mastitis is caused by an infectious agent. Treatment of mastitis (MAST event in DC305) caused by certain bacteria is not improved by antibiotic therapy, so not treating those cows will decrease antibiotic use, decrease hospital days and decrease milk withheld from sale.

This month’s VAS DC305 tip is on parlor performance. Using the parlor performance reports in DC305 helps you take advantage of many of the benefits of daily milk meters plus look for cows that fail to produce the expected amount of milk.

Lameness can be the most costly disease on dairies, even more so than mastitis. This is due to the high incidence of lameness on dairies. It is not uncommon to find 30 percent yearly incidence or higher on dairies. Yet lameness is one of the least entered and tracked disease.

In July 2016, the Dairy Focus team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign released information about the Somatic Cell Count Calculator. We reached out to Phil Cardoso, professor in animal sciences, for more information about the calculator and why it was developed.

Evolution X1 increases milking speed without increasing vacuum levels
Evolution X1 by Conewango combines gentle, low vacuum with high-milking-speed design. This liner is ideal for dairy producers who want a higher-capacity liner with faster milkout.

Portable manure separator ideal for concentrated operations
The Plug and Play Portable Manure Separator by Bauer North America is a space-saving option for farms with high animal density but limited distribution area.