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Joel Franks

Dairy Technical Services Veterinarian at Zoetis and frequent dairy-industry commentator on mastitis prevention and milk quality.

Oct 7, 2026

Susan LittlefieldCORRESPONDENT
1:42
Mm-hmm.
1:42
But, uh, to set, uh, a bar, uh, what we lost, if that cow gets a clinical mastitis in the first 60 days, the rest of her lactational curve is hit by 1,000 pounds.
1:56
She produces 1,000 pounds less.
1:58
And many people think, "Oh, yeah, I lost milk on her with that clinical in the first 60 days 'cause I had to take her out of the, out of the tank and had to treat her and she dropped a little bit, but she came back." No, that lactational curve is hit for 1,000 pounds.
2:13
That being said, same scenario.
2:15
You got this cow come in with a subclinical mastitis.
2:18
So she walks in, udder looks good.
Susan LittlefieldCORRESPONDENT
3:01
Okay.
0:47
Mm-hmm.
0:48
But, uh, to set, uh, a bar, uh, what we lost, if that cow gets a clinical mastitis in the first 60 days, the rest of her lactational curve is hit by 1,000 pounds.
1:02
She produces 1,000 pounds less.
1:04
And many people think, "Oh, yeah, I lost milk on her with that clinical in the first 60 days 'cause I had to take her out of, out of the tank and had to treat her and she dropped a little bit, but she came back." No, that lactational curve is hit for 1,000 pounds.
1:18
That being said, same scenario, you got this cow come in with a subclinical mastitis.
1:23
So she walks in, udder looks good, she's eating, looking fine.
1:27
Milk even looks good, but until you test, you find that her cell count is over 200,000.
2:06
Okay.

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