World Dairy Expo: Zoetis Discusses Protecting Milk Quality and Production

Y- you hit it on the head with that one word, prevent.

Now, the scenario you paint, we have her sick, but really [laughs] we need to s- how could we have prevented this to begin with? 'Cause when we have that clinical mastitis, when we have that subclinical mastitis, we've kind of lost the game.

Now, not totally.

Mm-hmm.

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.

She produces 1,000 pounds less.

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.

That being said, same scenario, you got this cow come in with a subclinical mastitis.

So she walks in, udder looks good, she's eating, looking fine.

Milk even looks good, but until you test, you find that her cell count is over 200,000.

That scenario is fif- 1,600 pounds for the lactation.

So your word prevent is how can we do that? And it goes back, I'm coining somebody's wise words, but her next lactation starts when we dry her off.

Y- you hit it on the head with that one word, prevent.

Now, the scenario you paint, we have her sick, but really [laughs] we need to s- how could we have prevented this to begin with? 'Cause when we have that clinical mastitis, when we have that subclinical mastitis, we've kind of lost the game.

Now, not totally.

Mm-hmm.

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.

She produces 1,000 pounds less.

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.

That being said, same scenario, you got this cow come in with a subclinical mastitis.

So she walks in, udder looks good, she's eating, looking fine.

Milk even looks good, but until you test, you find that her cell count is over 200,000.

That scenario is fif- 1,600 pounds for the lactation.

So your word prevent is how can we do that? And it goes back, I'm coining somebody's wise words, but her next lactation starts when we dry her off.