By Andi Anderson
Mastitis in dairy cattle is a costly issue for many farms, particularly those with high-producing cows. The cost of treatment doesn’t just involve antimicrobials; it includes the expense of milk withhold, which increases with each day that milk cannot be sold.
A longer treatment duration leads to more days of milk withholding, raising the overall cost of treatment.
While the label minimum treatment duration for mastitis is determined by efficacy studies and generally proves effective, treating based on milk appearance often leads to longer treatment than necessary.
In some cases, milk may still look irregular even though the mastitis-causing bacteria are no longer growing.
So, can you save money? Absolutely. Dr. Ruegg’s lab has developed the Antibiotic Usage Benchmark Tool, an online platform that allows farms to input their electronic treatment records and compare them with those of other farms.
One feature of this tool compares your farm’s current antibiotic and milk withhold costs to those that would result from the minimum label duration. For example, one farm spent over $187,000 on 1,032 mastitis cases with five-day treatments of Spectramast LC. If they had treated for just two days—the label minimum—they could have saved over $74,000, in addition to decreasing labor and supply costs.
How does your farm compare? The Benchmark Tool uses data from 37 large midwestern dairy farms, providing comparisons for the average cost of treating a mastitis case, milk withhold days, and daily milk production. If your farm's milk withhold days are above average, particularly with high-producing cows, consider reducing treatment duration.
To get started, you can input your treatment records at dairyantibioticbenchmark.msu.edu, and the process typically takes about an hour. For personalized assistance, you can email cvm.benchmarkhelp@msu.edu.
Photo Credit: istock-emholk
Categories: Michigan, General, Rural Lifestyle, Farm Safety