What the changes coming in January mean for dry cow treatment

The Dairy Edge

Willie Buckley, Veterinary Surgeon at Riverview Veterinary Group in Bandon and Animal Health Ireland, Cellcheck Technical Working Group member, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the January change in legislation that now means that blanket dry cow antibiotic use is a thing of the past.

Willie explains why the legislation has changed and what it means for farmers. In short, dry cow treatment has moved from a whole herd approach to an individual cow approach.

If farmers want to administer an antibiotic at drying off, they will need a justifiable reason, be that milk recording info, or individual cow sample info to access that antibiotic.

Willie has clients that are in year 5 and 6 of using sealer only on cows and has clients that have 4th and 5th lactation cows that have never gotten an antibiotic at drying off.

Records and hygiene at drying off are critical to success as well as not trying to dry off too many cows at one time. Willie says that there is a high level of focus required to seal cows hygienically and while it takes effort, it is worth it.

Finally, Willie encourages dairy farmers to monitor and look out for any rise in SCC next Spring to allow them to act early to find the root cause of the rise and to allow them to stay on top of SCC from early lactation.

This however, is the same advice that Willie would have given to his clients last year, so in reality while things are changing, the principles remain the same: good records, good technique and hygiene when completing the job.

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