Their proactive approach, with support from Fonterra's Milk Quality Support model, also saw the farming couple reduce their mastitis incidence dramatically over the following season.
The Waimarama Farming Ltd owners, along with their team led by Farm Manager Lyle Soriano, wanted to face the mastitis problem head on.
"We have used a dairy farm consultant for many years and on advice from him, we brought in a specialist vet to visit us on-farm and work with us to identify key areas that we could improve on," Lisa says.
Vet consultant Ian Hodge visited the farm in March 2022 to undertake a full assessment, observing the milking routine, teat end damage, teat sprayer effectiveness and also carried out a number of other tests while the plant was operating.
From this Ian produced a comprehensive Mastitis Risk Assessment Report which identified risk factors associated with the milking process. The report focused on three things. Firstly, milking cows under optimal conditions. Teat end damage was identified, so a recommendation was to get the milking machines tested, vacuum was reduced while flow rate and take off delay on the automatic cup removers (ACRs) was adjusted. Producing the best quality milk was the second focal point, while the third was using less antibiotics in a more responsible way, introducing culturing of all clinical cases of mastitis with Mastatest and treating as per recommendation from those results.
Ian returned to the farm in March 2023 to review the changes the farm had made and carried out another on-farm assessment.
"We wanted to tackle the clinical mastitis problem and reduce our cell count. Our bulk count had been sitting in the 120,000's cells/ml for the 21-22 season, but we had a problem with the number of our clinical mastitis cases. Our staff have always been great at identifying mastitis and treating it immediately, but we were concerned about the number of treatments," Lisa says.
Through Fonterra's Milk Quality support model, the fees for Ian's visit were also able to be reimbursed.
"It was a real bonus to have access to this support through Fonterra."
One of the first decisions Peter and Lisa made was to use herd test data on their 1,050 cows to look for Staph aureus presence in the herd. They decided on a threshold indicator of 200,000 cells/ml and tested the milk of all cows above that figure. As Ian commented in his initial report, Staph aureus management is complex and would require regular input from himself and their primary local vet.
A mastitis goals and culling guideline was developed after Dave Reeve, their lead vet from Paddock Vets, met with Peter, Lisa, Lyle and the team following Ian's report. From the culture results they culled nine cows and over the remainder of the season an additional 37 problematic cows were also culled.
"Our antibiotic use this season (2022-2023) is also greatly reduced, with the Mastatest information we now have, we now know exactly which drug to use on each individual cow, and in some cases, no antibiotic treatment is required," Lisa says.
"Correct teat spray coverage and quantity will always be a critically important component and a significant upgrade to the dairy plant all created a positive result. We made a range of changes that worked for us," Peter says.
Ongoing best practices from the team also continued to help.
"We have always had good hygiene in our dairy shed. We change our liners regularly, and also reduced the vacuum in the shed too - that was one of Ian's first changes he made when he visited. The information and knowledge that Ian brought to our farm, and the reports he created for us, have enabled us to create multiple positive changes," Lisa says.
Peter agrees. "The help from Ian has been invaluable and has created renewed confidence in our systems - on reflection, we should have implemented changes earlier before it got out of hand."
The farm's Fonterra bulk SCC average for the 22-23 season was 84,000 cells/ml compared to 127,000 cells/ml average in the 21-22 season.
"Most importantly, our clinical mastitis count has reduced from 239 cows in the 21/22 season, to 132 cows with mastitis in the 22/23 season - a total reduction in antibiotic treatments of 65%," Lisa says.
In addition to this the farm has had a significant reduction in cows with multiple cases of clinical mastitis which has seen a 72% reduction.
For more information and advice on your milk quality, talk to your local Farm Source team or book a Milk Quality Service Visit at nzfarmsource.co.nz/milk-quality.