Practical tips to consider when drying off your herd

Have a plan for the job

• Have a sit-down meeting with your team and make sure everyone understands the process of administering intra-mammary dry cow antibiotic and an internal teat sealant, and the importance of doing it correctly.

• Go over the correct technique you want you and your staff to use. Ask your vet to provide you with a visual resource.

• Ask your vet to come out on day one of drying off and work with you and your team for the first half an hour or so to give a practical demonstration of correct technique. It only takes one cow to get complications from poor technique to well and truly pay for itself!

• Make sure everyone is clear on which cows will not be getting any treatment in all quarters, and how cows with light quarters/blind quarters are identified so these quarters are not accidentally given a treatment.

• If more than one type of treatment is being used, work out the best way to draft the cows according to what is planned, or mark them in preceding milkings so everyone is clear which cow receives what.

• Recording is imperative. Every cow that receives a treatment must be recorded. Consider the best way of marking each cow in your system, especially if the herd is not being dried off all at once.

• The paddock cows go into post dry off is important. Try to avoid them returning to paddocks far away from the shed, as if they break into a run down the race, this can potentially cause the products to leak out with excessive swinging of the udders before the teat end has closed off.

• Try to do the treating as close to the last milking as possible. Treating cows in the afternoon that were milked in the morning may increase the amount of residual milk in the glands at the time of treatment.

Setting up of the shed

• Planning how to lay out your product and cleaning equipment to keep everything clean and hygienic is important. You will need to work out the best system for your shed.

• An example is to load cows on one side of the herring bone and use the other side to lay out all of your tubes and cleaning gear to keep things clean. Put cows up the wall side as if it’s sunny and the concrete is wet, the reflection off the water can make it difficult to see the teats.

• Don’t put too many cows in a row at one time if there are only one or two people helping. Cows get bored and grumpy, so are more difficult to keep clean and stay rowed up properly.

Keeping the shed clean

• It is best to wash poo on the concrete away between rows, or rounds.

• If you do need to clean the shed whilst the cows are there, ideally scrape poo away. If you must use the hose, ensure water does not spray up onto the udder, as water will continue to run down the udder making it impossible to keep the teat ends sterile.

• Don’t wash down as treated cows walk out, as you risk washing the teat spray off and will leave dirty water running down the teats.

• If possible, avoid drying off cows in wet weather. If you must, dry off the udder using paper towels before cleaning the teats with wipes or meths soaked cotton balls.