It happens every year – production takes a tumble with the dry weather and farmers get caught with Somatic Cell Count grades. Plus, a rapid change to once-a-day milking increases the risks.

There will always be ‘the millionaires' in the herd, who push up the daily bulk milk SCC.

Too often there's more than what farmers describe as ‘just the odd grade'. There is a whole swarm of them, all wasting hard-earned money with the current high milk payout.
Many farmers seem less worried about penalties when the payout is high – but whatever the payout, wasting income on SCC grades is bad, and can be avoided even when the system has failed to detect problems early.

In a herd at any time, there will always be ‘the millionaires', who push up the daily bulk milk SCC; and if these are found early and dealt to, then grade risks are immediately reduced.

Too many farmers have BMSCC floating at about 250-300 cells per millilitres of milk, and think they're safe. But it doesn't take more than a few millionaires to catch them out.

The message for decades was to ‘treat' cows with rising SCC. This inevitably meant using antibiotics, which didn't work – but few were brave enough to admit it.

At least following this old Five Point Plan advice meant you felt you were doing something positive to help. Thankfully, the message has changed to: ‘Treat snots and watch clots' until the cow goes clinical, when antibiotics then have a fair chance of working.

But this is not a good approach either, as you have to sit there with high somatic milk going into the supply, knowing it is adding to the BMSCC – and a rogue millionaire cow or two that has been missed by the milking team will cause a grade, often hosing that days' profit into the effluent system.

The many farmers using Wormade's Oral Mineral Supplement (OMS) have got a system that is simple and goes into action at the first sign of a rise in BMSCC.

When the bulk cells go up, the search is on for the millionaires and they're immediately dosed with OMS – and watched. If their SCC doesn't drop, they're dosed again – and watched. If they've not responded with their SCC going back down again, they're marked for culling. Plus, there are no antibiotics involved.

The OMS programme has produced many positive benefits. A dosed cow never goes clinical, saving money on drugs, vets and withheld milk. Also, staff don't get frustrated waiting for clinical mastitis in suspect cows, and the biggest plus of all – they don't have the daily worry about a nasty message of a penalty on the docket, and then devise who was responsible for it.

(Source: Wormade).