The Moos Room™

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;39;15
Emily
And welcome everybody to The Moos's room. Just me. Emily here today. Bradley is off, you know, putting out fires as usual. I know he had some equipment issues, was on the phone with dealers. I think we all know how that goes. So with all of that said, it is just The Emily Show today, and I figured that we would have just a quick chat about a topic that's always been important to me.

00;00;39;15 - 00;01;08;08
Emily
I think in the winter time it's maybe a topic that's not top of mind, but it's still important to remember, and that is mastitis management in the winter time. I know we typically associate struggles with mastitis and high somatic cell counts in the summer with the higher temperatures, but it's important to keep in mind that we still need to be taking steps to combat mastitis, even when the weather is cold as well.

00;01;08;11 - 00;01;32;22
Emily
And there are some kind of specific considerations for the winter time, especially when it's very cold. Of course, the day that I'm recording this now, it's like 37 degrees outside and semi sunny, but we know, right? Weather can change very quickly and it's only early January, so I am confident that we will have some more cold snaps upon us, before spring time here.

00;01;32;22 - 00;01;59;00
Emily
Yep. But, you know, for mastitis prevention, you know, in the winter and and of course, not just for mastitis prevention, but good management. You know, we always talk about clean, dry bedding, cleanliness, being a really key piece of management. And of course that is no different for this. You know, we want clean dry bedding. Also of course helps with cow comfort and management.

00;01;59;03 - 00;02;29;04
Emily
You know, and we really want to keep the stress on the cows low by making sure they're comfortable, have adequate ventilation. Again, all of those things that that we're hopefully managing for daily. Anyways, this is just, another reminder to to be really mindful of it as you think about mastitis. So in addition, you know, to the bedding itself, you know, we also want to be keeping udders and teats clean.

00;02;29;07 - 00;02;55;20
Emily
And of course, as we milk, hopefully you have some sort of process that you use for, you know, stripping teats for milk, let down, doing teat dip, some sanitizer, cleaning in some way, etc.. Now, if you are somebody who's cows, either go outside, right, spend some time outside in the winter, or even just going from the parlor back to their free stall right there outside for some period.

00;02;55;20 - 00;03;18;29
Emily
And if it's really cold, you know, we know things that are wet, much, much higher risk for frostbite. So we can also maybe be tempted to think, well, let's not do t dip when they're done milking because, you know, frostbitten teats are just the worst, right? I mean, I can remember dealing with some growing up on our farm because our cows did go out during the day.

00;03;18;29 - 00;03;49;24
Emily
We were in a Thai style barn. Boy, you know, and if a T got frostbite, that was the end of the T, right? So we want to be mindful of that, but we don't want to be skipping any of these important steps in our milking routine, you know, so you've maybe heard me say this is something I've kind of adapted from, my retired colleague Chuck Schwartzel and that's, you know, dip, but don't drip and and I say, you know, don't skip dip but don't drip.

00;03;49;24 - 00;04;19;15
Emily
Right. So you should never skip t dip, especially post milking. But if the weather is cold and if your cows do get exposed to outside, make sure that while you're t dipping, it's nothing excessive, right? And of course, sometimes there is some excess that drips off right away. So if you do have that, maybe you can let the cows stand there for an extra 20s before you put them out, or making sure again that you are getting that full teat coverage with that dip.

00;04;19;15 - 00;04;45;21
Emily
But it's nothing excessive. There shouldn't be t dip dripping off as well. And of course, like I said, you want to make sure that you aren't skipping that. Right? And like I mentioned, you may also need to adapt your routine a little bit as well. You know, again, for this tip dip, for anything else that you're doing, you want to make sure it's getting the proper contact time.

00;04;45;21 - 00;05;08;00
Emily
And you are also getting your contact timing for milk left down. And certainly you may want to be wiping off the dip, especially post milking. And again, with that, you know, you can wait an extra 30s or so and then you should be able to wipe it off with that, you know, sanitizing effect still being in place.

00;05;08;02 - 00;05;30;19
Emily
Also, you may want to consider how hairy the utters are on your cows. Certainly hair can trap extra teat dip and we know extra debris and manure and things like that. So if that is something that you're really struggling with, you may want to consider singeing others or doing something to help control the hair on the others as well.

00;05;30;21 - 00;05;49;19
Emily
I know some people do clip others. I suppose it depends how many cows you have and how much time you want to spend on that. That is another thing to think about. And one last kind of tip I want you to consider as we think about this, you know, just some quick tips today. And this kind of goes without saying, right?

00;05;49;19 - 00;06;18;09
Emily
Nutrition. Nutrition is key. Cows are systemic. Everything impacts everything else in the cows system, right in their body and in their environment as well. So nutrition is a part of, we know, stress management, disease management, mastitis management, all of those things. Right. We can tie back to nutrition in some way. And of course we know that in the winter cows typically have some increased nutrition demands.

00;06;18;12 - 00;06;47;07
Emily
So, you know, with enough energy in the diet that ensures that the cow is not fighting any sort of extra cold stress, right? That immune system is not under any extra stress. And so it's really important that, you know, you're thinking about all those cows requirements, right? Protein, energy, vitamins, minerals, you know, macros and micro minerals as well, making sure that all of those things are in balance for the winter.

00;06;47;09 - 00;07;08;28
Emily
Working with your nutritionist on that as well. Winter can be a tough time, right? And again, I think there's a lot of things that we can be working on in the winter. And like I said at the beginning, mastitis management is maybe not something we think about as readily, but it is something that, of course, is important. We know that somatic cell counts.

00;07;08;28 - 00;07;42;19
Emily
All of those things are important all year round. There may be harder to manage at certain times of year like the summer, but just because it's maybe easier this time of year doesn't mean we should be forgetting it completely, right? So let this serve as your reminder to be managing for mastitis. If the weather is very cold and you do have animals that do go outside after they're done being milked again, consider, you know, using teat dip lightly, but still effectively.

00;07;42;21 - 00;08;05;03
Emily
Also consider a 32nd dry off period and then wiping off the dip before letting the cows outside. You know, clean bedding, good nutrition, access to fresh water, all of those things, as always, are important. So that was just a quick episode here today. Like I said, dropping in with some reminders and, you know, kind of filling in.

00;08;05;06 - 00;08;26;00
Emily
Bradley was supposed to record today, but again, he had some stuff come up. So just did some quick tips and reminders for you today. And of course, if you have any questions, comments or scathing rebuttals about today's episode, or you have an idea for a topic you'd like to hear on a future episode, you can email those to the Moos room at Umansky.

00;08;26;02 - 00;08;41;13
Emily
You can always find us on the web at extension that you remember, and you can find Robin's Dairy on Instagram at and Rock dairy. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time. Bye.