Mastitis and lameness management in the Bega Valley

Introduction

Like many dairies on the south coast, the severe floods, storm events and prolonged wet season of 2022 posed many challenges for the Shipton family's 390-hectare dairy farm in Candelo, Far South Coast, NSW.

Challenge

Wet weather events and the muddy conditions that follow severe floods and storms often increase the risk of mastitis and lameness in dairy cattle with a subsequent loss of production, increased treatment costs and forced culling. 

Dairy farmers also need to abide by withholding periods after antibiotic treatments and avoid high bulk milk cell counts (BMCC), leading to lost revenue from unsaleable milk.

A significant impact for the Shipton’s was widespread digital dermatitis, or hairy foot wart which infected nearly two thirds of their herd. This painful condition led to:

• widespread lameness
• increased antibiotic use
• increased cost
• higher rates of mastitis in their herd due to the need to keep more cattle in a nearby hospital paddock.

Solution

Through funding from the Local Land Services' Early Needs Recovery Program, the Shipton’s were able to access a one-on-one consultancy service provided by industry expert, Dr Mark Humphris from The Milk Road. 

Working with Dr Humphris, the Shipton’s implemented a thorough and regular testing regime to identify specific cows with high BMCCs to determine the cause and plan the next steps.

The increased testing helped identify cows that had highly contagious mastitis and cull these cows immediately. For other cows, regular testing was continued to determine if the high BMCC was due to inflammation or ongoing mastitis infections and tailor the treatment accordingly.

Following the visits, Dr Humphris identified other cost-effective areas for improvement to help reduce the prevalence and ongoing risk of mastitis. This included:

• changing liners on milking cups more frequently (less than 120 days) to support good teat health and better hygiene
• supplementing the herd’s diet with Zinc to help with hoof health and integrity
• using a copper sulphate footbath during and following rain events only – using the treatment as needed means the copper sulphate is more effective and saves money, compared to year-round use.

Outcomes

With the support from Dr Humphris and the Shipton’s willingness to implement practice changes, the farm has seen a significant reduction in clinical cases of mastitis and their BMCC has remained very low.  

Effectively controlling mastitis in their herd and implementing timely treatment has led to:

• improvements in milk production
• reduced stress
• improved cow welfare. 

The one-on-one support facilitated by Local Land Services has helped grow the Shipton’s confidence in managing their herd’s health. 

"We are very happy that the changes have improved resilience and general herd health on farm.” 

- Ancret Shipton

Funding and partnerships

Completed in September 2024, the $13 million Early Needs Recovery Program was part of the $150 million Primary Industry Support Package, jointly funded by the Australian and NSW governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. 

The services provided under the Early Needs Recovery Program were delivered by Local Lands Service in partnership with:

• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
• industry
• not-for-profit organisations
• local control authorities.