Top 5 Things Dairy Producers Can Do This Winter To Maximize Milk Quality

#1 Keep Teat Skin Healthy
Healthy teat skin is perhaps the most critical element the cow has in fending off udder bacterial infections. However, every winter, maintaining healthy teat skin is a challenge. Cows often travel from the parlor to the freestall barn and have housing that subjects them to extreme cold and wind conditions. In addition, winter weather also brings very low humidities. These conditions often lead to teat skin chapping. Chapped and frozen tissue is damaged tissue, and damaged tissue is prone to many problems, including infections by bacteria that are adapted to colonizing these sites. The severity of teat chapping has been positively correlated with increased colonization of Staph. aureus and an increased risk of intramammary infections.

The best solution lies in prevention. Try to keep teats in optimum condition year round, so that when winter weather strikes, your cows’ teats are prepared with their own healthy defense system. In addition, many experts advise that the best way to minimize the damage of teat skin in the winter is to use a dip with high levels of emollients and skin conditioners before damage occurs to the skin.

#2 Establish a Winter Teat Care Program Early
By addressing winter weather and teat skin damage early, dairymen can minimize this damage and the resulting loss of profitability from elevated levels of somatic cells.

The best solution is to simplify a winter teat care program by simply assuming cold weather will come. Instead of trying to figure out if the weather is too cold or not, implement a cold weather program in early November and continue it until the end of March. Reacting to cold weather allows for the opportunity of damage to occur. Prevention is the key!

#3 Do Not Stop Dipping
Even though there are a lot of variables that create uncertainties over this issue, most experts agree that post-dipping can be done in all weather conditions, if done properly. Post-dipping is just as important - from a mastitis control standpoint - in the winter as it is in the summer.

The most recommended post-milking procedure the wintertime is to dip cows with a germicidal product containing high amounts of skin conditioners, regardless of weather conditions. However, during severely cold weather, most suggest to leave this dip on the teats for 30 seconds and then blot the teats dry with a towel. With this blotting technique, the cows can receive the benefits of teat dipping, without experiencing skin problems in cold, windy weather. If you think about it, if a dairyman is really serious about not turning cows out of the parlor with wet skin, they should really be drying teats after milking - regardless of whether they post-dip or not. A thin film of milk often covers the teats following detachment of the milking units, and any moisture, including this film, can exacerbate the effects of cold, windy weather.

Also, if a dairyman is choosing to use salves and ointments rather than dipping, the time it takes to apply these products will take equal or more time than the dipping and blotting dry method in severe weather. While dipping and blotting would add about 20 seconds per cow onto the milking routine, the consistently proven benefits of post-dipping and reduction of intramammary infections would far outweigh the time constraints!

#4 Use A Dip Designed For Winter Weather
Winter weather dips, with their high levels of emollients, lessen the probability of chapping and frostbite in harsh weather conditions. WestfaliaSurge winter dips contain an emollient package that provides a physical barrier that will not freeze even at very cold temperatures. This helps protect the teats from the chilling effects of below freezing wind chills, such as frostbite. And, since our winter dips contain very little water, they prevent or slow evaporation. This slows moisture loss and helps prevent the decrease in temperature of the teat skin surface that evaporation causes; which may increase skin drying and frostbite.

In addition to high emollient levels, our winter teat dips also provide effective germicidal activity against mastitis causing bacteria. The time tested germicide in DermaSept® (capryliccapric acid) and Derma-Kote® (iodine) reduces mastitis pathogens present on the teat skin. These products have been protocol tested using methods recommended by the NMC, and also have been tested in field trials across the U.S.; both tests prove the dips’ effectiveness at reducing the number of new intramammary infections.

During cold, winter weather, teat skin damage is the number one factor predisposing cows to mastitis. With WestfaliaSurge brand winter teat dips,dairymen can dip in harsh winter weather and lessen their worry about teat skin damage, and increased mastitis.  

Click here for more information about Derma-Kote and DermaSept from WestfaliaSurge.

#5 Limit Exposure to Cold and Wind
The combination of low temperatures and chilling winds, known as the wind chill, is really the best indication of the possibility of teat skin damage such as frozen teats. Jeffrey Reneau of the University of Minnesota-St. Paul, Department of Animal Science, says a dairyman should really start worrying about frozen teats when the cows are exiting the barn or parlor with wet teat dip when the wind chill is -25 degrees Fahrenheit and below. At this point precautions should be taken as exposed, wet skin can freeze in less than one minute in extreme winter conditions. Even teats that are completely dry can freeze when the wind chills dip this low. 

If you are protecting skin sensitive areas on your body such as your ears, hands, and face with hats, scarfs and mittens, then you should be protecting your cows’ teats in this same weather. With wind speed figured in, the thermometer does not have to dip far below freezing when the wind chill can damage teat skin. With temperatures in the 30’s(°F) and wind speed around 20-25 mph, frozen teats are likely to occur.

Article References: Maintaining Healthy Teats a Challenge, by Ron Johnson, Dairy Editor, Agri-View; Controlling Winter Teat-end Lesions, by Dr. Leo Timms, Extension Dairy Specialist, Iowa State University, Dairy
Biz section of www.moomilk.com; Winter: A Time for Post-Dipping, by Thomas Quaife, Editor, Dairy Herd Management.