What separates the best organic dairy farms from the rest

“We want to identify what are the top management practices that explain the best milk quality in organic dairy farms,” said Carlos Nino de Guzman, a doctoral student at the University of Florida.

This is Nino de Guzman’s goal as a researcher with a multi-university grant funded by the

National Institute of Food & Agriculture Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative Program. The collaborative project is titled “Solutions for Controlling Mastitis & Improving Milk Quality in Organic Dairy Farms: An Integrated Approach.”

Mastitis is one of the most frequent diseases in dairy farms, impacting milk quality, farm profitability and animal well-being. Since organic dairy farms are not allowed to use antibiotics, preventing mastitis is critical. That’s why one portion of the grant seeks to identify what management practices are occurring on organic farms with the best milk quality.

The team surveyed 72 organic dairy farms in 12 states. The average size herd had 474 lactating cows; the median was 74. Survey questions included general information; attitudes and perceptions related to mastitis control and milk quality; housing and bedding management; and milking systems management. Farms also self-reported their bulk tank somatic cell counts.

The team went beyond surveys, examining equipment and processes on each farm. They evaluated the entire milking system using VaDia technology, ran a manual milking routine timing evaluation and conducted pre- and post-dip and hygiene scoring.

The data showed that the best performing 10% of the farms had a bulk tank SCC under 100,000, fewer than 3.8 cases of clinical mastitis per 100 cows per year and over 29.5 kg of milk production per cow per day.

The research team then used the data to identify the management practices these farms have in common.

Milking Systems

Survey data showed that 30% of the farms performed a milking system evaluation less than once per year. Conversely, top performing farms evaluate their milking systems regularly, including claw vacuum levels, pulsator function, vacuum stability and milking routines.

These successful farms don’t overmilk their cows, which can lead to mastitis. “The unit stays there for over a minute, two minutes, and that’s already a risk for clinical mastitis because the teat end is being exposed to high vacuum levels, and that’s damaging the teat end,” Nino de Guzman said.

Bedding

Access to clean and dry bedding also plays a role in preventing mastitis. While 66% of farms clean bedding daily and 30% replace or add bedding weekly, nearly 20% never clean their bedding and 14% never replace it.

Farms that keep bedding fresh, clean and dry are more likely to excel in milk quality and mastitis control.

Dry-Off

“We all know this is one of the key stages of the cow’s productive life where we are exposing the cows to new clinical mastitis infections,” said Nino de Guzman. The gold standard for dry-off is to both reduce milking frequency and change the diet.

The goal is to form a keratin plug at the end of lactation to avoid new intramammary infections during the dry period. However, only 44% of the participating farms follow this recommendation.

Vaccines

Nino de Guzman was surprised to learn that 61% of the farms reported not using any vaccines, and over 50% of farmers did not think vaccines were important. Farms with higher milk quality tend to use vaccines to help prevent mastitis.

Without the use of antibiotics, he said, organic farmers should consider making the most of the preventative management practices available. Nino de Guzman encouraged farmers to work with a veterinarian to establish mastitis-preventing vaccine protocols.

Data Collection

Almost 40% of the surveyed farms did not test individual cows for SCC using a Dairy Herd Information (DHI) service. Around 30% do not identify sub-clinical mastitis cases.

Nino de Guzman said, “If we don’t have information, if we don’t have good data, we’re not going to know what is going on and we’re not going to be able to address those issues.” DHI allows top performing farms to detect sub-clinical cases early.

Employee Training

Sixty-two percent of the farms trained milking employees only at the beginning of their employment. This means that once a milker was hired – whether they stayed for a month or three years – they received training only once. On the other hand, top-performing farms did not take a one-and-done approach to training employees.

“We have to keep that active communication environment between the milkers and the managers so we can comply with the milking routine,” said Nino de Guzman.

by Sonja Heyck-Merlin