CHECKING IN FOR SOMATIC CELL WORKSHOPS

OVER 7,000 farmers are expected to participate in workshops aimed at reducing somatic cell counts over the next 18 months.

Every farmer that signed up for the Department of Agriculture’s Knowledge Transfer Programme is obliged to implement a series of efficiency maximising measures on their farms in order to qualify for the €750 annual payment during the three year programme.

One of the measures for dairy farmers is attending a Cellcheck workshop within 18 months of the start of the programme.

“Only farmers that have attended a similar workshop during the previous 18 months are exempt from this requirement,” explains Cellcheck programme manager, Finola McCoy.

The workshops draw together expertise from the local dairy processor, a milking machine technician, and a local vet, along with the discussion group facilitator, and have been proven to very successful in reducing SCC on the farms of participants.

“Based on preliminary analysis, we estimate that SCC drops by 40,000-50,000 cell/ml on average during the first year after a farmer attends the course,” said Ms McCoy.

She has calculated that a 100 herd that reduces SCC by 100,000 from 250,000 has increased revenues of the order of €7,200.

“Half of this results from extra milk sales, while another 35pc is due to lower culling costs associated with mastitis. The other savings relate to less treatment costs and fewer milk penalties. However, there are some costs associated with getting your cell count down, such as increased teat disinfection, culling, milk recording, extra hygiene and more regular milk parlour maintenance. But even after all of this, the benefits still far out-weigh the costs,” she said.

The national trend in cell counts has been very positive over the last five years, with cell counts of milk recording herds dropping by 20,000 on average each year since 2011.

“Bulk tank SCC results in 2014 showed that now at a point where half of all herds are below 200,000, compared to 39pc in 2014. The gains to the industry are worth tens of millions of euro overall.”