Heifer Health: Secrets to sealing success

ADVICE: Vetora veterinarian technician Katey Cooke gives tips on how to reduce mastitis risk with proper teat care.

May has come around again and heifers are arriving home. Clinical mastitis in heifers is all too common, very painful and difficult to treat, as well as significantly impacting their production.

Unlike older cows, heifers’ lifetime production will also be compromised if a quarter is damaged.

Heifer teat sealing prior to calving is key to providing your future milking herd with the best possible start to their milking career.

New Zealand research has shown that by teat sealing your heifers, there is a significant reduction in the risk of clinical mastitis after calving.

Heifer teat sealing is generally carried out by your local vet clinic technician team and heifers can be teat sealed between 12 and four weeks prior to calving.

Excellent hygiene is essential when administering teat sealant and therefore it is important to be well prepared on the day of teat sealing.

To ensure heifer teat sealing runs smoothly, here are some essential tips to ensure your teat sealing is a success.

Untrained heifers increase the risk of injury to themselves and people around them so train your heifers before teat sealing. The more visits to the shed the easier it will get. Stopping and rowing up in a herringbone or loading onto the rotary platform at least three times prior to the teat sealing visit will ensure heifers are less stressed and it will be safer for the technicians administering the teat sealant on the day. This also helps at calving time, taking away the stress of training heifers.

It’s helpful to have plenty of farm staff on hand to help row up the heifers, assist with any heifers that may be unsettled and keep the shed clean.

Hygiene is very important when administering teat sealant as there is no antibiotic in the product so everything needs to be as clean as possible to reduce the risk of introducing bacteria into the teat during the process.

Once heifers have been teat sealed, allow them to slowly walk back to a fresh break of grass.

Heifers should then be checked daily for a few days. Walk through your heifers, making sure there are no swollen quarters. If you notice a heifer has a swollen udder, bring her into the shed, check her over and if in doubt give your vet a call for advice.