Revolution or evolution? Short dry cow periods for UK herds

Revolution or evolution? Short dry cow periods for UK herds

Dry cow management is a notoriously under-researched subject area. The majority of farms manage their dry cows the same now as they did 10 or even 20 years ago.  Admittedly, advances have been made in this group’s nutritional management, but health management, and specifically, mastitis therapy, has changed little, writes farm vet, Chris Watson. In fact, you could even say we have made life much more difficult for ourselves when it comes to managing the dry cow – we have invented ways of getting round a problem that we invented ourselves!

Apart from the introduction of teat sealants, antibiotic choice and the approach to treatment is rarely reviewed. However, over the coming 12 months, a campaign being run by Intervet entitled ‘The Modern Approach to Dry Cow Management’ will aim to provoke a fundamental review of dry cow therapy amongst farmers and vets. This is on the back of an amendment to the datasheet for the company’s Cephaguard DC product. It is now licensed for 35 day + 1 day milk withdrawal*, meaning that short dry cow periods with a new generation dry cow intramammary can be considered. 

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