Fresh Cow Somatic Cell Count Monitoring
By comparing a cow’s somatic cell count (SCC) before dry off to the somatic cell count after calving, you can determine the effectiveness of the treatment that was provided at dry off (if treatment was provided).
A DairyPlan report performs this comparison for you – and it is broken down into four sections:
Section 1: Dry Period SCC Cures– These are cows that had a SCC at dry off that was over 200 and the first SCC after calving is under 200. Note: All SCCs in DairyPlan are x1000 so a 200 value is 200,000. Therefore, you can presume these are cows where the dry period treatment provided, worked to decrease the SCC during the dry period. On the right hand side, the 1st comment from DPVet shows up for the vet action of Dry Treat, so you can easily track the exact product used on these cows if you enter this data into the system at treatment time.
Section 2: Dry Period Failure to Cure– This shows animals that did not cure over the dry period as their SCC before dry off was over 200 and their SCC after calving is also over 200. These are animals where the dry period antibiotic treatment was not effective, or in some cases perhaps it was effective, and the cow has a new infection. Being able to see the antibiotic used last time these cows were treated, can help to determine which antibiotic to use with the current infection.
Section 3: Dry Period New Infections– This shows animals that have new infections. These cows had a SCC before dry off less than 200 and now with their first test after calving, they have a SCC of over 200. As we can see on this report, these cows were not treated at dry off because the cows had a low SCC. So, you can presume these infections either occurred during the dry period or after calving. A large number of cows on this section of the report would be a signal to further evaluate the dry cow and calving housing and increase bedding management in those areas.
Section 4: Cows With Low SCC Pre Dry-off and Low SCC Post Dry-off– These are cows with a low SCC before dry off and a low SCC after calving. Ideally, this is the section we would like to see the highest number of cows from the herd.
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