Mastitis investigation using the DairyCo mastitis plan on a Yorkshire dairy farm

The article describes the use of the DairyCo Mastitis plan in the investigation of high mastitis incidence in a dairy herd. The DairyCo mastitis plan uses software to analyse the herd's mastitis and cell count data in order to enable the mastitis problem to be categorised as predominantly dry period origin or lactation period origin and either environmental or contagious origin. A thorough farm visit and completion of a questionnaire will then allow areas for improvement to be selected which will be most likely to have the greatest benefit in reducing mastitis incidence in the herd in question.