Udder healthness is important for the milk performance

Relation to housing and management

Stable:

Laying areas which are too small and uncomfortable for the cows lead to an higher risk of hurting the udders due to teatstepping. A wounded udder or wet and dirty laying boxes or floors are an easy way for bacterias to infect the udder.

For basic information about how laying areas and floors should be, click on the following links:
- Floor and walking areas
- Laying areas

Dairy Cow:

(also see: "Breed")

When you are building a stable you should know what kind of breed will live in. Especially in relation to laying areas it is very important to know the average size of the cows.
Another aspect is that intensive dairy breeds are more vulnerable to get diseases than dual-purpose breeds.

Age: It is normal if an old cow gets a higher amount of cells in the milk. Maybe she got an infection in former times or she suffered from milk fever. But it is a normal process that the milk from older cows contains more cells than from younger cows.

Genetic: The Genetic information plays just a very small role. It is proved that some genotypes are more resistant to bacteria than other ones.

Lactation: The colostrums has a very high amount of cells. This means, that in the beginning of every lactation the amount of cells in the milk is higher. At the end of the lactation it should be at the minimum.

Milking:     (also see "Milking routine")

Since this is the part where the udder plays the major role, milking has an very big influence on the udder healthness. For cows milking should be first of all without stress and pain. The hygiene in the milking parlour and the milking routine are other important parts.

Back to "Udder healthness"

Page updated 21.11.2005