Thursday, 04 March 2021 09:55

Dry cow therapy minus antibiotics

Written by  Staff Reporters
Shaun Eichstaedt. Shaun Eichstaedt.

Taranaki sharemilker Shaun Eichstaedt was the first New Zealander to replace traditional antibiotic dry cow therapy (DCT) with a high-strength probiotic.

Shaun milks 230 cows on 89 hectares (effective) in a 50/50 sharemilking contract. All the young stock graze off the property after weaning from December 1. They return as rising R2s on May 31 two years later.

Shaun has a number of older cows in the herd, and he appreciates that age and multiple lactations makes those herd matriarchs more vulnerable to mastitis, and high somatic cell count (SCC). It makes his dry-off strategy a critical part of his management decisions.

“A couple of years ago, we started looking for a fresh approach to drying off,” Shaun says.

“We had been noticing that quite a few of the older cows in our herd – aged between nine and twelve years old – had higher SCC, even though they had been treated with antibiotic DCT most of their life.

“And, some of those cows were still coming in with mastitis at the start of the next season. We realised that the antibiotic DCT wasn’t doing it for them, so we decided to try something different.”

In 2019, he drenched 31 cows with a SCC of 150,000 or higher for five days before dry-off with probiotic ImmunoMax. It includes a blend of five strains of beneficial bacteria, five digestive enzymes, and a specialised strain of live active yeast.

That year the average SCC in that sub-group just before dry-off in the autumn was 556,000. On the first herd test the following spring, he says it dropped by 46%.

In 2020, the autumn average SCC on Shaun’s high SCC cows, before they were treated at drying off with probiotics was 678,000. That number dropped by 40% on the first spring herd test.

While the response wasn’t immediately as high as it had been with DCT (67%), there were longer-term advantages which Shaun believes has been potentially game-changing to his herd’s udder health, and natural immune function.

More like this

Animal antibiotic sales down

Total sales of veterinary and horticultural antibiotics in New Zealand have decreased for a fifth year in a row, dropping by 23% in 2022.

Antibiotics sales drop

Total sales of veterinary and horticultural antibiotics in New Zealand have decreased for a fifth year in a row, dropping by 23% in 2022.

Have confidence to be selective

Bacteria developing resistance is a potential risk any time we use antibiotics, so we need to focus on preventing and controlling infections to reduce the need.

Don’t sacrifice science for ideology

OPINION: Contrary to recent suggestions in the media, there is very little credible research supporting the success of homeopathic treatment of mastitis in dairy cows.

Make drying off less stressful

David Dymock, livestock technical advisor with MSD Animal Health covers best practice insertion of dry cow therapy and teat sealants.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter