Mastitis and Countdown

Mastitis is a highly complex and costly disease to manage.

Over the next one - two years, DairyNZ will be assisting the dairy industry to provide upgraded and revised resources and training for NZ farmers and their advisors, via the SmartSAMM programme.

In the meantime, New Zealand farmers and their advisors can access the highly comprehensive Countdown Downunder resources, which were recently launched onto the Dairy Australia website.

Countdown resources now on the web include:

Countdown Downunder: Farmer Guidelines for Mastitis Control
Countdown Downunder: Fact Sheets
Countdown Downunder: Technotes for Mastitis Control (for advisors)
Countdown Downunder: FAQ Sheets (for advisors)

Countdown has been in existence since 1998, providing a highly successful training and extension service to Australian dairy farmers and their advisors.

The Technotes are key to this service, providing an industry-agreed, comprehensive review of mastitis literature for pasture-based systems. They provide their dairy industry with an important "bedrock of information" to which all farmers and their advisors can now refer to.

Although comprehensive, the Technotes are in need of an update. They were written between 2000 and 2003 and since then, there have been significant advances in the fight against Strep. uberis mastitis, particularly in heifers. Such findings need to be incorporated into technical resources for use by Australia and NZ.

DairyNZ will work with Dairy Australia over the coming months to refresh the technical content of the Technotes and Farmer Guidelines to ensure that both countries have access to the most appropriate and up-to-date materials. In New Zealand, these updated technical materials will provide the core of the new SmartSAMM programme.