Teat Care and Management

Looking after teats

Rough or damaged teat skin and teat sores provide sites for bacteria to become lodged, and multiply. Cracks and teat sores are also painful - this leads to poor cow behaviour during milking and poor milk let-down.

Exposure to mud and water, faulty milking machines, unhygienic milking practices and infectious organisms will have a detrimental effect on teat skin condition. Damaged teats are:

• Harder to keep clean
• Uncomfortable for the cow
• More at risk of mastitis.

Teat skin is affected by:

• Mud, water, wind and rain
• Faulty milking machines
• Rough handling during milking
• Infectious organisms.

You have a problem with teat damage if:

• More than 5% of cows have a sore or wound on the teat
• More than 10% of cows have dry or rough teats, or blood spots (petechiae)

Options to help fix teat damage include:

• Get help to assess teat condition and work out what may be causing it, visit:
  • Accredited vets, NZMPTA machine testers, your dairy company milk quality advisors or Milk quality consultants: AsureQuality and QCONZ
• Improve spray technique and coverage.
• Improve teat spraying mix. Check the right mix is being used, for teat and weather conditions.
• Arrange a milking machine test to check for machine faults that may be causing problems.

Teat Spraying

Teat spraying is critical for maintaining teat skin health and controlling mastitis during lactation.

Teat spraying has the following benefits:

• Teat spraying after milking has been proven to reduce the incidence of new mastitis infections by 50%. This means less time and cost spent treating mastitis, and separating milk from infected cows.
• Minimises risk of BMSCC (bulk milk somatic cell count) grades from dairy companies, resulting from subclinical and clinical infections.
• Reduces cow discomfort and poor milking behaviour associated with the pain of damaged teats.
• Reduces teat cleaning time as dirt does not stick as easily to a well conditioned teat.

What is teat spraying?

• In New Zealand, teat sanitising usually refers to teat spraying or dipping, carried out immediately after cups have been removed. This can be a manual or automated process.
• Teat spraying looks simple and this probably explains why so many people get it wrong. The effectiveness of teat spraying or dipping relies on complete coverage of the teat. This task takes time and is poorly done on many New Zealand farms.

What products should I use?

Teat sanitising products must be approved to ensure they won’t result in undesirable milk residues. A list of approved chemicals is available on the New Zealand Food Safety website or you can contact a Milk Quality Representative from your dairy company.

How do I do it?

Teat spray all teats of all cows immediately after every milking, and throughout the whole lactation period. Cover the whole teat of every cow to maximise effectiveness.

Teat spraying before cup attachment increases the risk of milk contamination and there are strict criteria associated with this practice. If you wish to do it contact a Milk Quality Representative from your dairy company and ensure you are carrying out the correct technique.

Teat spray mixture procedure

• New batches of teat spray should be mixed at regular intervals, ideally every 1 – 3 days.
• Use water of drinking quality.
• Mix according to the label. Some products suggest different dilution rates depending on the stage of the season and the risk of mastitis.
• Most teat sanitisers also contain an emollient to improve teat skin condition. Extra emollient may be added in spring when teats are most tender, but generally it is best not to exceed 15-20% in the final mixture.
• Make sure the procedure for mixing teat spray is displayed prominently, at the place where it will be mixed.

Watch the video below for teat spraying technique.

Teat disinfection

Teat disinfection is the most effective mastitis control measure, but only works if done properly.

Failure to cover the whole teat of every cow at every milking or using incorrectly diluted teat sprays are the most common errors.

Bacteria in milk from infected quarters can contaminate the skin of many other teats during milking. After milking, these bacteria multiply on the teat skin and may enter the teat canal. Disinfecting the teat surface immediately after milking helps minimise the spread of bacteria.

Types of teat sanitisation systems

Teat spray units come in manual and automated forms, but which system is best?

The table below outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each teat sanitisation system.

Tips for getting the best from your system

• Visit other farms and see how effective their teat disinfection systems are.
• Test the operator’s competency by wrapping a paper towel around teats just sprayed to check if disinfectant covered all surfaces.
• Test the nozzle performance by checking the spray pattern. Spray upwards onto a sheet of paper and a solid cone of spray should be achieved.
• Site automatic teat spray nozzles downwind of work areas.
• Having spray units at conveniently placed locations around the dairy means time is not wasted walking to pick up the spray unit.
• Avoid inhaling fine mists of chemical. Some people become sensitised to them.
• New batches of teat spray should be mixed at regular intervals, ideally every 1 – 3 days. Use water of drinking quality.
• Mix according to the label. Some products suggest different dilution rates depending on the stage of the season and the risk of mastitis.
• Most teat sanitisers also contain an emollient to improve teat skin condition. Extra emollient may be added in spring when teats are most tender, but it is recommended not to exceed 15-20% in the final mixture.