Why is this important?
Damaged teats are:
- harder to keep clean
- uncomfortable for the cow
- more at risk of mastits
Teat skin is affected by:
- Mud, water, wind and rain
- Faulty milking machines
- Rough handling during milking
- Infectious organisams.
You have a problem with teat damage if:
- More than 5% of cows have a sore or wound on the teat - see Healthy Udder, Prevent 4 for examples of damage.
- More than 10% of cows have dry or rough teats, or blood spots (petechiae) - see Guideline 9.1 for examples of these conditions.
- Use Healthy Udder and Guideline 9.1 to work out what kind of damage is present.
Your options include:
- Get help to assess teat condition and work out what may be causing it, go to:
- Accredited vets
- NZMPTA machine testers
- Your dairy company milk quality advisors
- Milk quality consultants: AsureQuality and QCONZ
- Improve spray technique and coverage. See:
- Healthy Udder - Prevent 2 for tips on checking coverage
- Guideline 7.7 for ways to check sprayer technique and volumes used.
- Improve teat spraying mix. Check the right mix is being used, for teat and weather conditions. See:
- Healthy Udder - Prevent 3 for tips on making up teat spray
- Guideline 7.5 for information on adding extra emollient.
- Arrange a milking machine test to check for machine faults that may be causing problems. Go to NZMPTA machine testers.
Useful Resources:
- Possible causes of teat damage:
- Healthy Udder - Prevent 4
- Guideline 9: Manage teat sores and cracks
- Adding emollient to teat disinfectant:
- Healthy Udder - Prevent 3
- Guideline 7.5: Maintain teat condition adding emollients such as glycerine