Milk Quality

CWAS offers full service milk quality consulting. We are dedicated to helping our clients create an environment where they can produce the highest quality milk as efficiently as possible. CWAS has Spanish-speaking associates on staff and can help cultivate a great relationship between our veterinarians and your Hispanic teams on your dairy. Milk Quality is more than bulk tank somatic cell count. Mastitis prevention and treatment is an integral part, but milking consistency, parlor efficiency, and cow comfort both in the barn and parlor are very important as well.

• Self Evaluation

  The University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin have developed several tools for dairymen to assess how their farm rates with respect to milk quality and cow comfort, and determine how much money they’re leaving on the table by not addressing some of these issues. How does your farm stack up?

On Farm Evaluation

• Facilities Evaluation

  CWAS can assess your barn, cow and parlor hygiene, as well as a thorough evaluation of your milking system. This will guide decisions on where to focus efforts to prevent mastitis, improve cow comfort in the barn and parlor, and increase parlor efficiency.

  CWAS will focus a great deal of time on milking equipment evaluation during milking and wash cycles. This process will include vacuum metering and tri-scan metering. This is done to help keep your milking system in top operating condition including pulsators and all other milking components. Liner performance will be analyzed as well to ensure proper milking and ensure cow comfort. Milk let down analysis of uniphasic vs. biphasic stages will be done to ensure the best possible performance of your parlor equipment.

• Parlor Crew

  The CWAS team can evaluate your parlor team’s prep, milking, and post milking procedures. The timing and consistency of each step is critical to proper milk let down and efficient milk out. A better prep leads to shorter milking times, healthier udders, and increased parlor throughput. We have the ability to assess procedures, train parlor crews, and help monitor performance to ensure procedure compliance.

  Furthermore, CWAS will help work with your team to develop the best protocols for cow and parlor flow to ensure the maximized efficiency of your parlor. Lastly, CWAS will review the treatment procedures of your parlor crew to ensure the safest, and most economically efficient way to treat cows for udder health issues on your dairy.

• Cow

  The cow is the most important aspect of your farm’s success. Thus, a CWAS Veterinarian will evaluate your dairy’s overall udder hygiene, teat end condition, and cow behavior. Locomotion scoring, teat end scoring, and cow rest analysis of your dairy can be done as well. Putting all of these tests together will help CWAS and your dairy team continue to create the best possible environment for the cows on your dairy.

• Records

  Data and data collection systems are only as valuable as the analysis and implementation of procedures derived from them. CWAS can evaluate your Dairy Comp data to help you analyze many different issues. These can include cell count data, infection trends, treatment records, protocol compliance. CWAS Vets and technicians also have experience in AFI-Farm software as well.

Lab Evaluation

CWAS Veterinarians can help collect and submit samples for bulk tank, bedding, or individual milk culture at a university lab, and will work with you to interpret the results. We can also train you or your staff to run milk cultures on-farm for individual mastitis cases. Studies have consistently shown that waiting 24 hours for culture results does not lower the probability of a cure, and can reduce intramammary antibiotic use by 50% or more.