Anexa Vets has a team of Advanced Mastitis Accredited Vets, meaning if you are eligible for compensation under the Fonterra demerit relief scheme, intervention may not cost you anything.
WHAT IS A GRADE?
Cows with mastitis (udder infections) will have high somatic cell counts and cause the bulk tank milk supplied to increase. If the milk supplied is >400 000cells/ml the farmer is grading and you will be financially penalised by your milk company. If you have a rolling two month geometric mean above 400,000 cells/ml at the end of any month, then Fonterra will recommend that an Accredited Vet visit the farm to identify and separate problem cows to begin treatment.
WHAT IS A GRADE BUST?
The key to a grade bust is to quickly locate the cows causing the grade and removing them from supply until treated.
We act with urgency. We will have an accredited vet and technicians on farm for the next milking to RMT the whole herd and identify which cows are causing the grading problem.
WHAT IS THE RMT?
The rapid mastitis test is a crude, fast, efficient and accurate way of detecting cows with high somatic cells. It is a cow side test that is used as a crude measure of somatic cell count. It works by binding
white blood cells that RMT reagent ruptures. This causes the milk/detergent solution to thicken when cells are in abundance i.e. the more cells the thicker the solution
HOW TO BOOK A GRADE BUST:
Phone your local Anexa FVC clinic and the staff will book your grade bust and give you further information.
WHAT HAPPENS ONCE A GRADE BUST IS BOOKED:
At the grade bust milking (usually afternoon) you need to have ready:
- Last few days milk dockets (to show cell counts)
- Last season’s herd test summary page
- Willingness to sign us to 3rd party access to your milk supplier information i.e. Fonterra or OCC website or Tatua via email
- Minda herd participant code, user name and password (so we can get your herd test information out and clinical mastitis data once it’s entered) if you’re a MindaPro user.
- Allow 30 minutes before cups on to discuss plan with vet and technicians.
- Please understand the milking will be slowed as they will be required to draft cows, but we will try not to affect the flow too much.
HOW MUCH DOES A GRADE BUST COST?
Getting an Advanced Mastitis accredited grade bust team on farm ASAP to stop grading is an economical decision, particularly if you’ve been grading for a few days. We can have a vet, three
technicians on farm the next milking to RMT the whole herd.
This will cost approximately $1200 (depending on how long milking is, that’s for about 2h) including milk cultures and a report.
Farmers who are eligible for grade relief from their milk company, meaning they can claim back from their milk company all or some of the full cost of their financial penalty in vet time, tech time, visit and lab fees (which may completely cover the grade bust) IF an accredited vet conducts the grade bust (applies to Fonterra suppliers).
We are one of the few practices in the Waikato to have accredited vets. Speak to your local milk company rep to put this into place and send a copy of your Anexa FVC invoice to your milk company.