This is my 3rd winter on this farm and i can't manage a bacto below a 40 average!!! I have tried everything you can think of pre-spraying with peraceatic acid,hypoclorhide,valiant pre-dip,just dry wiping with paper,i get the odd 28/30 reading but it always averages around the 40 mark.I am going back as of tonight to trying udder clothes in  bucket's of hypocloride to see what that does.

The cows are housed in kennel's and bedded on chopped straw without auto-scraper's so they are a bit shitty looking they are bedded everyother day and limed twice a week,i have tried to persuade them to bed everyday and lime everyother but it falls on deaf years.I'd be grateful for any suggestion's or tips as to lowering my result's.

N.B.My results in the summer have been as low as 12 so it suggest's housing/conditions around the yard's during winter.

 Are you using a heat recovery system from the bulk tank to heat wash water along with a water heater on a timer - the lower temperatures mean the tank is not working as hard, so pre-heated water isn't as hot, and if the water heater is on a timer it may not get as hot as in the summer.

No Dan the hot water comes from a separate boiler.

Hi, I inherited a similar problem when I moved to my new herd, bactoscans were sitting around 60 ( and had been for the past two years), they are now running at an average of 15. The key area's I changed were: singing uddders, regular tail trimming, and changed both the pre and post sprays back to an iodine based product.

I am sure you have already explored many of these, but this has had a very positive impact on our bactoscans.

Is there a need to lower the bactoscan? Whilst ours is 20-25, we dont recieve any bonus below 50.

 I've always associated bactoscan problems with plant. So things I check if the bacto jumps are hot water temperature, chemical circulation, bulk tank cleanliness, things like that.

 You mentioned its only during the winter and the cows are looking dirtier than you would like - what about your filters?

 

 

We don't receive any bonus either but as i am the herdsman here i feel it reflects some what on my attention to detail,but i have good news i went onto using cloth's on the night of posting this thread and on the 27th January my result was 25 i was over the moon with that and aiming now to get below 20.As for filter's we use the plain old ambic's which are a bit small for my liking but they seem to do the job ok,have used sock filter's in the past and out of choice i would go with them myself.My routine now is to prespray with pereacetic acid then wipe of with a cloth that sit's in a bucket of water with a splash of hypo between sides,i know there will be critic's of the cloth but hey it has worked for me and my parents are milking 400 and they still use cloth's?

I am on top of the tail's as i trim them at calving before they enter the herd and then again at the end of January but i have always fancied the idea of udder singing and i dare say that would do the cow's/bactoscan the world of good.

How do you do it if you don't mind me asking?

As for spray's i use pereacetis acid for pre,and iodine for post?

Hi, Glad your already making in-ways. The singing is done using a purpose build singe gun, something I acquired whilst in Australia, but I am sure they are readily available over here too? I use it during milking, and it's attached to a small gas cylinder that fits neatly into my apron pocket!

It is never a pleasant milking when it's done for all the obvious reasons, primarily the cleaning up afterwards! but would be well worth pursuing in my opinion, I did them all as a whole herd, and now do it again as they calve in or, I do sometimes have to give the odd one or two a mid lactation singe, just to keep them neat/clean and tidy.

We had problems last year as well batoscan was at 200 weve got it down to 15-20 so weve done something right we use post nd pre spray forgot the name but its blue ready mix we wash with clothes and dip them in hot water and hypo every 3 cows of less if needed ,we use dri lite powder before sawdust in cubicals morning and night ( shed has slatted floor so *** on floor is no problem) and palour has auto wash so plant is alway clean and we use some herbal drops in drinkers dont know what is the one thing that got bacto scan down but weve done something right .good luck

Hi i'd say its the cloth's and pre spray because thats all i've changed and its averaging 25 for the month now so i'm more than happy with that.The change from paper towel to cloth's worked miracles.I have bought 400 micro cloth's and am waiting to find a cheap washing machine now and i plan to use 1 cloth per cow and then boil wash them with non biological between milking'S to avoid cell count problem's as well or more like cross contamination of infection's .