A calculator to measure the financial losses caused by mastitis at farm level was launched today, Tuesday, 20 November at the Teagasc National Dairy Conference in Tralee. The CostCheck calculator has been developed by Teagasc in conjunction with Animal Health Ireland, through the CellCheck programme. This calculator can be used by farmers to help understand the impact that mastitis has on profitability on their farm. The CostCheck calculator is easy to use and will provide an instant cost associated with mastitis on the farm and should be used as a catalyst to the introduction of mastitis control programs.

The CostCheck calculator was developed based on research on the costs associated with mastitis carried out at the Teagasc Animal & Grassland, Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark by researcher Una Geary. In her paper presented at the Teagasc National Dairy Conference, Una estimates that reducing SCC levels from 350,000 cells/ml, to 150,000 cells/ml on a 40-hectare farm with 100 cows, would increase profitability by �10,300. She demonstrated the CostCheck tool highlighting the costs associated with mastitis using data from the farmers that were in attendance at the conference.

Commenting on mastitis costs and the CostCheck calculator, Teagasc Researcher Laurence Shalloo emphasised that while there was significant costs associated with mastitis within the context of milk quotas, those costs are even bigger when quotas are removed and the opportunity cost of herd growth is included.

This tool is now available on the Teagasc and Animal Health Ireland websites. Log on to see how much you can gain from reducing your current somatic cell count.

Download the calculator at : http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/docs/costcheck.xls