Shaun Eichstaedt
“Dairyman achieves break-through Dry Cow Therapy without antibiotics”
Taranaki sharemilker Shaun Eichstaedt was the first New Zealander to replace the traditional antibiotic Dry Cow Therapy (DCT) with a high-strength probiotic.
Shaun milks 230 cows on 89 effective hectares in a 50/50 share milking contract. After weaning on December 1, all the young stock graze off the property. Two years later, on May 31, they return as rising R2s.
Shaun has several older cows in the herd, and he appreciates that age and multiple lactations make those herd matriarchs more vulnerable to mastitis and high SCCs. It makes his dry-off strategy a critical part of his management decisions.
“A couple of years ago, we started looking for a fresh approach to drying off,” Shaun said. “We had been noticing that quite a few of the older cows in our herd – between nine and 12 years old – had higher SCCs, even though they had been treated with antibiotic DCT most of their life.
“And some of those cows were still coming in with mastitis at the start of the next season. We realised the antibiotic DCT wasn’t doing it for them, so we decided to try something different.”
Probiotic Drench Lowers SCC
In 2019, he drenched 31 cows with an SCC of 150,000 or higher for five days before drying them off with probiotic ImmunoMax. It includes a powerful blend of five strains of beneficial bacteria, five digestive enzymes, and a specialised strain of live active yeast. At 190 billion colony-forming units (CFU) per dose, its unprecedented strength is causing a widening ripple effect in DCT conversations throughout New Zealand.
That year, the average SCC in that sub-group just before dry-off in the autumn was 556,000. On the first herd test the following spring, it dropped by 46%.
In 2020, the autumn average SCC on Shaun’s high SCC cows before they were treated and dried off with probiotics was 678,000. That number dropped by 40% on the first spring herd test.
Strengthened Immune Function
While the response wasn’t immediately as high as it had been with DCT (67%), there were longer-term advantages, which Shaun believes have been potentially game-changing for his herd’s udder health and natural immune function.
“We only had a couple of cows that ended up with a bit of winter mastitis, and they hadn’t been treated with ImmunoMax,” Shaun said.
“I also found drenching the cows easier than using DCT because I didn’t have those two hours of extra work involved with the antibiotic DCT on the day of dry-off.”
He says while his herd’s 160,000 average SCC this season remains slightly high for his liking, he is managing several older cows.
“I put one cow, who didn’t have clinical mastitis, on the bucket for a couple of milking’s because I suspected her SCC might be high. I just wanted to see how she was impacting the herd’s SCC. It dropped it by 35,000, so I know I need to address those few cows that are 10 or 11 years old,” Shaun said.
Clinical Mastitis Cleared Without Antibiotics
He has also noticed that fewer cows treated with ImmunoMax developed clinical mastitis the following season. Of the ones that have, he has found an effective alternative treatment, which has also positively impacted some of his culling decisions.
He used some leftover ImmunoMax to drench the clinical mastitis cows for five days rather than reaching for an antibiotic intermammary treatment.
“That’s all those cows were treated with,” Shaun said. “And, they all cleared up.”
It also meant there was no milk or meat withholding.
Antibiotics Kill the “Good” and the “Bad” Bugs
Probiotic Revolution’s Chris Collier wasn’t surprised.
“We think when you use a long-acting antibiotic at dry off, you are sterilising the udder, which means you’re killing off the good – and the bad – bugs,” Chris said.
“Because of that, I think an antibiotic DCT would initially show a significant drop in SCC because there is no infection to fight. But, when those cows have been challenged by mastitis the following season, they don’t have the good bugs in their udder to resist it.
“But, if their immune system is strong, and there are mastitis-inhibiting bacteria in the udder, it has been proven that the cow is in a stronger position to resist the clinical signs of mastitis. Antibiotics were never intended to be used as a preventative treatment.”
Shaun is now considering feeding his springers a high-strength probiotic lead feed and an in-feed Direct Fed Microbial to complete the probiotic picture for his herd.
He said the lower workload, results, and nil milk and/or meat withhold at calving have won him over.
“The cost was pretty similar, but (for me) the probiotics involved significantly less effort, which was a bonus. I’m happy. I feel ImmunoMax has done the same job as DCT, and I’d rather not use the antibiotics.”