Case Studies

SurePulse Consultant Philip Grey with Peter Marwood

Change is a good thing

Why do you change things that are working well? That was the question we put to Peter Marwood of Te Awamutu recently. Peter told us when it came time to replace his liners he did some research and decided to try the triangular liner and light stainless shell offered by SurePulse. What he didn’t expect was how dramatic the results would be. “The next day the difference was immediate. The cows were milking free-er, faster, were less stressed. It was evident they were more comfortable” said Mr Marwood. “I could physically feel the difference in handling. Instead of 1 or 2 cows slow milking in every row, it was now 1 or 2 in every milking. I had no cup slippage and it appeared to make slow milkers normal milkers. Looking back, I didn’t think we ever had a problem, but with the performance now I wonder whether that was really the case.”
The benefit of comfort to the cows was quickly evident but there are other benefits too. Between August and January the previous year Peter treated 14 cows for mastitis, however this season the last case was August last year. “No penicillin or mastitis treatment from the vets this year is a direct saving” he said.
“The SurePulse liners are recommended to 2500 milkings” said SurePulse Consultant Philip Grey. Peter remarked that he changed his a little early this year as he had gone to once a day milking and wanted to maximise bacterial defence. He said he “noticed the triangular liners appear to suffer little wear unlike the previous brand of round liners which had become oval in shape. The shells are lightweight yet robust and physically easier to change”
What has also improved is the somatic cell count. Whilst Marwoods was never recording very high SCC the data has shown impressive reductions with the previous average for the same time period registering 128,000 dropping to 66,000. Peter said “SurePulse been a good introduction to our shed practice and one we will be continuing with. You can never categorically state that a product is responsible for all the benefits that resulted, however it is the only thing we changed.”

Clearing up teat end damage

The picture shows the grading standards for teat scoring a herd. During the 2013/14 summer we did a shed trial of an organic farmer who had very poor levels of animal teat end health. His shed was machine tested to ensure accurate pulsation settings and a SurePulse liner and insert was installed early December.

After no more than 3 weeks a significant improvement in teat health was visible. Further teat scoring 6 weeks later showed 85% of the heard were rated as normal with no animals scoring in the rough or very rough ranges.

Animal health and comfort is one of the common reasons farmers change to the SurePulse systems. Improvements in animal health have such a flow on effect with reduced treatments costs and culling along with improved milk flow.