For nearly 50 years, the National Mastitis Council (NMC) has provided information to the dairy industry on udder health, mastitis control, milking management, milk quality, and milk safety. No other organization in the world has more resources related to the production of low somatic cell count, high quality milk!

Check out the “resources” section of this website, or utilize the “search” function to find articles and reports of interest.

Still looking for more?  If you are an NMC member, you can access the “members-only” section and search the Online Proceedings Library, where you will find all of the papers presented at all of the NMC annual meetings and NMC regional meetings since 2001 —  over 800 papers and poster presentations!  The proceedings library is fully searchable and very user-friendly.

If you need more information about NMC membership, click here.

Click here  to read about the results from 2009, including the % of milk and the % of producers in the federal orders monitored that met the current U.S. federal regulatory SCC limit  of 750,000; and the percentages that would have met a 400,000 limit (current regulatory limit in the European Union).

Register now for this year’s NMC Regional Meeting, scheduled for September 8-9, 2010, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The conference — targeted toward dairy producers, veterinarians, consultants, extension specialists, technical field staff and other dairy professionals –provides a forum for delivering and sharing information on practical, on-farm aspects of udder health, mastitis control, milking management, milk quality, and milk safety.

Check out the complete program and online registration here.

Be sure to register early if you are interested in taking one of the limited-enrollment short courses or farm tour!

Please be a part of this effort, and nominate deserving producers from your area!  [Read more.]

The program, funded by the National Mastitis Research Foundation, awards a maximum of four scholarships annually. At least two scholarship recipients will be graduate students at a university or college outside of the United States and Canada. The application deadline is July 30, 2010. [Read more here.]

The program will include a day of short courses — each focusing on a specific topic — on Wednesday September 8, followed by the main program on Thursday September 9. The meeting is open to all individuals interested in mastitis control and quality milk production.

Watch the NMC website for details!

Most states (42) had lower average SCC than the previous year; only six states had higher averages. Variation among states remains large, ranging from less than 200,000 to more than 400,000. State average SCC was lower than the national average for mountain and western states, and often higher for southeastern states.

The current federal SCC regulatory limit in the U.S. is 750,000, except in California where it is 600,000. In many other major dairy countries, the SCC limit is 400,000.

The overall percentage of herd test days that exceeded 400,000, 500,000, 600,000, and 750,000 during 2009 were 18.9%, 10.3%, 5.8% and 2.7%, respectively. (The 2.7% figure may overestimate the percentage of herds with milk exceeding the legal limit for bulk tank SCC on test day, because the milk of cows treated for mastitis is included in DHI test data, but is excluded from the bulk tank.)

[Read more....]

This year’s top-ranked Platinum winners, which were honored during the luncheon, were: Kathy and Randy Bauer, RKB Dairy, Faribault, Minnesota;  Randy and Becky Drier, Hi-Lo Springs Holsteins, Norwalk, Wisconsin;  Taylor and Alan Henderson, Henderson Farms, Schaghtcoke, New York;  Robert and Terri Ketchum, Ketchum Farms, Utica, Minnesota; Tom McClellan, McClellan Farms Inc., Delavan, Wisconsin;  Michigan State University Dairy, Lansing, Michigan; and Denise and Donald Rice, D&D Dairy, Filion, Michigan.

photo credit Hoard's Dairyman

In addition to the seven Platinum winners, there were also 17 Gold and 22 Silver NDQA winners.

Click here to read brief bio’s about Platinum winners, along with a listing of the Gold and Silver winners (and the nominators).

Papers and posters presented at the NMC 49th Annual Meeting, held January 31 – February 3, 2010 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are available for viewing and downloading in the NMC Online Proceedings Library, which is accessible to NMC members in the “members only” section of the website.

The online proceedings library includes all the papers from the annual and regional NMC meetings back to 2001 – fully searchable and user-friendly.

Click here for the members-only page login page.

Printed copies of the proceedings will also be mailed to all NMC members who did not attend the meeting.

Not an NMC member yet? Click here for more information.

The proceedings are also available for purchase (printed or CD-ROM).

In those areas where raw milk is legally sold, NMC encourages development of uniform regulations and safety standards; and consumer and producer education concerning production, sales and consumption of raw milk.

[Read the position statement here.]