Changing Temperatures, Cracked Fingers, Healthy Cows and High Quality Milk « Back

Temperatures in the teens this weekend and a little snow. Forecast to warm up for three days and then cold again. Yo-yo – a good term for temperatures this past month. An offshoot to these crazy temperatures and changes is skin cracking on hands, especially fingers. We often take for granted how important our hands and fingers are, and how much we use (and sometimes abuse) them daily. Healthy fingers are truly important and appreciated!

Teats of dairy cows are similarly important. The teat, like a finger, is a structure and tissue that is an extremity on the outside of the body. They are at the bottom of the cow’s udder and provide the external opening where high quality milk is harvested. They are the structure and tissue that the milking machine is attached to for gently harvesting this milk. Like your fingers, they also see all types of weather including the changing, cold temperatures, and experience the same conditions that may lead your fingers to dehydrate and crack. When temperatures change and get colder, our bodies conserve blood flow and heat to our core and sometimes extremities get cool (ears, fingers and toes, and teats of cows). This sets our tissue up to dehydrate and then crack, and is why you wear gloves or use a lot of hand lotion.

The health and integrity of these teats and tissues is very important to cows and you, and a high priority for dairy farmers (not just during winter but every day of a cow’s life). Practices called pre-milking and post-milking teat dipping are common on all dairies, and are a common routine every time a cow is milked, between two to three times per day.

Pre-dipping, or dipping teats prior to milking, is a practice of applying a safe, effective germicide with excellent skin conditioners. It means cleaner, healthier teats, thus assuring healthy cows and a very healthy milk supply. Like washing your hands, the pre-dip is thoroughly dried off after 15-30 seconds (enough time to kill germs and apply skin conditioners but not enter the milk supply).

Post-milking teat dipping involves dipping teats in a solution containing a disinfectant or sanitizing agent, which provides germ and disease protection, and skin conditioners for soft, healthy teat tissue after milking. This teat dip is not dried and provides continual germ protection and skin conditioning until the next milking.

So next time your fingers crack or toes get cold, remember dairy farmers dip multiple times per day for healthy cows and YOU! This common practice assures protection to the cow and milk.