New Publications Released by ADSA

The first two books in the ADSA Scientific Reader Series were published in late January and early February. The ADSA Scientific Reader Series was created to serve groups of farmers, extension specialists, producers, processors, scientists in related fields, and food industry professionals who are interested in the latest scientific research related to a particular topic. Each book in the series consists of reprints of peer-reviewed scientific reports that originally appeared in the Journal of Dairy Science; for those who prefer electronic access, the articles are also available at a password-protected web site.

The first book in the series, Dairy Management Practices, Housing, and Cattle Health, was originally created to correspond to the program at the 2000 NRAES  ADairy Housing and Equipment Systems: Managing and Planning for Profitability@ Conference, it should prove helpful to dairy professionals for many years to come. The book includes five major sections:

• Housing and Facility Planning B includes scientific reports on practical matters like planning the milking center, feed bunk length requirements, bedding, cattle restraints, and competition at the feeding station.
• Management Practices, Nutritional Strategies and Dairy Cattle Health B includes information on nutrient management, mastitis, weight gain, computerized feeders, and animal grouping strategies.
• Manure Management B features a systems approach to manure management, a discussion of manure spreading strategies, and a summary of a study using human panelists to assess the effectiveness of anaerobic digestion and feed additives in reducing manure odor.
• Seasonal Factors and Management Strategies B this section looks at nutritional strategies for managing heat stress, strategies for managing reproduction in the heat-stressed cow, and winter farm management strategies.

• Profitability and Dairy Management Systems B the final section looks at dairy expansion plans, the profitability of moderate intensive grazing in the Northeast, characteristics of dairy farms that significantly increased production, and comparisons of the profitability of dairy farms in various locations that employed different grazing strategies.

The second book in the series, Mastitis Control and Milk Quality, was designed to interest registrants at the 2000 National Mastitis Council Annual Meeting, and will be a helpful reference aid for anyone interested in preventing or controlling mastitis. 

The book includes six major sections:

• Economics of Mastitis B Recent research has found that mastitis can affect reproductive performance in dairy cows. This chapter contains results of studies in this area as well as the affects of mastitis on milk yield, somatic cell count and removal of cows from the herd. Other matters covered include BST and mastitis and a partial budget of the benefits of mastitis control strategies.

• Defining the Mastitis Problem B Includes scientific reports on methods to assess the bacteriological cure of mastitis and on the use of somatic cell counts to determine uninfected quarters.

• Knowing the Enemy B Mastitis can be a problem in first calf heifers. Reports in this section look at bacteria associated with clinical mastitis in heifers and clinical mastitis caused by Escherichia coli in cows.

• Milk Quality B Scientific papers in this section look at the effects of somatic cell count in milk on yield and quality of cottage cheese and the affects of subclinical mastitis on the protein fraction of milk. There is a report on the influence of parity and stage of lactation on somatic cell count in bacteriologically negative cows. The Delvotest was used in the detection of antimicrobial substances in cow and quarter milk samples.
• Mastitis Prevention B Vaccines for mastitis have been a focus of many researchers in recent years. Six studies on vaccines are reported in this chapter. Several papers look at management and its influence on mastitis and somatic cell count. The effects of several milking machine factors on milk yield, teat condition and udder health are also reported.
• Mastitis Therapy B This chapter looks at the efficacy of various treatments on mastitis pathogens in dairy cows. One study looks at the outcome of lactation therapy on dairy heifers. In another study seven antibiotic treatments are compared with no treatment. Changes in milk electrical conductivity was used as an indication of when to treat cows. Then oxytocin treatment was compared to antibiotic treatment in these cows. Two studies look at treatment with tilmicosin or cephapirin against Staphylococcus aureus mastitis, one at dry off and the other during lactation.

To purchase either of these books online, click here

New print and data technologies have made it possible to create ADSA Scientific Reader Series titles relatively quickly and efficiently. If you have a topic or question that you would like to see explored in an ADSA Scientific Reader, and are confident that there is a demand for at least 150 copies of the report, please contact Kent Williamson at 217-356-2426 (extension 13) or kentw@assochq.org.