Several factors can affect teat skin condition. These include weather, housing conditions, teat disinfectant chemistry, milking system settings and micro-organisms. Adverse weather conditions (cold, wind, humidity, direct sun, etc.) can negatively affect teat-end and skin integrity.
Knowledge and prevention are keyCold and snow create challenges for everyone, especially for immigrant workers who may not be familiar with extreme cold.
Caring for the lactating dairy herd in extreme cold conditions also has its challenges. If not properly cared for producers may see a decline in performance including total milk production, increasing somatic cell counts due to mastitis, losses in reproductive efficiency and even decreased growth in young first calf heifers if the extreme cold continues for extended periods of time.
