Dairy and Livestock
Dairy Events
Milk Quality Study
| Prototheca bovis is a new mastitis-causing pathogen, but little is known about its prevalence on Wisconsin Dairy Farms. UW-Extension is seeking farms to participate in a study to help identify the prevalence of Prototheca bovis in Wisconsin. UW-Extension educators will coordinate with farm personnel to determine the best time to stop in to collect quarter milk samples from 10 high-somatic cell-count animals. Quarter samples will be cultured for Prototheca bovis and submitted to Marathon County DHIA for somatic cell counts. If farms prefer to collect their samples, this can also be arranged. Why should I care about this study? Prototheca Bovis is a slow-growing yeast-type algae that currently has no cure. Animals with this mastitis are usually subclinical and go unnoticed until bulk tank somatic cell counts increase. When cultured, Prototheca Bovis is out-competed on normal agar plates by other mastitis-causing pathogens, making it hard to detect. In this study, we are using special agar that prevents the growth of other mastitis-causing pathogens. |
Clark County is #1 in the state for number of dairy farms. The approximately 638 dairy farms house over 66,000 head of milking dairy cows. Our dairy farms range in size from small family farms with 50 or less milking cows to large LLC farms housing thousands of milking cows.
Pasture Walk
Pasture Walk is a one day event hosted by Clark County Extension at a local farm. Participants receive information on farming practices related to organic dairy farming with a grazing emphasis.
Goat Meeting
Goat production is a growing industry in Central Wisconsin. To meet the needs of small ruminant farmers, Clark County Extension strives to host annual goat education meetings.
