Summary of Report on Mastitis Management and Labor Management By Casey Odom This report focuses on the questions that

addressed labor management issues and how labor management practices are related to mastitis management. While surveying dairy farmers and managers about mastitis, we discovered that nearly half of owners and managers (44.8%) believe there is a problem with mastitis on their farms. We also found that while the majority of owners and managers do not believe there are problems with following milking (58.3%) or treatment (64.0%) protocols on their farms, the majority (57.3 %) do believe that their employees play an important role in the mastitis problems on their farm. This may be related to communication gaps between owners and managers and their employees. The majority (60.7 %) of owners and managers who have employees never have meetings with their employees to address or discuss milk quality. This is demonstrated in the chart below. These data, statistics, and more, acquired from the Survey of Mastitis Management on Dairy Farms are addressed in the Report on Mastitis Management and Labor Management.

How often do you hold team meetings with milkers and other employees/professionals?
Note: These percentages exclude farmers who responded "N/A, no employees"

1 or 2 times per year 16% Never 61% Once a month 13%

Quarterly 5%

At least twice a month 5%