More than 40 farmers and vets visited West Chaldon Farm, near Dorchester, to see how one of the South West's biggest and most successful dairy herds is managed.

The Cobb family has run the 2,250 acre farm for four generations and has won a number of dairy awards, including runner-up in last year's national Quality Milk Award sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health. Despite having 600 cows under one roof, the farm achieves a high output (more than 10,000 litres) whilst maintaining high quality: SCC is around 100, Bactoscan 14 and mastitis rate 22 per cent.

Dairy manager Nick Cobb was on hand to show the visitors around the impressive facilities and explain how he and his staff have managed to produce such consistently good results. Many of the ideas that Mr Cobb has applied have come as a result of several visits he has made to large farms in the US. The cows are bedded on sand rather than straw and are milked three times a day. One of the most recent innovations has been the initiation of a fresh cow programme.

Mr Cobb's vet, Mark Burnell, from Southfield Veterinary Centre, in Dorchester, told the visiting farmers how the programme works. Every effort is made to make fresh cows as comfortable as possible. They are given the "Hilton Hotel" of accommodation on the farm, he said, with extra room in the cubicles to encourage them to lie down as much as possible. But the key to fresh cow management is careful monitoring and early intervention if problems are suspected.

All cows in the fresh pen have their temperature taken using a digital thermometer at a weekly vet visit and any with a temperature over 103F are given a course of antibiotics as well as a detailed examination. However, Mr Burnell pointed out that in many cases a spike in temperature does not occur until four or five days after calving, so temperatures are routinely taken again three days later. All fresh cows are also monitored carefully for sunken eyes, reluctance to get up and eat, dung consistency and rumen fill. Stockmen carefully inspect and feel the left flank of the animal or use a stethoscope to check how often the rumen turns over: twice a minute is normal.

Any fresh cow that still has retained membranes after 24 hours is considered to be in the early stages of Metritis. These are routinely given a full course of ExcenelTM RTU and marked on the rump when each dose is given.

Mr Burnell said: "Inevitably you will get some over-treatment with this approach because you can never predict whether a problem will develop. But the last thing we want is an infection and we are very happy with the results that we have got."

Although the programme has only been running a few months, the early results are encouraging and it looks as though the fertility of the herd will improve as a result.

The visiting farmers were also given some useful tips on dealing with digital dermatitis using foot baths, and Peter Edmondson from the Shepton Veterinary Group discussed how to avoid over-milking and how to speed up the milking routine without losing yield. On the subject of mastitis, Mr Edmondson claimed that the UK was stuck with levels of about 45-50 per cent in most herds, but that the experience in the Netherlands showed that rates could be reduced to 25 per cent or even lower. Many mastitis cases were caused by environmental bugs picked up in the dry period because teats remained open for days or even weeks.

His suggestion was the use of a commercial internal teat sealant to act as a physical barrier to infection. "In 2 or 3 years' time you'll be saying 'Why didn't we do it earlier?", he said.