Stronger Herds with Horizon: Mastering Udder Health Reports
- Denis Langlois
- Aug 26
- 8 min read
As information can change over time, If you read this outside of 6 months from the original post date, please confirm with your WCR advisor that the information is still valid and accurate.
Udder health has a direct impact on milk quality, cow comfort, and farm profitability. Horizon provides powerful tools to track early warning signs, analyze trends, and support better decision making when it comes to mastitis and overall herd health. By understanding how reports like 12 and 23 work, and how factors such as somatic cell count, conductivity, and milk deviations are measured, you can take a more proactive approach to keeping your herd healthy and productive.
Report 12 & 23
In the overview of report 12 and 23 the Horizon logo means that the threshold can be set in the attention settings.
Report 12: Udder Health Worklist
Report 23: Udder Health Analyse
Somatic cell count (SCC)
Somatic cell count in Horizon means the number of somatic cells (mainly white blood cells) in milk. It is an indicator of (sub)clinical mastitis or to check the udder health. SCC is measured with milk sample by the MQCC-2 in the Astronaut. Measured by the changes in viscosity in milk (California Mastitis test).
Calculation SCC: Geometric mean of last 3 milking. (Geometric means is to adjust small carry of effects of previous milked cows in same robot.)
To show up on the report the cow has to exceed one of these thresholds:
When the cow exceeds the SCC Udder Attention threshold.
Default it is set on 500 (minimum is 200, maximum is 1000).
OR
When the cow has the flag SCC Chronic then she will only show up on report 23.
This means that the cow was in SCC attention 33% of the time in the last 14 days.
Can be found in customer report with a remark (x).
Conductivity
Conductivity is a detection of increased levels of Sodium (Na+) and Chloride (Cl-) in milk, which are the salt and other ions. This can be due to inflammation of udder or tissue damage. Conductivity is measured by the MQC in the Astronaut.
Calculation conductivity: Value last milk visit.
The cow shows up on the report when:
Value attention measurements threshold is exceeded.
This means the deviation of the conductivity between teats in the last milking.
Default is 20%.
AND
Value attention average threshold is exceeded.
This means the deviation in conductivity between averages of teats in the last 3 milking.
Default is 20%. FMS Tip: This setting is in Horizon to create later attentions to reduce false positive alarms. To have quicker attentions; lower this threshold to 10% or 15%.
OR
The absolute conductivity threshold is exceeded.
Default is set on 100.
To give some more clarity a conductivity attention stimulator is created. In this Excel file you can calculate if there should be an attention and which threshold is exceeded - Conductivity attention simulation.xlsx
Differences in SCC and Conductivity
SCC and Conductivity are both used as indicators for milk quality but measured different aspects.
SCC primarily reflects the presence of cells, while conductivity primarily reflects the presence of dissolved ions.
Both SCC and conductivity can be used to detect mastitis, but SCC is generally considered a more reliable indicator.
Conductivity can be influenced by factors other than mastitis, such as the stage of lactation or the breed of the cow, while SCC is more specifically linked to udder health.
Milk production
The big milk drop and milk deviations are calculated by comparing the correct milk production in the last 24 hours against the moving average of the milk production. The days used to calculate the moving average is based on the days in milk:
<7 DIM; 2 days
<=31 DIM; 7 days
Else; 14 days
Calculation big milk drop & milk deviations: 24 hours correct milk production – moving average milk production.
To show up on report 12 & 23 the big milk drop should exceed the deviation of the drop. Default set on 7 kg. The milk deviation should exceed on of the threshold in percentages or kilograms. Default set on 4 kg and 20%.
Report 12; Milk deviation & SCC & Conductivity
When a cow has conductivity or SCC attention, the cow won’t be on report 12 right away. To show conductivity or SCC on report 12 it must exceed the milk deviation or KG or percentage thresholds in combination with conductivity or SCC attention.
Milk separation reasons
Milk classifications
Udder Health attentions count
This column shows the total number of attentions that the cow had reached in the last 14 days. The purpose is to help the farmer to track the cow's health and monitor any patterns or changes in attention levels.
The udder health attentions which are considered in this count are:
SCC attentions
Conductivity attentions
Milk production attentions
Color attentions
Health report for Udder Health
The health report can help the farmer to detect cows which could have some udder health issues. The parameters which are discussed in relation to udder health in this article are milk colour code, milk production, conductivity, SCC, temperature, fat protein ratio and rest feed.
Milk colour code
The categories are watery, mastitis, blood and abnormal. This information is received from the MQC and evaluated as true or false. The highest priority is blood.
FMS Tip: Did you know that the severeness bar in the health report is always equally filled per category.
Conductivity
The highest teat of the last milking is considered. The value shown in the health report is the highest teat and the other evaluated teat.
When a cow has a teat which was in attention for over 50% in the reference period (-3 until -14 days) is ‘Conductivity chronic’. Shown on health report just as Conductivity but is compared to a higher absolute value.
Milk production
Milk drop is the kilograms of milk that the cow dropped in the last 24 hours. Milk drop is taken from last 24 hour calculated.
Calculation: Moving average milk day production – current milk production.
Fresh cow performance is a comparison of new lactating cows against average of group cows with lactation group (1 or 2+) and DIM. Only compared in the first 3 weeks (21 days). Example, cow with 14 DIM 1st lactation will be compared to an average cow of 14 DIM 1st lactation.
The parameter with the highest deviation (worst parameter) will be maintained for health report.
SCC
Somatic Cell count is measured by MQCC 2. The last SCC is considered for the health report. SCC chronic is not considered in Health Report.
Temperature
The MQC measures the temperature on 4 quarters but only the highest temperature is sent to Horizon. The last temperature is considered for the health report. <37,5 isn’t considered due to unreliability. The algorithm also looks to the location average (herd correction). This can prevent false positives and the influences of hot weather.
Fat protein ratio
The fat protein ratio is to help detect ketosis. It is calculated by dividing fat over protein and measured for cows only between 5 and 100 days in lactation. This is because before 5 days the information is unreliable due to colostrum and after 100 days is the chance of ketosis smaller (minimize the chances of false positives alarms).
Rest feed
Rest feed is the amount the cow isn’t allowed to eat anymore. It is evaluated for only lactating cows and compared against her given credit. Note: Rest feed is not what is left in the bin.
Health treatment analysis
Treatment plan
Using treatment plans offers the opportunity to use analysis tools to get insights into the applied health treatments. It helps to work following standardized protocols; the milk and meat withhold are automatically calculated. It helps to minimize the risk of forgotten steps. Once a treatment is saved into Horizon it saves time when entering actions. The application requires just a pair of clicks. When the farmers use the health treatment plan then they will have the analysis possibilities.
Health treatment analysis
The health treatment analysis can help to look for possible relation or common factors by crossing results from different filters. In the health treatment analysis, the results can be split by 5 groups:
Disease category
Disease name
Treatment plans
Animal type (n. Lactation)
Lactation stage
Dry off
A good dry off management is essential for a good future lactation. The goals are:
Recover from past lactation
Prepare for upcoming lactation
At dry off, antibiotics are often used in one of these methods:
Blanket dry off cow therapy: preventive antibiotic intramammary injections + teat sealer for all cows at dry off.
Selective dry off cow therapy: just teat sealer (and eventual alternative products), antibiotic administration only for cows at higher mastitis risk
Dry off alert
The dry off alert is aimed to help the farmer to identify which cows require more attention at the time of dry off. It isn’t always possible to have an overview of which cows are more susceptible to udder health issues and require more attention when dried off. Optimized use of antibiotics for curative reason
Reduced treatment costs
Reduced risk of antibiotic resistance
The model only considers cows which are in the dry off task. It looks to the SCC, conductivity and health treatments in the last 60 lactation days. When the averages of the last 60 days is exceeding the threshold, the cow will show up with an alert in the dry off task.
Dry off treatment analysis
The dry off treatment analysis is a tool to get insights in effectiveness of applied dry off treatments. It gives a possibility to compare different dry off treatments. The applied treatments are separated in different groups regarding the effectiveness:
Low: SCC before dry off and after calving lower than 250.
Improved: SCC before dry off higher than 250 and after calving lower than 250.
Still high: SCC before dry off and after calving higher than 250.
Worse: SCC before dry off lower than 250 and after calving higher than 250.
The treatments are separated by treatment plan, lactation number (1, 2 and 3+), number of cows and the averages SCC before dry off.
Q&A
Q: The geo mean is it not the average last 3 milkings with a sample - last 3 milkings can vary depending on if farmer has chosen SMART sampling or sample all milkings?
A: The number of SCC in report 12 and 23 is the geometric mean of the last 3 milkings. The reason for this is to adjust small carry of effects of previous milked cows in the same robot. If the farmer has smart sampling this number will be calculated on the last 3 sampled milkings.
Q: What happens if the limit is 20% and 4 teats increase by 5% every day?
A: In that case there won't be any attention. Unless the absolute value exceeds the threshold of default set at 100. Please use the Conductivity stimulation calcul
ator to check whether there should be an alert in report 23. Please keep in mind that for report 12 there should also be an deviation in milk to shop up.
Q: How long do we consider that the cow is in colostrum phase? Is it related to the days that the colostrum is separated, or is it a fixed time?
A: The milk in the first days in lactation is colostrum phase, this can be set in Horizon. Manage -> General milking -> Colostrum (Day). Or when entering a calving, the farmer can set the colostrum waiting date. Default set on 3 days.
Q: Maybe we can do some small adjustment regarding slide from KU; report 12 and milk separation - since we can change settings in Horizon to display or not to display manual separation [M]?
Q: Do we also plan to have an acidosis advice?
A: We do not have this now.
Q: Will the dry off threshold in future be adjustable for the farmer, - 250 seem too high for preventive strategy in 1st lactation cows.
A: At this moment we do not have that on the roadmap. Thank you for the input.
Remark: If dry off treatments are coming in from a third party, it'll show as 'No treatment'.
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