Teat-Mate and Once A Day Milking

In four years, Chris Lethbridge’s bright idea for a saline-based teat spray for cows has been researched, formulated, trialed, approved and put on the market, after featuring in the 2014 National Agricultural Fieldays as a new product innovation by a dairy farmer.

Chris and Pauline Lethbridge (and now their daughter Christie) are dairying at Hukerunui, north of Whangarei, on 120ha milking platform plus 20ha run-off. They are stocked at 3 cows per hectare and run a split herd, on once-a-day (OAD) milking.

They run 360 cows and target production of 110,000kg milksolids annually. They adopted OAD milking primarily to maximise net profit, but with the associated benefits of better reproductive performance and animal health. However there are some issues with OAD on animal health, being mainly higher rates of mastitis and drier cow teats. Cows can have the cups on up to 10 mins or 600 pulsations and are prone to cowpox and cracked teats, which can be aggravated by weather and injuries and lead to mastitis. For an OAD herd, a teat spray with a higher rate of glycerine needs to last 24 hours between milkings.

Chris was concerned about cow teat condition with OAD milking and needed an effective teat spray which lasted 24 hours. He knew that saline solution does an effective anti-bacterial job and that hospitals have now moved away from iodine-based sanitisers. But for many years, the only teat sprays on the market in NZ had iodine and chlorhexidine with surfactants, which are now presenting some residue issues in the Chinese market for dairy products.

Chris asked his friends John and Amanda Hawken, both scientists, whether his idea of a teat spray with saline as an active ingredient would work. John said that he couldn’t see any issues around chemical incompatibility of the ingredients.

Saline (salt) has three modes of anti-microbial action: removing water from the bacterial and fungal cells by osmosis; disrupting the biochemistry of enzymes and attacking the DNA. Chris thought a formulation containing aloe vera would prove to be effective, so the formulation of aloe vera, saline, and with a higher rate of glycerine as an emollient was created. Aloe vera is a potent anti-inflammatory containing salicylic acid (aspirin) that is also anti-itch and analgesic (pain killing). It is also a natural surfactant.

Once the formulation was settled, the Lethbridge/Hawken partnership (trading under the name Beulah AgriPharm) applied for Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) approval. This took three years and was finally granted in December 2013. All teatsprays must be ACVM approved. Chris said approval would have been faster if Teat-Mate had the usual ingredients, e.g. iodine, chlohexidine and surfactants, because it would have been a copy of other products already on the market. “The field is crowded with copies, while this is the first new formulation and mode of action in years.”

The testing established nil residues in the normal Fonterra supplier milk-testing regime.

Teat-Mate is close to getting organic certification, although that was not the sole target in development, and would also be very good for raw milk marketers.

Chris has used nothing else on farm for the past three years and has seen first-hand how Teat-Mate has reduced all teat sores and injuries and his use of penicillin has also reduced considerably.

The market for teat sprays is believed to be $80 to $100 million annually. Chris and John say there is considerable interest among dairy farmers who have heard of the new product. They have marketed with pre-orders on their website and gained the opportunity to allow customers to charge Teat-Mate purchases to their RD1 and Farmlands cards, with free delivery to their closest RD1 or Farmlands store.

Teat-Mate will be sold in 20-litre, 200-litre and 1000-litre containers. It is a concentrate and the recommended water dilution rate is one-in-five, i.e. one litre of Teat-Mate to four litres of water. Chris and John say the prices will be competitive with other formulations and affordable. “I believe farmers will be getting a premium spray at a mid-market price,” Chris said. Another benefit with Teat-Mate is that it doesn’t foam like iodine products.

The partners have other ideas in development with more products to come, using Chris’ drive to find simpler and better ways of doing tasks on dairy farms, and solving problems that will make farmers’ lives easier.

After Fieldays Chris will step back from milking on the Hukerunui dairy farm where daughter Christie will take over, as he goes into business with Beulah AgriPharm.

The partners believe Teat-Mate has a global market, but they want it to remain Kiwi made. Manufacturing is done by Jaychem, East Tamaki, Auckland, a Bio-Gro certified manufacturer.