Research in the field

Extract

My work during the last few years has been to some extent concerned with attempts at the control of mastitis under ordinary farming conditions, and in speaking to you today I will confine my remarks to what I consider in that particular region of experience is relevant to your tasks and interests. I make no claim to have carried out any fundamental research on the micro-organisms associated with infections of the bovine udder. My aim has been rather to apply the results of primary scientific enquiries carried out at various research centres to practical problems in the field.

It will be appreciated that conditions existing on the average farm differ in many respects from those that pertain on the farms and premises of the field stations and research centres, where a more direct, complete, and constant control can be exercised by the research worker over animal management, milking practices and general hygiene, than is possible on farms scattered over a wide country area and where the investigator must of necessity work from a position somewhat remote. Much in the way of control has to be left in these circumstances to the farmer, his herdsman and the practising veterinary surgeon. The personal element therefore, will always weigh very heavily. The test of any scheme or programme designed to control mastitis is: Can it work under such conditions and produce the desired results ? I am convinced from my own experience that it can.