Evaluating Wisconsin dairy producer compliance and potential eligibility for international markets under existing European Union and United States Grade “A” bulk tank somatic cell count compliance criteria

A proposal to lower the bulk tank Somatic Cell Count (SCC) maximum for United States of America (US) Grade “A” milk producers was not adopted by the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments in 2011 or 2013. The proposal would have made the US Grade “A” limit consistent with many other international standards, including that of the European Union (EU). Some US states, however, have proactively adopted their own SCC limit to mirror the EU limit. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impacts on Wisconsin dairy producers if Wisconsin should adopt the current EU limit and compliance criterion. Analyses were done on SCC results for Wisconsin Grade “A” and Grade “B” dairy producers reported each month to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (WDATCP) during January 1, 2009–December 31, 2012. Results were evaluated against the current US Grade “A” and EU compliance criteria for SCC and the percentage of (producer×month) combinations in compliance was determined. If the current EU SCC compliance criterion was in place, 86.7–94.3 and 64.3–77.3% of Wisconsin Grade “A” and “Grade “B” (producer×month) combinations, respectively, would have been in compliance for the years 2009–2012. Compliance of Wisconsin Grade “A” and Grade “B” producers with the existing US SCC compliance criterion during the same period was 99.3–99.7% and 87.9–93.9% (producer×month combinations) respectively. An analysis of a subset of Wisconsin Grade “A” producers indicated that smaller-volume producers were less likely than larger-volume producers to meet the EU criterion.