Electromagnetic Therapy as a Potential Tool for Improving Dairy Herd Health
A UNH–MagnaWave partnership examines pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for milk production and udder health
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
  • Two woman stand next to the rear side of a cow. Both are smiling. One woman holds a tubing around the cows back.

    COLSA assistant professor Claira Seely (left) applies the MagnaWave coils to a Jersey cow at the UNH Organic Dairy Research Farm (ODRF) while UNH animal science major Kayla Young looks on.

  • Two woman stand on the opposite of a brown and white dairy cow looking at a coil laying across the cow’s back.

    Young and Francesca Pharo, a PhD student at COLSA, apply the MagnaWave treatment to a cow at the ODRF.

  • A woman applies coils for therapy to the udders of a brown and white cow while her two students watch.

    Seely applies the pulsed electromagnetic field therapy to the cow’s udders.

Key Research Finding

Preliminary findings suggest that PEMF therapy does not negatively affect milk production in healthy, mid-lactation cows, supporting further exploration of its use for mastitis treatment.

Mastitis, a costly and pervasive condition in dairy herds, adversely affects cows’ health and reduces their milk quality and production and is estimated to cost U.S. farmers in economic losses. For small-scale conventional and organic farms, prevalent across New England, the impacts can be pronounced, given increasing veterinary care costs and the inability to use antibiotics on organically certified dairies. Scientists at the Âé¶čapp (UNH) are researching the use of non-invasive electromagnetic pulse technology to address the disease, which can have important health and economic implications for animals and humans.

, an assistant professor of precision dairy management at the , is partnering with , a private company specializing in (PEMF) therapy, to assess the safety and effectiveness of using electromagnetic pulses to enhance blood flow and reduce inflammation in dairy cows. This public–private collaboration aims to test the viability of PEMF therapy as a tool to improve milk production and, eventually, udder health.

“Collaborating with MagnaWave lets us explore tools that academia alone might not access,” said Seely. “It’s exciting to connect this technology to practical farming needs and find solutions for the industry.”

The current study, which is being conducted at the UNH , focuses on first assessing the safety and practicality of PEMF therapy, before subsequently determining its efficacy as a treatment for mastitis.

“This is a preliminary study—the cows we enrolled are all healthy and have low somatic cell counts,” said Seely. “We first want to ensure that the therapy doesn’t negatively impact milk production or make the cows feel poorly.”

Assessing Electromagnetic Therapy

Mastitis is a common infection that causes inflammation of a cow’s mammary gland. The disease can reduce nutrients like protein and lactose in milk and have the potential to cause permanent udder damage in infected cattle, . The resulting annual economic losses have been estimated to be , which often goes undetected.

According to Seely, preliminary findings from the study indicate that PEMF therapy does not negatively affect milk production. Milk yields remained consistent over a 10-day trial period across three groups of 36 lactating Jersey cows—one receiving PEMF therapy once daily, another receiving it twice daily and a control group receiving no therapy.

Additionally, cows receiving twice-daily PEMF therapy demonstrated reduced somatic cell counts (SCC)—a key marker of inflammation—during the treatment phase, suggesting potential benefits for udder health. By contrast, SCC levels in the control and once-daily therapy groups remained unchanged.

While PEMF technology has shown promise in other fields——its application in dairy farming represents a relatively new frontier. Francesca Pharo, a PhD student in UNH’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, sees this study as a valuable opportunity to integrate innovative tools into herd management practices.

“In previous research, I’ve focused on addressing complex health challenges in dairy systems,” said Pharo, who has studied issues ranging from respiratory diseases in calves to the spread of infectious diseases in dairy herds. “This partnership is exciting because it allows us to explore cutting-edge technologies and their potential to improve cow health and enhance sustainability for farmers.”

Implications for Dairy Farming

For small and organic farms, PEMF therapy could offer an alternative to costly antibiotics, particularly in organic systems where antibiotic use is prohibited. By reducing SCC levels and potentially preventing infections from worsening, PEMF therapy may help maintain cow health and sustain productivity. Beyond mastitis treatment, the technology may offer promise in aiding in recovery from other inflammatory conditions in dairy cows, such as lameness caused by hoof infections.

The next phase of the study will focus on testing PEMF therapy on cows with mastitis. Seely and Pharo will measure recovery times, assess improvements in udder health and evaluate long-term impacts on milk production.

“In applying this therapy to cows with mastitis, we want to see if there’s a reduced time to recovery or improvements in udder health when compared to untreated cows,” Seely said. “The potential to develop an alternative to antibiotics for organic dairy operations, of which there are more than 200 in New England, makes this work particularly significant.”

This material is based on work supported by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station through joint funding from the (under Hatch award numbers 1016232) and the state of New Hampshire.

Learn more about the research taking place at the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station on UNH Today.

NH Agricultural Experiment Station

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