This article, the second in a two‐part series on dry cow therapy, discusses practical approaches to targeting and justifying antibiotic dry cow therapy, with tips, tricks and challenges for initiating targeted/selective dry cow therapy on farm. The first part, published in the July/August issue of In Practice (Biggs 2017) described the evolution of knowledge around the dry period and provided an update on where knowledge, opinions and attitudes to antibiotic and non‐antibiotic approaches used in dry cow therapy have changed.