As always, the care of your pets remains our priority.
Our exciting developments will provide enhanced facilities, including new dedicated reception areas and consultation rooms, along with a brand new dispensary.
If you’d like to know more, please ask a member of the Oakhill Team.
In January, I headed over to Indiana, Indianapolis as part of a trip organised by Elanco to visit some dairy farms in the surrounding area. 6 vets and 6 farmers from across the UK attended, visiting 7 dairy farms followed by a day of lectures at Elanco HQ covering dairy economics and the American dairy industry.
We saw a variety of farms during the week from 250 cows to 15,000 spread over 5 adjacent farms, 
though most were around 1200 cows. Rainfall was similar to Lancashire with farms receiving 60” rain a year but had temperatures of 35+°C to deal with in summer. All units milked 3 times a day and yields varied from 36-43 kg/day. Nutrition obviously played a role in this yield, diets were very consistent; maize and alfalfa based. However, all farmers cited improvements to cow comfort as the major reason for increase in yield and this had become central to any decisions made to the cow environment, in one case they had improved from 30 to 40kg by moving into a new cow building and onto sand bedding.
However, increasing stocking density on one farm to 110% to prepare for expansion had reduced yield by 3kg/cow. Sand was the predominant bedding system and was reclaimed using a sand lane system where the slurry was effectively washed repeatedly in a channel, the gradient of the channel meant that the sand settled out and could be removed before being reused after around 6 weeks.
Did you know?
There are currently 9.4 million dairy cows in the US with 1.8 million in California, average herd size is 232 with smaller farms found on the east coast where farming would be more similar to the UK. By 2025 50% of milk production is expected to come from farms >1000 cows. Average yield is predicted to increase by 1.9%/year for the next 10 years mainly from technological advances. The liquid market in the US is in slight decline but the market is mainly thought to be driven by cheese squares for burgers!
All farms had cooling systems for the cows consisting of fans and soakers, often in the UK we only think of 
temperatures getting hot enough to use these systems for a few days in the summer. However, fans switched on at 15-18°C and soakers at 21°C, with farmers reporting a clear benefit at these temperatures.
Whilst we don’t see the extreme heat where these systems really benefit cows, we certainly have many days high teens/early 20’s and we often see fertility dropping off across the practice during these periods.
During the trip we had the opportunity to visit a large robot farm, 36 robots housed under one roof! The cows were grouped in 180’s with 3 robots to each group, averaging 36kg/day. The shed was ventilated using 100 fans situated down one side of the shed drawing air through. The unit cost roughly $7000/stall to build and he plans to install another 12 robots in the next few years. The calf rearing part of the enterprise was even more impressive. Calves were reared in groups of 60 on automatic feeders and used whole milk with a protein supplement, at 3 weeks they were drinking 13 litres on average and were 120kg bodyweight at 9 weeks of age.
Control of disease was helped by only having a 5 day spread of age in the groups. Heifers calved at 21 months at 535kg.
Most farms had heifers reared off farm from a few months of age to allow them to utilise the farm for more cows, one farm sent calves 1200 miles to Texas at 3 days old for rearing. A strong emphasis on all farms was also placed on fertility and heifer rearing. Preg rate was the main metric used to monitor performance with farms all aiming for 20%+. Good fertility and calf performance allowed farms to more selective with culling and have a more productive/profitable herd, cull rates ran at 35-40%. Attention to detail set the better farms apart with each process on farm assessed to see if there was a more efficient way.
One interesting feature on the largest farm Fair Oaks was the visitor centre, attracting 600,000 visitors a year, as part of the farm tour they had a glass fronted calving gallery where there was always a cow calving visitors could watch!
Ovarian cysts are very common in middle-aged to older female guinea pigs and can cause problems such as pain, inappetence, interference with mobility and hair loss. Sweep did not have hair loss with her cysts and she continued to eat well, but they were so large that they were taking up a lot of space in her abdomen and causing her to have difficulty moving around.
Hormonal treatments had been tried for Sweep in the past with limited success and it was advised that she be spayed in order to definitively treat the condition and prevent recurrence. Spaying involves removal of both ovaries and the uterus under anaesthesia. Because Sweep’s cysts were very large, they had to be drained before the ovaries could be removed!
Sweep recovered very well following her operation and was soon back at home with her friends and her very dedicated owners, who report a significant improvement in her movement and activity. She was a perfect patient (especially when veggies were involved!) and it was a pleasure to look after her during her stay in the clinic and at her check-ups.
Easter
With bank holidays, chocolates and hopefully warmer weather, Easter is often a good time to relax. For people with dogs, this time of year is also great for long walks, but Easter can be potentially more dangerous to dogs due to the amount of chocolate involved.
Dogs like to get their paws on any food in sight, and unfortunately chocolate is one of these foods. However chocolate is toxic to our dogs. Dogs should never be given chocolate, or have access to any, this includes those hidden gems on a Easter egg hunt.
If you set up an Easter egg hunt for your children in your home or garden, make sure that you know where they’re all hidden. It’s easy to hide lots of eggs and forget about where some of them are hidden, but your dogs nose will find them easy enough. If possible, places all chocolates and eggs on the Easter egg hunt in Tupperware or boxes to prevent your dog finding them before the kids.
It’s not just the chocolate eggs that you should keep an eye on either! Boiled eggs can cause an upset stomach and constipation in your pet, especially if they eat the shells as well. If a dog consumes an egg whole, surgery may be needed to keep it from blocking the intestinal tract.
Plastic eggs pose as serious risk as well, mainly because if consumed they can’t be digested. While it may be possible for it to pass through the digestive system, it can also get stuck and cause damage requiring surgery.
Flowers
Daffodils are usually a great indication that spring has finally arrived as they’re prolific around spring / Easter time.
While dogs don’t usually pay attention to them, the bulbs of the Daffodil can be toxic if ingested. This is important if your dog likes to dig around the garden and uproot your flower garden.
Lilies are very popular around Easter, however every part of the lily is highly toxic to pets especially cats. Easter lilies and other lilies can be toxic to cats, causing kidney failure and death. All parts of the lily can be toxic, and eating just one leaf can result in severe poisoning. If you think your cat has eaten a lily, contact your vet immediately.
Other foods
Chocolate isn’t the only food your dog needs to avoid, other popular Easter food like Simnel cake and other Easter cakes / food like Hot Cross Buns usually contain raisins and sultanas, both of which are toxic to dogs, along with other products of the grape family. Therefore, do not let your dog have a bite of these foods as a treat.
Easter grass, like holiday tinsel, can be tempting to pets and dangerous if ingested causing intestinal trouble. The long, thin strings can cause “intussusception”, a bunching-up of the intestines, which requires surgery.
Check out our fact sheet below, or you can click here to download it.
Good fertility management is a key component of successful dairy herd management. Improving herd fertility allows you to sell more milk per year and also reduces the number of cows being involuntarily culled for fertility problems.
The associated costs of poor fertility are highly significant and include:
There are a huge number of factors that influence herd fertility ranging from herd nutrition, infectious disease control, lameness etc. However there are some ‘fertility specific’ areas we can also focus on to improve herd performance. These might include:
We also recommend setting aside some time on a quarterly basis to study fertility performance. These visits allow us to look at what changes we can make to improve fertility and also to quantify any improvements we have made since the previous review. Setting simple targets such as the ‘Number of Cows In-Calf Per Month’ can really help everyone in the farm team focus on improving herd fertility.
Embryo transfer- repeat breeder embryos (‘cow stoppers’)
What is a Problem Breeder Cow?
Cows that have had three or more services at regular (21-24 day) intervals and that are still not in calf.
What treatments can we use to treat problem breeders?
Problem Breeder Embryos – implanting a beef cross embryo 7 days after service in problem repeat breeder cows improved pregnancy rates by over 20% according to a recent UK study.
How does implanting an embryo help?
By implanting a second embryo into the cows’ uterus the strength of the hormonal signals within the cow are doubled and so the likelihood of the cow reabsorbing the embryo(s) is reduced.
What cows would make good Embryo Transfer candidates?
What is the procedure?
Maximising success rates in embryo transfer
These are some suggestions when dealing with embryo recipients.
Lameness
Healthy feet programme
An understanding of which types of lameness are present, coupled with a structured approach to tackle the underlying causes is required to tackle lameness effectively.
The AHDB Dairy Healthy Feet Programme is a structured approach which will help make important progress towards diagnosing the problems, devising an action plan, and develop the skills necessary for long-term lameness control. The approach is based around the ‘four success factors’ – Low infection pressure – Good horn quality and hoof shape – Low forces on the feet – Good cow comfort and cow flow – Early detection and prompt, effective treatment of lame cows
Foot trimming training days
We offer hoof trimming training days that cover the 5-step foot trimming technique, recognition, treatment and prevention of foot lesions in cattle. Watch out for announcements about our foot trimming courses.
Our next foot trimming April 5th, to book onto the 1 day course, please call 01772 861300 or contact farm@oakhill-vets.com.
Traditionally Liver fluke was thought to be very regional however movement of stock, changing weather patterns and ground conditions have increased the fluke risk to the whole of the UK. Lancashire has a climate that favours the snail and therefore also favours fluke transmission and increase fluke risk.
A move to housing dairy cows all year round may be thought to remove the risk of Liver Fluke from the herd, but positive bulk milk samples are still reported from zero grazing herds! Where heifers are turned out they may become infected and maintain a reservoir of infection. Where fluke is identified these animals should receive appropriate treatment. Sheep, deer, hares, geese and horses can all carry fluke and complete the lifecycle outside of the snail.
New research by the Mordun Institute has found that Metercerariae (the stage passed by the mud snail that are ingested by cattle) are very persistent and this stage of fluke can survive in silage. Heat and pH are thought to be involved in killing off the Metercerariae in most cases, but in less well fermented silage, wet silage and less acidic silage this is less so. With this in mind poorly made silage, later cuts and big bale silage pose the highest risk. Last year’s silage crops were certainly made in challenging conditions.
Further investigations into housed youngstock infections, egg survival and spread in slurry are ongoing but if you have history of fluke infections in housed cattle submitting further investigation may be useful.
Even in herds that are housed 365, there is still a risk of liver fluke. There is an inexpensive bulk milk test available, some interpretation is needed if first lactation heifers are introduced after grazing. However there is a test available (the coproantigen test) that will test for current infection to differentiate this. It is also thought that Liver fluke can survive in cattle for 2 years.
Due to the complex life cycle and products available to treat lactating cattle, treatment is often targeted at dry cows often making it difficult to treat the correct animals at the correct stage of infection. Creating a testing and treatment plan with your vet is the best course of action on an individual farm basis. Care should be taken to select appropriate treatment product for dairy cattle, flukicide residues are increasingly being detected in bulk milk samples.
Randox Foods have created an ELISA test that can detect antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and anthelmintic in milk, which is used alongside the industry standard DELVO test by DAIRY UK to detect veterinary residues in milk.
Dairy UK along with vets and other industry members have created MilkSure to decrease the likelihood of bulk tank failures due to residues. This educational tool is provided by your veterinarian and involves a training course, risk assessment and online exam.
Katherine is our trained MilkSure vet and is on hand to answer any questions relating to this, feel free to email us with any enquiries to farm@oakhill-vets.com.
