Spring grass is attractive as a low cost feed for dairy cows. But how do we manage high yielding herds that wish to graze?

The first question is what cows are suitable for grazing? Dry cows (both far-off and close-up) and early lactation cows are often much easier to manage on a housed diet. Mid and late lactation cows are often the best candidates for grazing – safely back in calf and past peak milk production.

Spring grass has a high crude protein content and often drives excessive body condition loss in early lactation cows. This can have a negative knock-on effect on future health & fertility and increase the likelihood of these cows being culled.

Buffer feeding around turnout is essential – this will naturally happen as cows will be housed at night after milking but to drive intakes, introducing the buffer TMR before milking can be very beneficial.

In wet conditions, bring cows back in after 3 – 4 hours at grass. This protects the grassland and cows will generally have eaten 80 – 90% of their grass allowance at this stage.

Remember to check what the cows are telling you? Monitor rumen fill and dung consistency, look out for cud balls and check milk fats and proteins to ensure cows are happy and productive!

We are thrilled to announce that we have plans for a new purpose-built farm building. Our practice has expanded significantly in all sectors since we started off in the original building many, many years ago, and our farm department in particular was in need of more space.

The building will include a surgical suite, laboratory and large meeting room as well as a farm-only reception area and dispensary. We look forward to welcoming you into our new home!

We recently diagnosed Salmonella Dublin on a farm which was experiencing an increase in the number of sick cows, abortions, calf scour and pneumonia and calf mortality. We had been suspicious of Salmonella for some time. A bulk tank test showed moderate levels of exposure, but we had not been able to isolate the bacteria on farm to confirm it was active and determine which Salmonella species was involved.

A sick cow presented with severe diarrhoea and dehydration which despite aggressive treatment died. A faecal sample was taken from which Salmonella Dublin was isolated.

Salmonella Dublin is one of the most common cow-adapted strains of Salmonella. Several other strains may also be isolated in cattle and it is important to determine which strain is present. Cattle can become carriers of Salmonella Dublin and shed the bacteria intermittently, particularly during periods of stress such as calving. This often leads to disease being seen primarily in the calves.

Many of the control measures implemented around calving to control Johne’s disease are effective in reducing the transmission of Salmonella. Maintaining a clean hygienic calving environment is particularly important. The frequency of cleaning out and disinfecting the calving pens was increased and a new policy of removing calves from their dams as soon as possible was adopted.

The herd was vaccinated including the in-calf heifers. The primary course consists of two-doses given at a three-week interval followed by an annual booster. In addition to the improvements to calving management, vaccination greatly reduced the incidence of disease, which was quickly noticeable in the calves.

It’s not every day you come across an animal with an extra digit!

1 year old beltex gimmer lamb recently presented with an extra toe – also known as polydactyly.

Xrays were taken here at our Goosnargh practice and Oakhill Farm Vet, Amy Bowers operated to remove the extra structure. Without removal, the lamb was a risk of it getting caught and sustaining trauma.

With warmer weather comes the dreaded flies. Flies tend to start breeding
around the end of March/April time (NOW!).

Not only do flies transmit diseases such as summer Mastitis and New Forest Eye, they can negatively impact on milk production (up to 0.5L/day) and growth rates (up to 0.3kg/day) through worrying animals.

In addition, they can cause signifi cant disrupti on during milking. Early intervention is key to control fly populations on farm as fly numbers exponentially grow throughout the summer; population explosions! Females can lay anywhere from 350 to 900 eggs in their lifetime and can produce up to 12 generations in one summer.

Adult flies are only 15% of the population with the remaining 85% at the larval stage so by the time you visibly see flies their populati on has already exploded. After hatching, a female fly can lay eggs as soon as two weeks later!

Control
On farm control involves addressing flies both at source and at cow level.

The female fly will lay eggs in a warm, moist environment such as manure heaps, soiled straw, waste silage, brewers’ grains and other rotting organic matter. Particular hot spots on farm include the edge of the bedded pens and in calf housing. Calf pens are often prolific breeding areas as they have an abundance of pen edges, animals to bite, manure and milk. Focusing efforts to improve hygiene in these areas will reduce the number of available breeding sites. Applying products such as fly parasites or insect growth regulators can help depress larval progression.

In terms of treatment at cow level, pour on products are readily available. Spotinor is a pour on product with a standard 10ml dose per cow. It affords protection for 4-8 weeks pending challenge on farm. The product carries zero milk and 17 day meat withhold.

Our Vet Tech service can administer Spotinor to your animals as part of a bespoke on-farm fly control programme this summer. For £1.44/head the Vet Tech’s will visit your farm 3 ti mes over the fly season to apply the product, saving you both time and money by only paying for what you need.

In order to qualify for the Vet Tech service cattle need to be presented through a handling system or locking feed barrier. Spotinor is also available to purchase separately at a very competitive price. Please speak to the practice for further information on our competitive fly control package.

What are the effects of Nematodirus battus?

• Causes diarrhoea, weight loss, dehydration and death
• Usually in lambs eating grass at 6-12 weeks of age
• High-risk lambs are ones challenged concurrently by coccidiosis, newly weaned, triplets or had low colostrum intake
• On pasture grazed by lambs last spring
• Lamb-lamb spread, adults are immune
• A sudden cold snap followed by a warm period causes the eggs to all hatch together after over-wintering on the pasture
• The faecal egg count doesn’t rise in a flock sometimes until days-weeks after exposure as it is larval stages causing disease, so a FEC in early spring can be a false negative if clinical signs are being seen
• Acts rapidly and can cause high incidence of lamb mortality

What you can do to avoid Nematodirus affecting your flock:

• Don’t graze at-risk lambs on pasture that had lambs on last spring
• Use a white wormer (benzimidazole) and
• Check the SCOPS Nematodirus forecast https://www.scops.org.uk/forecasts/nematodirus-forecast
• Lancashire is currently low risk (as of 27/03/2020)