Mike’s trip to Barcelona dairy farms

“I was lucky enough to be invited on a HIPRA trip to Spain recently to look at their vaccine manufacturing facility near Barcelona. As part of the trip, we also visited one of the local dairy farms and had an interesting insight into dairying in this part of Spain.”

Catalonia is situated in the north-west of Spain and is a region associated more with vineyards than dairy farms!

By Spanish standards the region is warm with moderate rainfall but it felt like our summer when I was there at the beginning of April.

The farm we visited is a member of a local cooperative supplying milk to both liquid and cheese producing markets. The current milk price was 32 cents per litre (28 ppl) but the farm is in the process of organic conversion – the organic price is currently 60 cents per litre (52 ppl)!

There were 210 cows on the unit, being milked twice daily and averaging 34 L / cow / day. The cows are housed all year round and fed a mixture of zero grazed grass, maize, grass silage and lucerne – bought in feed was minimal but did include a soya blend. The move to organic is going to mean the cows will be grazed at least 2 hours every day.

The milkers were cubicle housed on straw bedding and fed a TMR once daily – there were no OOP feeders or in parlour feeding. There were 2 cow groups based on days in milk and a separate milking heifer group. Dry cows and in calf heifers were on loose bedding and fed a dry cow TMR.

Mastitis rates were low although the farm has started to vaccinate against mastitis as environmental e-coli type mastitis has been an issue in the past. The farmer now performs on-farm milk culturing of mastitis cases and no longer treats certain types of mastitis with antibiotics.

The aim is to calve heifers at 24 months and the farm is now using a mix of sexed Holstein semen and Aberdeen Angus semen across the herd. The market for Holstein bull calves continues to shrink.

Heat stress is a major issue in this region and the farm has recently installed a sprinkler system alongside fans to try and combat this. Fertility is a huge challenge during the summer and the annual number of services per conception is 2.7; worse in summer. The farm was on weekly vet visits and synch programs are used to drive submission rates.

The farm is now using automated body condition scoring technology to monitor individual cow performance – this helps identify individual problem cows but also helps to highlight trends across groups of cows.

On the vet side of things there were some interesting differences between Spain and the UK. The farmer’s vet is not allowed to sell prescription meds – instead they issue prescriptions to the farmer who buys them through a local pharmacy. The veterinary services are paid on a set monthly contract, this includes fertility work, herd health planning and call outs. The farm also uses a vet for herd nutrition and an external veterinary consultant for milk quality.

There is a strong focus on profitability, including annual costings and benchmarking all farms within the co-op.

Alongside this, the farm tries to engage with the local community and consumers by encouraging school visits and having regular open days on weekends.

Mike

Our thoughts on Calving Gates

As more clients are installing calving gates on their farms we thought it might be useful to share our thoughts on them….

QUICK-RELEASE YOKE – a yoke allows one person to safely and quickly calve a cow but it is vital it is a quick release design as a cow will choke to death within minutes if she becomes trapped in a yoke.

RUMP CHAIN – most setups have a chain that attaches behind the cow’s rump. It is a good idea to include some baler twine where the chain attaches to another gate / steel ring. If the cow goes down or sits on the chain, this can be easily cut.

POSITIONING – make sure there is enough room behind the cow to use a long calving jack. In addition, positioning the calving gate against another gate rather than a wall facilitates easier use of the calving jack.

CAESAREANS – most calving gates allow good access for the vet if a caesarean is needed, through either a separate smaller caesarean gate or using removable bars. We are big fans of these!

CALF ACCESS – the gate needs to be hung high enough to allow a calf to suckle even when there is a build-up of straw. Some gates are slanted at the bottom to facilitate calf access, others have a separate section that opens for this purpose.

If you would like to speak to a member of the Farm Team, please call 01772 861300

Mobility Scoring

Early identification and prompt treatment is one of the cornerstones of lameness control within the Healthy Feet Programme. Numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of early treatment and we would all accept that treating a lame cow sooner rather than later can only be a good thing.

However, treatment of these early onset cases of lameness is often delayed as other cows get prioritised at the foot trimming visit. For instance, chronic score 3 cows, acute score 3 cases and dry off trims generally make up the bulk of the cows presented to the foot trimmer, rather than the score 2 cows.

Early identification and prompt treatment often requires no extra capital investment and can make a huge difference to the number of lame cows in as little as 6 months.

There are also significant long term benefits as lameness leads to chronic bony changes in the hoof, which in turn predisposes cows to repeat lameness events in subsequent lactations.

Mobility scoring has often been seen as an unwelcome paperwork exercise imposed by outside agencies. On the other hand, we feel that monthly mobility scoring to generate treatment lists is extremely beneficial and can be a very cost effective way to tackle lameness in your herd.

We offer monthly mobility scoring through our Vet Tech service.

These visits often coincide with milking and the data is recorded through our on-farm software App.

We can then generate treatment lists for you or your foot trimmer. In addition, we can also add the results from the foot trimming records back into the software.

This allows us to monitor lameness levels, lesion prevalence and treatment success over time.

For more information about our Vet Tech Service, please call 01772 861300

Neonatal Lamb Care

Lambing time is the most crucial part of the year for making your sheep business profitable. Lamb deaths from birth to 3 days old should be less than 7% however many farms range between 10- 25%.

A major factor influencing mortality in neonate (young) lambs is ewe body condition; as this directly relates to lamb body weight, colostrum quality and quantity. It is therefore important to ensure ewes are at BCS 2.5 to 3.0, (so vertebral spinous processes only felt with pressure and transverse processes only felt with hard pressure), and they are on a rising plane of nutrition in the run up to lambing. Energy and protein blood profiles can be taken 2 to 3 weeks before lambing to ensure ewes are receiving the correct nutrition to help reduce cases of twin lamb disease.

Another major cause of neonatal mortality is watery mouth. These lambs typically are lethargic, salivate and have a distended abdomen. It is caused by Ecoli and picked up by ingestion. Treatment involves electrolytes and antibiotics but is often hopeless. Therefore the emphasis should be on prevention which involves keeping pens clean, (especially towards the end of the season), dipping navels with strong iodine and ensuring all lambs get enough good quality colostrum quickly. See below:

Always ensure colostrum is…

QUALITY

Ensure ewes in good BCS, if you’re uncertain as to the quality of colostrum; colostrum quality can be measured using a refractometer: aim for specific gravity >1.05. Only use sheep colostrum replacement (colostrum from a milking sheep farm will usually be better quality than powdered colostrum); cow colostrum can cause a fatal anaemia. Also remember to give your Clostridial and Pasteurella vaccine four to six weeks before lambing to ensure the lambs receive antibodies against these diseases. (Any ewes that haven’t had this vaccine before will need a course of two injections four to six weeks apart).

QUANTITY

200ml/kg within 18 hours of birth, with a maximum of 50ml/kg intake on each occasion.

Remember lambs in adverse weather conditions will require more colostrum or milk as more energy from their feed will be used to keep them warm.

QUICKLY

Within 2 hours of birth.

SQUEAKY CLEAN

Ensure ewe udders are clean and dry and the equipment to mix and administer colostrum is cleaned and disinfected between lambs.

QUANTIFY

We can also look if your lambs have received enough colostrum by blood testing any less than a week old.

Finally, there is continual pressure on antibiotic use. So to ensure we don’t end up with a world full of super bugs we need to be careful how we use antibiotics. Preventative use of antibiotics, such as blanket use of Spectam or Betamox LA for watery mouth needs to be reduced as this will actively select for resistance and there is pressure from Red Tractor Assurance to reduce this practice.

We recommend only using antibiotics….

- Towards the end of the lambing season, when the sheds have a build up of Ecoli.

- In triplets, when their ewe may have poorer quality and quantity of colostrum

In lambs from ewes in poorer condition, as the quality and quantity of colostrum will be poorer.

Also remember entropion, where the lamb’s eyelid is inverted causing the eye to be held shut, tear staining and damage to the eye. This is a heritable condition so affected lambs should not be kept as replacements, ewes should not be used to breed replacements and consider ram choice if a large percent of flock are affected.

If you have any questions regarding lamb care, please contact the Oakhill Farm Team.

Mastitis in ewes

Mastitis in ewes can be fatal and usually results in the end of her productive life.

The usual presentation is acute gangrenous mastitis (blue or black bag) usually caused by either Staphylococcus Aureus or Mannheimia Haemolytica. S. Aureus is normally present on the teat skin but damage to the teat ends allows it access into the teat canal and causes mastitis.

M. Haemolytica is present in the tonsils of lambs so colonises the udder during suckling. The bacteria produces toxins which prevent blood flow and cause the udder to turn blue/black hence the name. This often occurs around peak lactation (three to six weeks post-lambing) and the initial clinical signs may be as subtle as a ewe looking lame or a lamb bleating because it’s hungry. The disease then rapidly progresses.

The risk factors include:

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Under feeding ewes round lambing or ewes in poor condition, as lambs to these ewes will cross suckle or create teat lesions by over suckling.
Damaged teat end or Orf on teats
Lumps in the udder
Lambing inside (the longer the time spent inside the greater the risk of developing mastitis)
Dirty, wet pens and dirty hands when handling udder/ underneath of sheep
Harsh, cold weather

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Treatment is unlikely to save the udder but may save the ewe’s life:

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Remove lambs from the ewe and ideally artificially rear as rearing these lambs on another ewe may spread the mastitis
Antibiotic injectable AND non-steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Loxicom
A ewe that has had mastitis will be more likely to get fly strike so preventative fly treatment is essential.
There is a vaccine against S. Aureus available; VIMCO. This has to be given three and five weeks pre-lambing. Most of the trial work has been done in dairy ewes and it is licenced to reduce to the incidence of subclinical mastitis. Potentially this could also help to reduce the incidence and severity of black bag in your flock however at the moment there is limited evidence to prove this.

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If you have any questions regarding mastitis in your flock, please contact our Farm Vet Team.

Extended liver fluke season and climate change

Fascioliasis

An important stage of the Liver fluke life cycle takes place in mud snails and requires wet and warm conditions (above 7 – 10°C) during the summer months. Over the last couple of years unseasonal weather has seen these conditions well into autumn and winter. This means that sheep and cattle are still being infected later in the season and more frequent testing and treatment may be required.

Fascioliasis can have a serious financial impact on a sheep farm with immediate losses up to 10 per cent caused by acute/subacute disease. Chronic disease could half profits by reducing lamb crop and increasing ewe mortality. Lack of treatment in cattle will lead to reduced growth and yields and discarded milk if treatment is no targeted.

We recommend testing your sheep and cattle for the presence of Liver fluke. Treatment needs to be targeted at your flock/herd and will vary from farm to farm. Please discuss your individual requirements with your vet to develop a treatment plan for the coming months.

BVD -STAMP IT OUT

A new initiative has been launched to help farmers in England tackle BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea).

It is currently estimated that BVD costs British farmers up to £60million/year, reducing productivity and profitability as a result of poor growth rates, poor health with increased pneumonia and diarrhoea, reduced fertility with higher rates of foetal death. Rigorous testing of the herd is vital to help eradicate the disease from the unit.

BVD FACT
The estimated cost of BVD is between £13 and £31 per cow in Great Britain.

The £5.7 million funding package from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) is managed by SAC consulting and is the largest BVD project launched in England. Farmers will be able to apply for free on farm health planning for BVD control. Keepers of breeding cattle will be eligible for the scheme, which will help to assess the BVD status of the herd and develop a control plan.

After attending the first meeting a one to one on farm visit will be undertaken to carry out a check test on the herd. If the results indicate active infection then a follow up visit will be arranged to develop a customised action plan which may include further testing (PI hunt). The overall aim will be to reduce, eliminate or prevent BVD within the herd.

Beef & Youngstock – Housing Considerations

We have experienced a drier summer than we are used to and this has posed different challenges. Worm burdens have been greatly reduced on pasture over the summer however if we get a heavy rainfall following this dry period there is likely to be mass emergence of worms onto pasture which may have severe consequences for our livestock if left untreated.

Exposure to lungworm may also have been reduced over the summer and so we would advise watching out for or listening to cattle to see if they are coughing over the next few months and treating if necessary. Lungworm can cause significant respiratory disease and death in cattle and should not be overlooked in any grazed stock. Where cattle have been grazed for extended periods the use of long acting anthelmintic bolus activity may have worn off and further treatment may be necessary.

Testing for Lungworm larvae can be done on a faecal sample however is slightly different to a normal worm egg count. If you would like to check grazed stock for Lungworm please submit a faecal sample stating that you require Lungworm testing.

Bringing in cattle from markets, other farms or common grazing can introduce new diseases to your own farm, including parasites such as liver fluke. Liver fluke is a common parasite that infects cattle, sheep and other domestic animals as well as wildlife such as deer and rabbits. Following several wet years monitoring, testing and treating for liver fluke early is also recommended during this year.

Resistance of liver fluke to treatments, in particular products containing triclabendazole (TCBZ), appears to be an increasing problem and one that needs managing on all livestock farms. It is important that care is taken to reduce selection pressure for resistance whenever possible by only using triclabendazole-containing products when no other options are suitable. Other medicines which contain the active ingredients, closantel, clorsulon, nitroxynil, oxyclozanide and albendazole are effective against adult flukes and some (nitroxynil and closantel) are effective against late immature stages between seven and eight weeks old.

If treating now or immediately on housing we would recommend using a Triclabendazole product but if cattle are housed for 7 weeks or more, one of the other products is often more suitable. Please speak to us about testing or when to treat.

Embryo Transfer

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?

Cows should be cycling normally, showing regular heats every 21 – 24 days.
Cows should be vet-checked to make sure there is no uterine damage and no ovarian problems such as cystic ovaries.
Cows should be clean with no uterine discharge.
Ideally cows should be in reasonable body condition and good health. Chronically lame or high SCC cows are not ideal candidates!

What is the procedure?

Cow AI’d as normal. Arrange vet visit for 7 days later.
Cow examined prior to implanting the embryo.
We administer an epidural as this facilitates the procedure and should improve success rates.
Embryo implanted and cow scanned 5 weeks later to check if successful.

Maximising success rates in embryo transfer
These are some suggestions when dealing with embryo recipients.

Maiden heifers make the best recipients: they have higher conception rates.
Cows can be used providing they have a good body condition score, and they are clean and cycling.
Embryos can be put in to heifers that were bulling 6, 7 or 8 days previously. The highest conception rates are likely to be achieved 7 days after a heat.
A good reference heat is vital to the success of the transfer.
Reference heats can be a natural observed heat or synchronised induced heats.
Included heats (i.e. Following a CIDR and prostaglandin programme) work equally well providing good heat detection is undertaken.
A wrong or inaccurate heat observation will mean no pregnancy as these recipients are not synchronised with the donor cow.
Avoid feeding changes to the recipient group for four to six weeks either side of transfers. Try to keep the diet consistent.
Knowing the trace element history of your farm is important.
Grass variation and grass silage variation can affect conception rates.

NADIS- Disease Alert: Farm

Wooden tongue and Lumpy jaw are both sporadic causes of mouth problems in cattle which may be associated with feeding stalky hay.

wooden tongue lumpy jaw