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Tag: dairy

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

Heat detection – is she or isn’t she?

Heat detection – is she or isn’t she?

It is well documented that modern day high yielding cows express heat with a lower intensity and duration. The reduced intensity of heat expression and subtle expression of secondary signs of heat may lead to uncertainty over an animal’s heat status, particularly if the cow has returned at an irregular interval.

Studies have shown that around 10% of cows are served when they have high progesterone (not truly in heat). Interservice interval data may give a clue as to whether heat detection is accurate on farm; high percentages at 25-35 days and particularly at 1-17 day intervals generally warrants further investigation to rule out heat detection inaccuracy on farm.

Insemination of cows that are not in heat will inevitably reduce the apparent conception rate on farm. Inaccurate heat detection is not only associated with a waste of semen but can lead to pregnancy loss in around 17% of inseminated pregnant animals. Approximately 6% of cows show overt signs of heat despite being pregnant. A quick way to confirm that a cow is not in heat is to use a milk progesterone test, cow side progesterone tests are available that can be used on farm for around £3/cow. High progesterone indicates that the cow is not in heat.

For further advice, please contact the Oakhill Farm Vet Team on 01772 861300

 

 

Red Tractor Farms: Responsible use of antibiotics.

If you are farm assured with Red Tractor, certain antibiotic products such as kelacyl, cobactan, naxcel, baytril, cevaxcel, marbocyl, are now restricted. If you use these products you could receive a non-conformance at your next Red Tractor inspection. Therefore we now recommend only using this product if there is culture and sensitivity to prove that it’s the only product that works for the health condition.

As of the 1st June 2018 the use of Highest Priority Critically Important antibiotics must be a last resort and their use must be under the direction of a vet, backed up by sensitivity or diagnostic testing.

Please find below further information regarding recent Red Tractor changes…..

DAIRY FARMS

As a Red Tractor dairy farm, you are now required to undertake an annual review of antibiotics with your vet, but what does this involve?….

Medicine records must provide an annual collation of total antibiotic used for the unit

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  • Antibiotics collated by product name;
  • Collation either by your vet from prescription data or completed by farmer from medicine records;

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An annual review of antibiotics used must be undertaken by your vet

Your vet review will…

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  • Include review of medicines and antibiotic purchase and use, including antibiotic collation;
  • Includes discussion on the use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIAs)
  • Include review of any antibiotic failures;
  • Include recommendation for responsible reduction of antibiotic use where possible, in particular, in relation to HP-CIAs
  • Review overall use of dry cow therapy and protocols and where appropriate make recommendations for selective antibiotic use

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Review can form part of the Vet Health and Performance Review.

Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics must only be used as a last resort under veterinary direction

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  • HP-CIAs are defined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and colistin
  • Use is supported by a vet report outlining one or more of the following:
    – Sensitivity testing
    – Diagnostic testing

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BEEF & LAMB FARMS

As a beef or lamb Red Tractor farm, it is now compulsory to have a written annual livestock health and performance review undertaken by your vet.

What does this involve? …

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  • Your vet attends your farm at least annually and sees livestock
  • Annual review to:
    – Identify key issues and make recommendations to improve identified issues
    – Review records and data, including medicine records and prescription data outlining total antibiotic used by product name, making recommendations to responsibly reduce antibiotic usage where appropriate without negatively impacting welfare
    – Review use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIAs) and make recommendations for responsible reduction
    – Review prophylactic treatment and make recommendations for alternative disease prevention strategies
    – Consider industry initiatives e.g. BVD Free England

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Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics must only be used as a last resort under veterinary direction

How you will be measured:

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  • HP-CIAs are defined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and colistin
  • Use is supported by a vet report outlining one or more of the following:
    – Sensitivity testing
    – Diagnostic testing

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As always, if you have any questions our Oakhill Farm Team are happy to discuss: 01772 861300

 

 

 

Farm Vet Andy goes state side!

Andy BramallIn 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!

The main message from the American producers was improving cow comfort and the cow environment had been the main factor in improving production and animal health.

The other key thing that I took away from the trip was that aggressive fertility management improved farm profitability through more efficient milk production.

Andy Bramall
Oakhill Farm Vet

 

 

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.

Cattle Lungworm Warning

Lungworm can appear from early June and is commonly seen in unvaccinated calves and naïve adult cattle.   

lungworm preston vets

Infection with lungworm (Dictyocaulus viviparus) results in an immune-mediated pneumonia, of which the earliest sign is a cough after exercise. Later signs include a persistent cough, milk drop and death in severe cases.

Once infective larvae are ingested from pasture they migrate to and mature in the lungs. Adult worms begin producing eggs between 3-4 weeks later and can shed millions of larvae onto pasture, to continue the lifecycle. Climatic conditions play an important role in the development of the infective larvae on pasture. Warm, wet weather favours larvae development.

Detection is currently based on clinical signs, detection of larvae in faeces and antibodies in either blood or milk. Lungworm should be considered in grazed animals with a persistent cough or signs of pneumonia.

Please contact the practice if you suspect lungworm may be a problem in your herd.