November Newsletter
Posted on
NOVEMBER 2010 NEWSLETTER FARM VETS SOUTH WEST
Herdsperson of the Year
FVSW would like to congratulate their client, Michael Peach of F.E.Hill and Sons, Stockland Lovell, on the excellent award of herdsperson of the Year.
The award was given to Mike at the South West Dairy Event and was presented to him by the Countess of Wessex.
Mike milks 275 cows with a yield of 10,500 litres, a calving index of 412 days, a cell count of 129 and a bactoscan of 14 with a routine weekly fertility visit by FVSW. These figures are even more creditable when we consider the fact that Mike only serves for 10 months of the year.
Mike is ably assisted by his wife, Annette, who has responsibility for the calf rearing, heifer AI-ing and record keeping.
This award is thoroughly deserved, Mike works from 3.30am with a final check of the cows at 9pm. He is fastidious with regard to cleanliness and general attention to detail and the biggest winners are his cows. AM
Congratulations
To Randolph and Brian Miller of Moorshard Farm, who received a raft of awards at the South-West Dairy Event for their entries from their excellent Moorshard Holsteins herd.
Brian has also branched out to Brown Swiss. His new Sedgemoor Herd also achieved some excellent successes . Brian likes the Brown Swiss breed—he says that they have “lots of character”. AM
Welcome Part 1
The latest recruit to FVSW, Joe Davies, starts work on the first of November. Joe is a highly experienced farm animal vet and we hope this shows our commitment to providing a top quality service.
We are sure that Joe will settle in well at FVSW and that he will receive a warm welcome from our clients. DT
Welcome Part 2
The partners at FVSW would like to heartily welcome David Taylor to the partnership. We are delighted that DT has committed to the practice and the area long term. We believe David is an excellent vet who brings many skills to the team and adds to the stability of the practice. One of his main areas of interest is nutrition and he is currently studying for the Diploma in Ruminant Nutrition. AM
Dry Period Risk Factors for Mastitis and High Cell Counts
As a follow up to last months piece about Dr Bradley’s talk, below are listed management practices which are linked to a decreased risk of dry period origin mastitis and high cell counts.
Overall Factors
Fly control used in summer months
Younger cows
Store all bedding materials inside
Previous Lactation
SCC in the last 90 days of lactation less than 200,000
Yield before drying off less than 10 litres (risk doubles for every 10 litre increase)
Drying Off
Teats disinfected with surgical spirit swab for administration of tubes
Select dry cow treatment for individual cows (please talk to us about this!)
Dry off cows during milking
Stand cows for 30 minutes after drying off
Body condition score cows (this may seem odd but herds that go to the lengths of condition scoring cows are more likely to have greater attention to detail in other areas)
Early Dry Period
Disinfect cubicle bedding
Good drainage in cubicles
If straw used for cubicle bedding, it should be chopped
Mattresses used on cubicles (not as good as sand though)
Late Dry Period
For transition cow yards allow at least 1.25 m2 per 1,000Kg of average annual production (e.g. 12.5 square meters for 10,000 litres per cow per year or 10 square metres for 8,000 litres per cow per year)
Disinfect cubicle bedding (if cubicles used)
Use mattresses on cubicle surface (still not a good as sand)
Scrape feed and loaf area daily
Bed cubicles daily
If grazing, graze paddock for two weeks and rest for four weeks (very effective for strep uberis)
Do not house transition cows with milking herd (some still do this)
Calving Period
Clean calving pens out daily
Use an even cover of bedding
Use the same forages as milking cows
Cows first fore-milked within 4-6 hours after calving
Calves are not able to cross suckle
This is not an exhaustive list of control measures but simply existing measures in place on farms that Dr. Bradley found had a low incidence of mastitis/ somatic cell counts linked to the dry period.