Farm Newsletter April 2024
At the time of writing the sun seems to be shining for once, though it appears to not be for long with yet more rain in the forecast ahead. The chronic rain is having an impact on us all, those with arable are badly held up whilst the impact on stock has been significant. Very few cattle have been turned out yet putting strain on their health and pressures on straw and forage supplies. Sheep outside have hardly had a dry back for months, taking it’s toll on body condition and there have been a few nasty outbreaks of infectious lameness due to the conditions. That all said, lambing and calving appears to be going well for most and with a fair wind all these weather woes will soon be behind us and stock will be healthy at grass.
In the run up to calving we carried out plenty of metabolic profiles – checking the nutritional status of pre-calving cows. This has been really interesting with many herds turning up issues – some minor, some major! We’ve seen low protein statuses, low energies and low magnesiums, all of which could potentially lead to issues at calving and beyond. It’s certainly proved to be a valuable exercise for many and something everyone should be considering to help make those incremental gains in efficiency. We’ve certainly been busy with the emergency spring work in the last few weeks with the total number of caesars up by 25% on the year to date compared to last year!
A Disaster Averted!
Whilst for most calving is still full swing, it’s not long until things come round again and the breeding season will be upon us. As such we’ve been out fertility testing batches of bulls to ensure full fertility prior to mating. One batch of bulls this month was going fine with 7 bulls passing the test, until the last one of the day was presented. This 2.5 year old bull had been used last year with success and no concerns existed about his fertility or indeed his general health.
Unfortunately on delivering a sample it was well off the mark for full fertility, with only about 5% of sperm swimming correctly (in the picture you can see many, many distal midpiece reflexes – bent tails, along with some other abnormalities). The bull was retested on the day with the same result.
Whilst this result is clearly disappointing and unexpected, the disappointment would have been so much worse had the problem not been identified until the cows had come in for scanning.
The cause of the sub-fertility in this case has not been pin-pointed (it could be due to infection or trauma to his sexual organs, viral infection or testicular degeneration), so the bull will be allowed a period of up to 8 weeks to recover and be retested which will prove if he is either temporarily or permanently sub-fertile. But for now it’s disaster averted.
This story is particularly pertinent with details emerging of how future support payments will be made and a short calving interval likely to be vital to secure full subsidy payments. There is currently £250 annually available per farm from the Scottish Government to support bull testing under the sustainable farming grants scheme.
Our new AI service – ThrumSync
Of course, as well at the bull you could choose to use AI to be getting heifers and cows in calf, and we’re very excited this spring to be rolling out our new Sync and AI service, ThrumSync. Synchronisation and AI has the dual aims of a more compact calving period and importing superior genetics into the herd for specific desired outcomes (easier calving, increased growth rates etc).
Our vision for this service is to be straight forward with minimal handlings, cost effective, and easy for the client to organise. We can help with sire selection, arrange semen storage, sort all of the dates and times and be available to answer any questions you have about the process.
To understand more about it please click on the link below, or give us a call, now is the time to be putting dates in the diary for spring calving herds.
https://thrumsvet.co.uk/thrumsync-our-new-cattle-synchro-and-ai-service/
Enzootic Abortion Outbreaks
Sadly in the past month we have dealt with multiple outbreaks of enzootic abortion of ewes, leading in some cases to very high rates of lamb loss and unnecessary antibiotic usage in an effort to reduce it’s impact. Situations like this occur every year and these loses are entirely preventable through vaccination.
Flocks purchasing female replacements are at the greatest risk as the bug is spread by infected ewes, but no one is safe from infection as infective cleansings or products of abortion scan be spread to neighboring farms by carrion. Yet only a third of ewes entering the national breeding flock are vaccinated for enzootic.
Abortion is typically seen in very low numbers during the first year of a flock being infected before exploding the following year.
If you are not currently vaccinating for enzootic abortion we would strongly recommend doing at least one of the two following things. 1. Gather together any ewes that aborted or who were scanned in lamb but failed to produce a lamb and arrange to have up to 8 of them blood tested, the lab fees will be free thanks to pharmaceutical support. 2. Seriously consider commencing vaccination in advance of next breeding season. A single shot given a month pre-tupping to replacements is protective for life and is cheap.
Don’t be sitting here this time next year wishing you’d done something about it but hadn’t. Dealing with abortion outbreaks is properly miserable!
Toxovax Discount
On the subject of sheep abortion, Toxovax will be available to order from the 1st of May. Orders delivered by 31st of July will attract a 5% discount. Whilst we appraciate not everyone will have replacements drawn or purchased by then, early vaccination has multiple benefits. It ensures vaccination is done, in case of any supply chain disruption (which is sadly too common), it allows for other vaccines, if required, such as Footvax to be fitted in the schedule much easier and of course, it’s 5% cheaper!
Synchronising late calvers
We all have stragglers that calve late, and these girls will be the ones at greatest risk of slipping further and not getting back in calf next year. The key drivers for getting back in calf will be good BCS, positive energy balance and not having had a problematic calving. However, for these late ones we can help them to get back in calf by enrolling them in a synchronisation programme.
The programme is similar to that for an AI sync, but critically is slightly different as involves the use of a hormone PMSG.
Cows should be scanned to make sure they have a clean uterus before embarking on the programme and can be started on the programme from 25-30 days calved. Cows can thein either by served by natural service provided there is enough “bull power” or AI’d. Please give us a call to discuss if it’s something you’d consider in your herd.
Dairy Meeting
We look forward to hosting a meeting for our dairy clients at lunchtime on Tuesday the 30th of May. The meeting will focus on new technologies regarding mastitis diagnosis and control and will kindly be sponsored by Zoetis. If you would like to attend please let the practice know.
