Farm Newsletter December 2024

As ever we will have two vets on-call at all times throughout the festive period, but our opening hours will be as follows:

Tuesday 24th: 8.30am – 5pm
Wednesday 25th: Closed
Thursday 26th: 8.30am – 1pm

Tuesday 31st: 8.30am – 5pm
Wednesday 1st: Closed
Thursday 2nd: 8.30am – 1pm

All other days will we will be open as per normal hours.

Trace Elements for cows

The trace elements copper, cobalt, selenium and iodine are all vital for health, growth and fertility of cows and youngstock. Where there are uncorrected deficiencies the effects can be varied, but poor scanning result, slow calvings, dopey calves, higher disease incidence and poor growth rates are the more common presentations.

Every farm will be different in its trace element make up, due to topography, pasture management and type of stock, and to make it even more complicated each farm will vary year-to-year slightly based on the weather.

Establishing the trace element status of a farm is a bit like building a jigsaw – we need to take information from blood samples, forage analyses and soil samples to build the clearest picture.

Where deficiencies are identified we have a number of options to correct them. Free access minerals and tubs certainly have a role, but can have issues with variable intakes. Top dressing forage can have variable intakes also and incur a lot of wastage. If using a powdered mineral, incorporating this in a TMR is perfect, but not everyone has the equipment to do this. Drenches and home-made pour-ons can have very variable and short lived effects.

For us, the best way to deal with these deficiencies is with a bolus – these provide a constant safety net of an appropriate level of the elements required, and many farmers who have moved to bolusing swear by their effects and wouldn’t go back. When choosing a bolus it’s important to choose one that covers off all your specific requirements. It’s also very important to choose one of reputable quality, as with boluses it can very much be a case of getting what you pay for. On the cheaper end we often see the claimed duration of action being something of an overstatement!

With regards to timing of bolusing, if using a bolus that lasts 6 months, then twice yearly would be gold standard. However, for those wanting to bolus just once a year, doing it close to calving means cows should have what they need for calving and the start of bulling, which are the most critical points of the year. It is important to note that these boluses do not contain magnesium, so provision of a basic magnesium mineral pre-calving and during summer grazing remains important to avoid slow calving syndrome and grass staggers.

If you’d like to discuss blood sampling or bolusing then please let us know.

 

Advanced Cattle Breeding Services

We’re very excited to say that our new venture into advanced breeding is starting to take off. Alongside Paragon Vets we’ve been working to bring an Ovum Pick Up/In Vitro Embryo Production (OPU/IVP) service to our clients and farms from the wider area. OPU/IVP is superior to conventional embryo flushing as produces a larger number of offspring in a shorter space of time and is clinically safer.

At the beginning of November we collected eggs from six pedigree donor cows. These eggs were then sent to the lab at Paragon in Cumbria, where they were fertilised, “cooked”, then graded and frozen. We were absolutley delighted to produce 53 (predominantley Grade 1) embryos from the six cows, with one producing 19 to two different bulls!

We are looking to arrange our next collection shortly and if this is something you would be interested or would like to discuss please get in touch.

More information about the procedure will be appearing on the website soon. In the meantime if you have any questions please contact Andrew at Kirriemuir or email andrew@thrumsvet.co.uk

Bovela BVD Vaccine

Last month we discussed the importance of continuing with BVD vaccination as we enter perhaps the riskiest phase of the Scottish eradication programme. Conventional BVD vaccines require two shots separated by four weeks, four weeks in advance on breeding. With good planning this isn’t usually a problem, but we all often find time running away from us and these things getting missed.

Bovela is a single shot BVD vaccine and as such can be very useful in situations where a BVD vaccine is required prior to bull sales or breeding heifers entering the herd but with not enough time to get a Bovilis course in. Bovela needs to be given three weeks prior to breeding for full effect.

As the year draws to a close please remember to take advantage of £500 worth of grant money available for animal health tasks, under the preparing for sustainable farming grants scheme. Many of you will have already completed such tasks, but to be eligible for claim they need to have been done by the end of the calendar year. Claims need to be in by the end of next February.

As a reminder you can claim £250 for two tasks from the below list:

If you’ve not carried out two of these tasks this year then make sure you get them in before the end of the year, and when you have done, get your forms in to us ASAP for completion.

CCN in Lambs

The past month or so we have seen a number of cases of CCN in lambs, so thought we would write a few words about the disease, how to spot it and how to treat it. CCN (or cerebrocortical necrosis, to give it its full name) is most commonly seen in weaned lambs 4-8 months of age, but can occasionally be seen in adult animals, and will be familiar to you as lambs that are blind, off the legs and “star gazing”.

Disease happens when a change in rumen microbes leads to a build up of substances that are toxic to the brain. Typically this would be caused by a change in pasture, introduction of concentrate feed or sometimes a worming treatment two weeks prior to onset of disease.

Affected sheep are initially blind and separate themselves from the flock. This will progress to “star gazing” and going off the legs, seizures when handled and if untreated will lead to coma and death. Disease can be differentiated from listeriosis, as this disease is typically one sided.

Treatment involves injections of vitamin B1 every 12 hours for three days, and supportive nursing care in the meantime. If caught early, sheep should be able to stand and eat within 24 hours of treatment, but vision may take 5-7 days to return.