Calves at Grass

How are your calves doing? Calves can sometimes get forgotten at this time of the year when you are busy shearing and silaging you might not notice if they are not growing as fast as they could be. Calves at grass can take some of the indoor problems with them when they first go outside. Coccidiosis is not always associated with wet and damp conditions. All that needs to happen is for their food or water to get contaminated with faeces so that the protozoan parasite can get established in the gut of the animal and stop them absorbing their food properly. Calves with coccidiosis have poor appetites and fail to thrive. In severe cases you may need to drench the entire group with Veccoxan or Baycox. Usually it is possible to control the problem with Deccox Buckets. These can be used at pasture as long as the weather is not too wet.

Gut Worms

Parasitic gastroenteritis tends to occur later in the summer if it starts to rain after a period of dry weather. We tend to see it more in dairy calves. When the weather is dry the worm larvae tend to migrate low down into the stems so that they do not become dehydrated. Usually calves can cope if they are taking in small numbers of worm eggs, it is when their immune system has to cope with large numbers of larvae after periods of rain that they start to have problems. Calves with parasitic gastro enteritis tend to have green diarrhoea and may become dehydrated if they are not treated promptly.

Fly Strike

It was quite noticeable one day last week that all of a sudden there were significant numbers of blow flies about, and they have been a nuisance ever since. They cause particular problems if you have not finished shearing yet. Even sheep that have clean back ends can get fly strike in these high temperatures. It is not always easy to spot the early signs, affected animals tend to be irritable and will rub up against solid objects. As soon as this starts it is better to use one of the longer acting fly products such as Clix Pour On along the spine and in an arc over the rear end of all of the sheep. Applied carefully this will protect most sheep until the end of the fly season.

New Horse Passport Rules

This is the last reminder that the identification and treatment rules for all horses changed at the beginning of this month. This means that any late foals born after the 30^th June must be micro chipped when their passport is issued. All new passports issued to animals that have yet to have a valid passport will need to have details of a microchip number recorded as well. Our fee for inserting a microchip and registering your animal for life on the database remains at £12.50 plus VAT.

Badger Tuberculosis

The Tuberculosis Statistics for the first three months of the year make grim reading again this year. So far 11,467 animals have been slaughtered from the 20,256 herds that have been tested until the end of March this year. Last year in the same period 9,326 animals were slaughtered. This is a significant increase when you consider that the number of farms keeping cattle has declined. By the end of March this year 7,685 farms were under movement restrictions because of the disease. In those three months more than two million three hundred thousand cattle were tested this is a 15% increase on the numbers last year. It is difficult to know how big the numbers have to get before there will be a policy change to tackle this disease.

Otters and Cats

In the meantime it has been confirmed that an otter that died in Northern Ireland, and a Siamese cat from the West Country have both been found to have died from bovine tuberculosis. Otters are related to badgers and in some ways have similar habits as they range over huge territories each night It is never clear how exactly other animals pick up the infection the chances are that badgers are involved at some stage, the exact mechanism of transmission or how long it takes for these animals to succumb is unclear.

The Dangers of Bracken

It always amazes me that there is so much bracken about as it grows at such a prodigious rate and swamps any available grass. It has long been known that bracken contains toxins that depress the functions of the bone marrow reducing the numbers of white cells in the blood. It also contains toxins called plaquiluside in the spores and leaves that can lead to cancer of the bladder wall and sometimes in the intestines. The mature plant has a bitter taste and is only usually eaten if all of the grass has gone and there is nothing else available. It can be particularly hazardous if the plant is cut or if the roots are exposed by ploughing as the young plant and roots are particularly attractive to cattle. Affected animals loose blood either with their urine or as diarrhoea, they tend to strain a lot so it must make them uncomfortable. There is no treatment for bracken poisoning. In the initial stages you may see an improvement with antibiotics. Most animals deteriorate and have to be culled because of the weigh that they have lost. Bracken poisoning can affect sheep sometimes, but it is cattle that are most at risk from the plant.

Pigs and Erysipelas

Pigs are getting popular again, not in big numbers, but we are seeing pigs on many different farms now. There are two things that you need to be aware of if you keep pigs. Most important is that it is illegal to give them meat scraps because of the foot and mouth regulations. All pigs are susceptible to a soil born disease called erysipelas that will cause them to develop a high temperature as it multiplies in their blood stream. The infection will respond to antibiotics, but the danger is that it is difficult to spot in the early stages as it readily grows on the valves of the heart which can be permanently damaged after even a mild infection. This is the infection that is responsible for most sudden deaths in pigs. You will be aware that there is a vaccine available, but is should be repeated every six months to stop the disease completely.

Synchronised Lambing

Now is the time to start planning for a good lamb crop next year. As soon as the lambs have been weaned move the lambs onto a better pasture and hold the ewes on restricted grazing so their milk will dry up. Ewes that produce a lot of milk and pedigree animals are best treated with one dry cow tube to ensure mastitis does not intervene if there is still a significant milk residue present.

For a better lamb crop the ewes should be increasing in condition before they go to the ram. The progesterone sponges are useful to co ordinate the ovulation cycle so that you do not get a prolonged lambing period and a big age and weight  range in the lambs next year.

Return to Newsletters