Thinking Ahead

Some days this past week have been more like mid summer than April the only differences are that the days are not so long, silage pits are getting empty and there are not many flies about. It might well be a long summer if it turns out hot and dry it will be important to make as much use of the grass as we can. People who know about flies reckon that because they can lay up to 400 eggs at a time and under ideal conditions they are able to reach maturity in as little as eight days. That means that those two flies that you saw on a wall this morning could have over a million offspring by the end of July. Flies can be a nuisance to livestock as well as the people who work with them. They are known to cause summer mastitis, New Forest Disease and they will cause fly strike in sheep and other animals. Now is the time to think about flies as efforts to control them now will stop a build up in the summer before they have their population explosion. The spot on treatments are effective and will last for up to eight weeks if you use them to prevent the fly challenge and not expect them to work when the fly numbers are at their peak

Swishing Tails

Cows should be able to go out to graze. They are wasting eating time if they congregate under a hedge to gain the benefit of other swishing tails to keep the flies away. When there are flies about they have a tendency to lie down in the same places in the fields every day. This can be a factor in the spread of environmental mastitis as the ground becomes contaminated and teats get infected.

Growing Lambs

Lambing is now drawing to a close and most farms seem to be pleased with the crop of lambs. There have been some problems with oversized singles even with ewes that have not received any concentrate feed. Large singles are more likely to be presented with one or two legs back and some have been born dead as the ewes are reluctant to start the lambing process until their off spring are under stress. Lambs have been growing well in the dry conditions. Some farms have had problems with pulpy kidney disease. This seems to affect single lambs that were doing well. It is caused by a bacterium in the soil that produces a toxin in the small intestine of the lamb. It is one of the infections that can be prevented if the ewes are properly vaccinated. Once it starts the lambs will need the vaccine as well and it is better to keep them on shorter grass to slow their growth and the build up of toxin. It is annoying that it seems the better lambs are doing the more susceptible they are to the clostridial diseases.

Eating Soil.

Dry grass is better for lambs to digest and it should help to keep their tails clean. Some lambs will get into the habit of eating dry soil, this might be because they are short of something in their diet or they could just like the taste. When this happens there is a danger that they will take in too many coccidial oocysts and start to scour unless you are taking appropriate preventative measures.

 Also they are fascinated by nitrogenous fertilisers. Normally these will be washed well into the ground before lambs have an opportunity to investigate, be careful if there are any spillages at gateways. The nitrate is converted to nitrite in the stomach of the lamb, this enters the blood stream and prevents the uptake of oxygen. There is no effective antidote to nitrite poisoning.

There is I think a tendency now to use fertilisers more sparingly and more carefully than in the past.

Supplementing Magnesium

On many dairy farms paddocks are grazed early in the spring and the cows keep up with the grass. There is still a problem with magnesium particularly for Hereford and Hereford Cross cows and lower yielding dairy animals. Most farms supplement magnesium at this time of the year, if the cows are taking large quantities of the mineral some of them will not be satisfying their requirements so it would be better not to move them onto a lush green pasture until the mineral consumption tails off. Some animals are particularly prone to staggers. If you have a cow that was treated for it last year, or a dairy cow that does not eat the concentrate ration in the parlour there is a bolus that they can have to ensure they have an adequate supply of the mineral inside them.

Farm Inspections

You are probably sick of farm inspections as it would seem just about anybody can come and inspect your farm and your records at a moments notice. On many occasions there is duplication of what different people do and it is a pity that the different agencies are not able to co ordinate their efforts.

DEFRA are now going to start farm inspections. The plan is that you will have no more than forty eight hours notice and the idea is to ensure that you are complying with European legislation for stocking densities and the welfare codes.

Part of the time will be spent inspecting animals in buildings and calculating how much space they have and whether sufficient feed and bedding is provided. I seem to remember that a similar exercise was carried out some years ago and that it was more of a fact finding exercise than trying to criticise what you are doing. As far as I can determine farms will be chosen at random and two per cent of farms will be inspected each year. The report will be in a tick box format and it is not clear what will happen if they are unable to tick enough of the boxes.

Changing Names

In 1865 a group of vets got together to tackle Rindapest a severe cattle disease that was devastating the country. There efforts were successful and ever since the State Veterinary Service has been admired throughout the world as they lead the way in disease control for farm and companion animals. They may have been helped in a small way because we are an Island, but they should be given credit for controlling diseases that at the time were poorly understood. On the first of April of this year (a significant date perhaps) the State Veterinary Service was re branded as Animal Health. Just why this has been done at a cost of some £60,000 has not been fully explained. As far as I can determine none of the Veterinary Surgeons that work for DEFRA are pleased about the name change, it sounds as if they are working for a drug company now. The new organisation has been slow to change their stationary and their web site a recent letter was headed both State Veterinary Service and Animal Health. Assuming things were better in the past than they are likely to be in the future I have continued to use the “State Veterinary Service” in all correspondence and I would be grateful if you would too unless you could get The “State Veterinary Service also known as Animal Health” into the first line of your letter.

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