Grassland Club updated on veterinary issues

Brian Donaldson • Published 28 Dec 2012 13:00 0 Comments

Farmers attending the December meeting of Fermanagh Grassland Club have been given advice on a range of veterinary issues.

The Club was addressed by veterinary surgeon, Mairead O'Grady, MSD Animal Health as an independent expert.

Mairead reported that the main causes of disease in young calves were scour, septicaemia and respiratory disease. Scour had a devastating effect on weight gain and calves which had scour in the first three months of life rarely caught up with their cohorts and could be 10% lighter at 21 months. This had implications for achieving weight targets.

If producers were to minimise the incidence of scour what could they do?

Calving Boxes

- Have enough of them as a tight calving pattern requires one calving box per 15 cows.

- Do a knee test; bedding should be dry enough to not wet your knees.

- Dairy herds; practice snatch calving where the calf is removed from calving box soon after birth.

Colostrum

- Ensure calves suckle with two hours of birth.

- Intake should be 10% of body weight within six hours - aim for sucking period of 20 or more minutes.

- Highest antibody levels in first milk post calving.

- Bottle feed or stomach tube calves which won't suckle.

- Good colostrum is thick and yellow not liquid and pale.

- Calves with low antibody levels (from not enough or poor quality colostrum) are four times more likely to die.

Cryptospoidium spp

- Very common cause of scour in Northern Ireland.

- Difficult to control, very infectious and can multiply rapidly.

- Some disinfectants fail to control it.

- Isolate infected calves.

Providing a clean healthy environment is essential in the control of Cryptosporidium, Mairead said who also advised on ensuring troughs and feeders being kept clean. Halocur can help reduce the effects of Cryposporidium. It doesn't kill it but delays its development and reduces its excretion and diarrhoea. However she said treatment must start on the first day of scouring and continue thereafter for seven days. Ms O'Grady also discussed Rumen Fluke and said that until relatively recently it wasn't seen as a major issue. In young stock it can result in scouring, ulcers, haemorrhaging and anaemia with a reduction in growth. In adult cows weight loss and reduced milk production are the most common symptoms.

There are no licensed treatments for rumen fluke control but effective treatments are available and producers should consult their vet for product advice. Following her presentation there was a very active discussion period where Mairead took a number of questions from members on various aspects of cow and calf health.

The December meeting of Fermanagh Grassland Club was also the annual meeting when new officials and committee were elected.

The new Chariman is Mr. Cormac McKervey, who has been serving as Club Treasurer for many years. Cormac is Agricultural Manager with the Ulster Bank.

The new Vice-Chairman is Mr. Derek Saunderson from Church Hill while the new Treasurer to succeed Cormac during his year as Chairman, is Mr. Philip Clarke, who has previously served as Club Chairman.

2013 is a big year for the Club as it marks its 50th anniversary.

Tweet

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 28 Dec 12

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.