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Calves, worms and drenching

Warm and moist… good conditions for grass growth and also for gastrointestinal worm production. If calves are grazing, they are also picking up worm larvae and they don’t have any immunity gastrointestinal worms. This immunity develops over 18 months to 2 years. However, the calves generally do not need to be drenched until the majority of their feed intake has been grass for about 3 weeks, or about 3 months old, often coinciding with weaning.Some ways to lower the intake of worm larvae are ...

Calf Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease that can occur in calves from as young as 4 weeks of age, but normally between three and eight months. The main risk periods are times of stress such as moving, re-grouping, transport, weaning, etc; or within a couple of weeks of ceasing meal feeding. Infection is caused by the ingestion of oocysts, which survive well in moist environmental conditions. It is a parasite that is often around in low numbers, and clinica...

Passive Transfer Results

This year we blood tested over 100 calves to test their antibody levels and see their range of passive transfer. The results were quite mixed, the majority were very good however, there were a few that were surprisingly lower.Calves are born without their own immune system which does not kick in until 2-4 weeks of age. They rely entirely on the passive transfer of antibodies via good quality colostrum to fight infections, illness, and disease in the first ...

Antibiogram is the way forward

As discussed at the Dry Cow Consult and the RVMs, we are promoting responsible and cost effective mastitis treatment. We encourage the use of antibiograms to culture Staph aureus and Strep Uberis, which are specific to your farm from a bulk milk sample, and titre them against 10 of the most common antibiotics that make up mastitis and dry cow treatments. It allows us to maintain a treatable population, and allows you to be aware if you are bringing in cows from a more resistant herd.A ...

Do you need to test your calf scour?

We have the ability to investigate calf scours at both Hokitika and Greymouth clinics. Our quick test can tell you which of the 4 main scour pathogens are present in a fecal sample; E. coli, rotavirus, coronavirus (the non-human kind unfortunately), and cryptosporidium. Drop off a small sample of scours (we only need around a teaspoon amount) from affected calves, in a sample pot. If someone is available to run it the results can be reported back to you in around 15 minutes. This informatio...

Are your trace minerals working effectively?

As we all know, adequate trace minerals are vital for reproductive performance. Copper, Zinc, Manganese, and Selenium deficiencies can cause huge problems for mating outcomes. Therefore, most of you check the status and supplement these trace minerals to cows through their water or feed. But are these supplemented minerals in an organic or inorganic form? For example, is Copper supplemented as sulphate (inorganic) or chelated (organic) form? The form in which minerals are supplemented has a...

Metacam 20: Should you be using it routinely?

Mastitis is costly to manage on farms with its effects on milk quality and production is well known. Mastitis also results in an increased risk of culling through decreased reproductive performance. Compared to healthy cows, the odds of pregnancy by 29% and 46% for cows with mild and moderate to severe cases of mastitis respectively.Two large studies (the MAMMARY study and the FERTILE study) have shown that cows with mild to moderate mastitis that were treated with ...

Are your cows up or down?

The weather has treated us well this winter with higher temperatures and lower rainfall. So with more feed around and a better calving environment surely we should be seeing less down cows right? Unfortunately, on some farms we are seeing the opposite effect! We’re hearing of more cows that are struggling to get up, despite magnesium and other mineral supplementation. The daily requirements of magnesium does not change, however in a normal West Coast winter/early spring, we tend to have h...

Synchro & non-cyclers

We may be full swing into calving but the mating season is approaching at breakneck speed. Firstly make sure you are up to date with selenium, as the follicles that you will be targeting at mating are the ones developing now! An additional service we are offering this season, 3 weeks before the planned start of mating (PSM) we can send a tech out to the farm to tail paint all the herd for you. This will enable you to clearly see which cows are cycling and which ones you need to concent...

Have you booked your herds metrichecking?

The earlier you get onto cleaning those ‘dirty cows’ the better your 6 week in calf rate will be!Endometritis is an infection of the inner lining of the uterus, often caused by: contamination of a dead calf, assisted calvings, retained fetal membranes, nutritional issues, and metabolic issues. However, in many cases there is no apparent cause. It is a common and costly disease in New Zealand dairy herds.Endometritis is a subclinical disease so metrichecking needs to be performed to diagnose ...

Pre-mating mineral testing Testing (PP+)

Prior to mating it’s important we ensure cows have sufficient levels of selenium and copper. They both play a key part in retained foetal membranes and resistance to disease. Selenium is also important for embryo survival; generally the ovarian follicle which ovulates at mating time starts developing around calving so getting the timing of supplementation right is worthwhile. Magnesium is key to calcium mobilisation from the bone, gut, and kidneys; so in consequence has a significant...

September/August Checklist

Magnesium & Calcium supplementationTransitional cow feed planBCS herdPre-mating PP+ (Trace element testing)Rapid Milk test (RMT) cows in colostrum mob before letting them in with the milkers.Take milk samples from cows with mastitis for the best antibiotic treatment choicesSCC rising? Ask for advice!Avoid grazing effluent paddocks with colostrum and springer cowsRecord all “AT RISK” cows (assisted calvings, retained membranes, down cows, twins, dead calves etc.)Mating tail paint and heat...

What are my options for disbudding?

A NZ trial published in 2019 has looked at pain relief and sedation of calves at the time of disbudding on behavioural responses, pain sensitivity and weight gain. It showed that all calves that received sedation had a lower pain sensitivity than those that just had local anesthesia. In the same study calves that received sedation, local anesthesia and metacam (meloxicam) had a 0.144kg/day greater average daily gain in the 7 days following disbudding than those that just received local anesthesi...

Water!

Water is something that we have plenty of here on the West Coast. It is essential to life and certainly for dairy cows. Milk is 85-89% water. Hence, why water is the most important component of the dairy cow’s diet. (Of course dry cows and young calves do need water too!) One lactating dairy cow can drink up to 200 litres per day. This depends on feed type, body size, milk production, temperature, humidity of the environment, water access and quality. Water problems are often unnoticed an...

Calving box preparation

We are fast approaching calving so it’s a good idea to ensure you’ve got everything you need in one place....

Fluid Therapy in Calves

Check out the key ingredients to look for in your electrolyte formulation.There are many different electrolyte solutions sold anywhere you can buy animal health supplies. Different solutions have their pro’s and con’s so there are some key ingredients to keep an eye out for that are important to ensure dehydration is corrected.The building blocks to an electrolyte solution: Sodium - to help correct dehydrationPotassium and Chloride - these are lost in the faeces when the calf ...

Multimin reminder

As you all know, newborn calves are the most vulnerable to disease on the farm and trace elements are essential for immunity and production.Multimin contains zinc, manganese, selenium and copper in a chelated form, which is tissue friendly. The minerals are absorbed into the blood in 8 hrs and the liver in 24 hoursNew Zealand trials have shown, when supplemented with Multimin at various ages, there is a decrease in neonatal disease such as scours and naval infections and a decrease in death rate...

New calf disbudding regulations

Everyone should be aware of the new MPI regulations for disbudding that came into effect on the 1st of October last year; local anesthetic MUST be used when disbudding and dehorning animals. In this regulation Disbud means to destroy, by ANY method, free-floating immature horn tissue. Failure to do so can result in a criminal conviction and fines of up to $3000 for individuals and $15,000 for businesses. We are here to make your disbudding experience less stressful! You have a couple of opt...

Spring checklist

Time to get your 'ducks' in row for this Spring.  Check out our handy Bovine checklist for July and August....

Tip of the iceberg or an invisible problem...

We all know about milk fever (clinical hypocalcemia) right? And we all know that it can be stressful if we get many of these cases? But how much do we know about the not immediately visible form of this disease, called subclinical hypocalcemia?Some farms encounter issues with wobbly and down cows due to milk fever more than others, but it’s hard to find a farm that does NOT have to treat a single case. World wide (including NZ) the incidence of clinical hypocalcemia over calving is on average ...

Fluke and worm testing

A final reminder before drying off about the bulk milk fluke and worm test.This is a cost-effective option to test your herd’s exposure to parasites through a bulk milk test. The test measures the levels of antibodies in your sample to both fluke and worms. It can detect an increase in antibodies from as early as 3 weeks after infection and is highly accurate (98%).The test results will give you an indication of the percentage of animals exposed to fluke and the worm burden of the herd. Knowin...

Scour vaccines

At an already stressful time of the year , sick and scouring calves is frustrating and demoralising. Extra time spent having to look after these calves means:1) less of a break for the calf rearer2) less time spent putting your time energy into the healthy calves3) lower growth rates in calves4) potentially less replacements than required due to deaths.Calves are born with no immune system, so require antibodies from their mother. These antibodies are not passed through the placen...

Down cow prevention

“Something that might happen in Spring” you might think now, but now is the time to think about how to prevent those costs and losses of these down cows!A down cow will have a higher chance of having metritis, mastitis and reproductive issues. So, if you have treated more than 2% of the herd for milk fever over last Spring, or you just want to have less problems over the coming Spring, prevention through nutrition might be the solution! As our down cow seminar was having technical issues, or...

Dry cow

It's that time of year again to start thinking about dry cow options for your herd. Due to covid-19 we will be doing your dry cow consults a bit differently. However, we are having a lot of success with consults over the phone or by video calls; and are even able to go through mastitis and SCC data from infovet with you as well. We have ordered dry cow stock in early this year and have it ready to go – just as soon as we have been through your dry cow&nb...

Teat Sealing

How much heifer mastitis are you getting? Heifer mastitis rates are over 25% on many New Zealand farms. The cost of this mastitis was measured in a 2009 NZ study which found each case of heifer mastitis costs $197 when calculated using a $5.50 pay-out. This means that with a pay-out of $6.70, each heifer with mastitis will cost you over $200! This cost considers the treatment cost, labour for treatment, milk discarding and culling.Mastitis infections in 2-year olds and 3-year olds...