DAIRY TALK. April 2019

Transcription

1 Biosecurity made easy tick it off DAIRY TALK April 2019 Actively managing your biosecurity risk is essential in protecting your farm from unwanted diseases and pests. What have we done at Anexa to make sure we have you covered in the biosecurity space? Our veterinarians, in conjunction with our research department, Cognosco, have developed an Anexa-exclusive Biosecurity Risk Assessment, piloted, tested and trialled in the Waikato last year. Key points of the Anexa Biosecurity Risk Assessment: 4 This tool is designed to be a risk assessment process for all the main infectious diseases which we wish exclude or control on your farm (see the list below), not just Mycoplasma Bovis. 4 The process is simple. Sit down with your Vet who knows the situation on your farm, go through a risk assessment checklist and a farm-specific action plan will be generated at the end of the consultation. 4 The tool is primarily designed for dairy farms, but can be easily adapted for use in other livestock operations. The list of main diseases controlled, or partially controlled, through application of this process: List of cattle diseases subject to biosecurity measures and risk minimisation Calves & young stock Cows Bulls Salmonella* Salmonella* Trichomonas Crypto* Neospora Pink eye Rota/Coronavirus* Listeria Lepto* BVD BVD E. Coli* Johnes Disease Pink eye Pink eye Biosecurity Risk Assessment Name: EBL EBL Farm Name: Supply number: IBR IBR Ringworm* Lepto* Mycoplasma Ringworm* Lepto* Mycoplasma, Strep Ag., Staph. Aureus, Pseudomonas, Prototheca Campylobacter* Theileria Yersinia Digital Dermatitis TB TB Theileria Note: * indicates zoonosis (ability to infect humans) There are other tools on the market developed as a reaction to the M. bovis incursion aimed at preventing the spread of M. bovis. These don t include other diseases, such as BVD and Johnes, that potentially pose far greater risk to your farm (i.e. you are far more likely to get them than M.bovis), and will have a large impact on your business if they were to get in. Biosecurity Risk Assessment Name: Vet: Farm Name: Date: Guide for completing this risk assessment: Please gather information from the farm team on all sections and questions Record any actions as you work through the questions Give each question a risk assessment either a traffic light system (red = high risk, green = low risk) OR a scale of 1-5 (1 = very low risk and 5 = very high risk with graduations in between) Questions, and recorded actions, marked as red (high or very high risk) are priority actions Guide for completing this risk assessment: Please gather information from the farm team on all sections and questions Record any actions as you work through the questions Give each question a risk assessment either a traffic light system (red = high risk, green = low risk) OR a scale of 1-5 (1 = very low risk and 5 = very high risk with graduations in between) Questions, and recorded actions, marked as red (high or very high risk) are priority actions Section 1: stock movements and pre-purchase assessment 1a. Are stock moved from the milking platform? YES NO 1b. Is the other property owned by a grazier YES NO 1c. Are stock mixed with cattle from other farms at this property? YES NO 1d. Do you have health status information on stock from other properties if cattle are mixed? YES NO 1e. Are cattle purchased from other farms? YES NO 1f. Are cattle purchased protected/vaccinated against: Lepto YES NO BVD YES NO IBR YES NO Vibrio YES NO Clostridial disease YES NO Salmonella YES NO 1g. Are cattle purchased assessed/tested for: BVD YES NO Section 2: NAIT Compliance Contagious mastitis YES NO JD YES NO TB YES NO 2a. Are all stock NAIT tagged? YES NO 2b. Are stock removed from the farm for slaughter recorded in NAIT? YES NO 2c. Are stock purchased onto the property recorded in NAIT? YES NO 2d. Are stock moved between properties owned by the home farm YES NO recorded in NAIT? Section 3: Managing new stock arrivals (and temporary movement away and returns) 3a. Are newly introduced stock quarantined after arrival? YES NO 3b. How long does this quarantine last (days)? LOW RISK HIGH RISK 3c. Is surveillance undertaken to check for sick animals during the YES NO quarantine period? Section 4: Transport Equipment 4a. Are stock transported in clean trucks? YES NO 4b. Are stock transported combined with stock from other farms YES NO during single journeys? 4c. Do visiting stock trucks dump effluent on your farm during YES NO pickup or drop off? Continued over page... The Anexa Biosecurity Tool is more in-depth and therefore more relevant to your farming business. It will identify biosecurity risks specific to your farm which will allow us to generate action plans appropriate for your level of risk. Tick Biosecurity off your to do List with the Anexa Biosecurity Risk Assessment. Call your local Anexa clinic to set up a time to sit down and go through your biosecurity risk with your Vet. We value our clients privacy and will never share details with a national database. Supply number: Section 1: stock movements and pre-purchase assessment Vet: Date: 1a. Are stock moved from the milking platform? YES NO 1b. Is the other property owned by a grazier YES NO 1c. Are stock mixed with cattle from other farms at this property? YES NO 1d. Do you have health status information on stock from other properties if cattle are mixed? YES NO 1e. Are cattle purchased from other farms? YES NO 1f. Are cattle purchased protected/vaccinated against: Lepto YES NO BVD YES NO IBR YES NO Vibrio YES NO Clostridial disease YES NO Salmonella YES NO 1g. Are cattle purchased assessed/tested for: BVD YES NO Section 2: NAIT Compliance Contagious mastitis YES NO JD YES NO TB YES NO 2a. Are all stock NAIT tagged? YES NO 2b. Are stock removed from the farm for slaughter recorded in NAIT? YES NO 2c. Are stock purchased onto the property recorded in NAIT? YES NO 2d. Are stock moved between properties owned by the home farm YES NO recorded in NAIT? Section 3: Managing new stock arrivals (and temporary movement away and returns) 3a. Are newly introduced stock quarantined after arrival? YES NO 3b. How long does this quarantine last (days)? LOW RISK HIGH RISK 3c. Is surveillance undertaken to check for sick animals during the YES NO quarantine period? Section 4: Transport Equipment 4a. Are stock transported in clean trucks? YES NO 4b. Are stock transported combined with stock from other farms YES NO during single journeys? 4c. Do visiting stock trucks dump effluent on your farm during YES NO pickup or drop off? Continued over page... Anexa Vets, established by farmers for farmers. Find out how you can become a member of our Vet Club at Preparing for your heifers returning from grazing 4 Biosecurity Ensure you keep your returning heifers separate from the herd for at least seven days upon return. Monitor closely for signs of disease. 4 Plan your feed Returning heifers are going to put more pressure on paddocks that have already had poor growth through the summer. It is essential that the R2s are well fed through calving - what are you going to feed them? 4 Body condition score Make sure you get your R2s condition scored or at least weighed upon return. You need to know if they failed to hit growth targets.

2 Is your herd going to achieve calving condition targets this year? By Katrina Roberts, Anexa Vets, Herd Health Veterinarian Unless you are regularly body condition scoring the herd, you just don t know, it is as simple as that. We ve been having lots of Repro Review/PD review/incalf post PD meetings over the last month (if you haven t had a chat with your vet then please book one in). The main aim of these reviews is to work out why you got the results you got, what worked and what didn t - now is the best time to do this review as mating was not that long ago and you can remember most of what happened! Body condition score is often the white elephant, the ingredient of the reproductive cake that we are too polite to address but honestly unless you measure it then we just can t be sure how much it is contributing to YOUR herd s repro performance. The herd below is a herd that has been regularly body condition scored (individually during milking) at four key times points during the season so far at calving (so we know where we started), pre-mating (so we know how much was lost, but with time to take action on the cows that had lost too much), mid-mating (to check we were gaining condition and that the recommended strategies were working) and earlier this month to check on our situation for drying off. The recent score, as you can see from the graph, shows that the summer has been hard on these cows, and aggressive action is being taken on farm to ensure we get every cow back to where we need to be for calving, so that next season s reproductive performance is not compromised. This herd is one of our top repro herds at Anexa, and as you can see they take BCS monitoring seriously. In this herd BCS is not the white elephant anymore. Broken and Damaged Tails By Ali Cullum, Veterinarian, Anexa Vets Morrinsville Do you have cows in your herd who look like this? Have you ever had dislocated joints or broken bones in your fingers? If you are familiar with the pain associated with these injuries, then you know what the cow suffers with a broken tail, and you will understand why these injuries are a welfare concern. Tail injuries are now monitored in cows going for slaughter and feedback given to the supplying farmers. If you have cows with broken tails you need to ask how they are occurring. Are they happening before the animals come on farm (during the rearing phase) or are they happening outside the dairy shed, during handling or on machinery and equipment? Tails should not be twisted so violently that the connections between the vertebrae break. If a cow has a new tail injury it is painful, she should receive anti-inflammatories and if there is raw skin or bone exposed she needs veterinary attention. If you are concerned about broken tails in your herd, ask your veterinarian to help you with an assessment of the situation.

3 Cows feeling the pressure? By Hanneke Officer, Veterinarian, Healthy Hoof Advisor Have you ever felt the pressure or pain of a stone stuck in your boot; right under that sensitive spot? Or cracks in your heel that cause pain every time you take a step? When a cow has a normal claw, she bears weight evenly across the sole of both claws. If or when she injures her hoof, she will attempt to reduce the pressure on the sensitive spot by taking weight off. She will walk on the back of her hoof if the front is sore and vice versa and also put more weight on the claw on the other side. This results in uneven claw growth, which then pushes the hoof in an unnatural position, creating more uneven growth. Over time, this will show as overgrown feet. This process doesn t only occur when a cow is lame. Lay-out of the farm, walking distances, yard pressure and weather conditions can all contribute to a change in weight bearing this is why most farms will have 20-30% of their herd with overgrown claws. Pressure can come in different forms: Yard pressure: movements of cows to achieve their milking order causes pushing and shoving if there is limited free space Track pressure: rocks, hard walking surface, congestion areas (sharp corners, underpasses, bridges), hills Pressure from staff: bringing cows in, backing gate use, presence on the yard at milking Mating (bulls) Pregnancy Milking platform: slippery Feed pad/herd homes: extra time on a hard surface Timely tips around dry off time Most of our clients have started drying off some cows (e.g. low BCS, early-calving, heifers, low production and high SCC cows). These early dry off groups may need a little extra thought. Low BCS, early-calvers and heifers Be careful not to underfeed these animals at dry off. The drying off process requires a lot of extra energy over and above maintenance requirements. Reducing feed to help drying off will just lead to BCS loss. Cows producing < 12L milk per day are very easy to dry off and need minimal feed changes (reduced protein). Change the routine As you approach dry off, milk them at a different time of day, switch from TAD to OAD milking and feed their supplements at different times; these all help turn off milking stimuli. Feed pad manage the risk We all know that cows should be kept well away from the shed for at least 10 days following dry off to reduce the stimulation to let down and produce milk. However, for many herds, it just isn t possible to keep cows off the feed pad (which is usually next to the shed) but you can reduce the risks: all animals should receive intramammary teat sealant and/or dry cow antibiotic therapy keep them off the pad for as long as possible (ideally until visibly drying off) when they must come to the pad, bring them at different times of day to milking time and their usual feeding times during lactation ensure the pad is clean before the dry cows come on don t allow cows to run to the pad (have a person in front controlling their speed if necessary) make sure they don t spend longer than necessary on the pad (eat and go). Low producing cows If possible, avoid the use of dry cow antibiotic therapy in cows producing < 5L per day. Low milk volume at dry off increases the chance of IS grading after calving. Some of these factors are hard to avoid, which is where management measures become important. Part of the solution is identification of problem areas, the other part is hoof care: regular trimming to maintain a healthy weight bearing surface which will increase resilience to adverse hoof events and help towards lameness prevention. The pictures above show hoof angles and surface changes before and after hoof trimming correcting the angle will significantly change the pressure on the soles and wall of the claw. Like changing from roller blades or ice skates to sneakers and changing from flippers to slippers. For identification of problem areas and risk factors on your farm, talk to your Vet about getting in touch with one of our Healthy Hoof Advisors to make an appointment for a free intro visit. To correct altered weight bearing in your herd - call Rhonda to book our hoof trimmer Stuart to address your cow s feet prior to dry off. Weather If it rains when you have planned to dry off, you (and all staff!) need to be extra vigilant about hygiene for dry cow therapy and teat sealant insertion. You may even need to tweak your drying off plans to reduce the risk of mastitis. Rising BTSCC? If you find the BTSCC rising before dry off, it is still worth trying to identify the cause. It could be due to lower milk volume (cows starting to dry themselves off) or increased intramammary infections (clinical or subclinical) that may need to be treated before dry off. Either way, you may need to change your approach to drying off; a phone call to your vet would be well worth while.

4 Grazing contracts essential By Ashley O Driscoll, Veterinarian, Anexa Vets, Ngaruawahia There are no friends in business - wise words once spoken to me by a good friend. A surprising number of Kiwi farmers work on the handshake or verbal agreement when it comes to grazing calves/heifers. Intentions may be good, but have you discussed all of the details? THE FIRST OF MAY IS ALMOST HERE for your heifer grazing! From the grazier s point of view a contract is essential. Don t set your heifer grazier up for failure- are your calves up to standard? Do you know how much they weigh after their first summer as calves? A grazier wants to make sure that they receive healthy, fat animals and that they have the ability to keep them healthy and fat. Your grazier doesn t want to be incorrectly blamed for light animals at the end of the grazing period. From the dairy farmer s point of view a contract is also essential. Who is responsible for supplement feeding if the grazier runs out of grass? What target weights or weight gain is expected? Does the grazier have permission to call the vets for a sick animal and charge it to your account? The dairy season can be quite busy, but you don t want to forget about your young stock. If you ignore your heifers, they will struggle with reproduction and milk production for the rest of their lives. Should you make a contract? There are various checklists available free of charge on the DairyNZ website (search contract grazing DairyNZ ). You can be as formal (hire a lawyer!) or informal as you like. The main concern is that you actually discuss all of the WHAT IFS with the other party. Your veterinarian can help you design this agreement if you like - we see all of the disagreements and misunderstandings between graziers and dairy farmers. Don t be shy - discuss the what-ifs! Minerals and Trace Elements By Ali Cullum, Veterinarian, Anexa Vets Morrinsville As you dry cows off, don t forget that the Facial Eczema season is still very much with us. Spore counts are rising due to the continuing warm temperatures, small amounts of rain and large amounts of dead grass in the swards. Cows need to be protected with zinc and will still require it once they are dry. Historically we have seen serious facial eczema outbreaks in dry cows whose zinc supplementation has been reduced or stopped. If you wish to receive our weekly spore count map visit and sign up to our spore counts ing list. Also remember that diets with high amounts of maize silage and other supplements may be short of calcium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorous and other elements important for lactation and maintenance. They need balanced appropriately. Ask your veterinarian who will be happy to advise you. Going into the autumn it is time to think about trace elements such as copper, cobalt and selenium. These are all important for general health, growth and reproduction. Animals with low levels of these elements do not utilise their food properly and will give you a poor return for your winter feeding programme. Blood samples and liver biopsies enable an assessment of the herd mineral and trace element status, then you and your veterinarian can draw up a mineral supplementation plan for your animals. HEALTH & SAFETY TIP Reduce Trips & Falls Be aware of where you leave boots, equipment, hoses etc Ensure that these objects are not left in the middle of walkways or around the shed/yards where staff or visitors could fall over them Take a moment to put them in the right place Anexa Vets fund raising for I Am Hope & taking part in Gumboot Friday 5th April 2019 #gumbootupnz We are delighted to support I Am Hope and their Gumboot Friday campaign to support kids getting the mental health support they need, when they need it, & encourage you to, too THE VET anexafvc.co.nz Coromandel P: Gordonton P: Huntly P: Maramarua P: Matamata P: Morrinsville P: Ngaruawahia P: Ngatea P: Paeroa P: Raglan P: Rototuna P: Te Aroha P: Te Kauwhata P: Thames P:

5 DAIRY TALK Anexa Vets, established by farmers for farmers. Find out how you can become a member of our Vet Club at Plan and prevent nitrate poisoning in your stock Every year we see the preventable death of animals due to nitrate poisoning. Risk factors include: CAUTION! Feeding certain feeds such as new grass, brassicas, sorghum, tama and oats;! Periods of warm, wet, overcast conditions, especially after a dry spell. However, with careful planning, you can manage high-risk feeds during this period to prevent nitrate poisoning: 4 DO check nitrate levels of high-risk feed before starting to feed it out Nitrate testing kits are available from your nearest clinic Collect samples first thing in the morning and bring them into Anexa for testing 4 DO feed alternative feeds such as hay or other grass in the morning 4 DO wait until early afternoon to feed high-risk feed 8 DO NOT feed high-risk feeds first thing in the morning Nitrate levels increase overnight so are highest in the morning Sunlight helps to reduce nitrate levels during the day 8 DO NOT feed high-risk feeds on an empty stomach Concentrated amounts that are quickly eaten are more likely to cause poisoning 8 DO NOT feed high-risk feed for a long period NO MORE THAN 1.5 to 2 hours! Most importantly, keep a close eye on stock after feeding high-risk feeds for signs of nitrate poisoning these are usually apparent within 3 4 hours of feeding. Signs include:! lethargy,! rapid and open-mouth breathing! going down and becoming bloated! and in worst cases, death. If you see any of these signs, call your vet IMMEDIATELY. If treated early, an antidote can be administered to save animals lives. However, if left untreated, cows can die very quickly. CONTACT YOUR ANEXA VET FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT NITRATE POISONING. Gordonton P: Huntly P: Maramarua P: Matamata P: Morrinsville P: Ngaruawahia P: Ngatea P: Paeroa P: Raglan P: Rototuna P: Te Aroha P: Te Kauwhata P: Thames P: anexafvc.co.nz

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