VETTALES Te Puke Veterinary Centre Newsletter MAY 2017

Transcription

1 VETTALES Te Puke Veterinary Centre Newsletter MAY 2017 NEWS BRIEFS While Facial Eczema has been less of an issue this year, weather events over the last 6 weeks have provided more than enough of a challenge. For many that has meant drying off a few weeks earlier than planned. Hopefully the silver lining will be that cows and pastures get an extended break, and with the Fonterra forecast looking better, everything will start well next season. Sensible Antibiotic Use Antibiotic resistance & judicious use of antibiotics in animals has got plenty of coverage in recent times, and this is only set to continue. The NZ Vet Association has adapted the World Health Organisations traffic light system to categorise antibiotics we use, based on the importance to human medicine. Wed 7th to Fri 10th June This coming season, you will notice some antibiotics will be red stickered. These are antibiotics which are important in the treatment of difficult to cure human (and veterinary) conditions. For these diseases there are only very limited treatment options. Red stickered antibiotics should only be used following vet diagnosis and on a case by case basis. Maintaining effective antibiotics for human conditions is vital. We are currently in the education phase, but changes in access and the way we use certain antibiotics in both animals and humans is inevitable. There will be information about some of the more crucial antibiotics and why they are so important, available at the clinic. In This Issue 1. NOT TO BE MISSED SEMINARS. Ensure you & your staff come along. 2. Calform Oral Metabolic 6+1 promotion 3. Starter Plus 60L & 200L June Special 4. Eprinex & Eclipse Winter Drench promotion 5. Farmers Squash Tournament 6. Stress Free Calf Disbudding New Staff If you have a manager or worker who would like to receive Vettales please let us know. We will make sure they get a copy. Also let Elena know their contact details so that we can contact them if we need to. Te Puke Veterinary Service Inc AGM Wednesday 5th July, 7.30 p.m. at Te Puke Golf Club Supper and refreshments provided Guest Speaker after AGM

2 Newsflash Neil Chesterton Lameness Guru in Te Puke!! As many of you can attest to (we certainly can!!), this has been one of the worst years for lameness. On 6 th June, Te Puke Vets will be hosting a seminar to help you understand why lameness occurs, and how to reduce and prevent lameness in the future. We have invited Neil Chesterton as the speaker for the seminar. Neil has been a vet in Taranaki for many years. His passion is to not only treat lameness but to understand its causes and how to prevent herd lameness. This passion has taken him all over the world helping people prevent lameness. At the seminar Neil will use lots of videos and stories to teach about cow flow, cow behaviour and human behaviour to help us understand why one farm can have a high incidence of lameness and the neighbour has next to none. Neil helped to develop the DairyNZ Healthy Hoof Programme that aims to reduce lameness on dairy farms. In our practice, Bryce has been trained in this programme and is keen and available to help solve your lameness problems. When: 6 th June 11.30am Where: Eastern Districts Rugby Clubrooms, SH33 Paengaroa Cost: $30 per person or $60 per farm Lunch will be provided. Essential to RSVP by 2 nd June This seminar will change the culture of the way your team handles the herd. We guarantee that you will pick up some tips on how to better manage foot health on your farm. There will also be plenty of time to ask Neil all the difficult questions you ever wanted to ask. Put this link in your browser or follow it from your to see a message from Neil. Dairy Cattle Reminders Body condition score herd. Preferential feeding of light cows Blood test yearlings and rising 2YOs for liver fluke. Drench with SWITCH Fluke10 if needed Supplement with Copper/Copacaps if required Drench herd with Eprinex Drench yearlings with Eclipse Start magnesium 3 weeks prior to calving Check selenium is adequate prior to calving Teatseal heifers Book in Rotavirus vaccination Harry & Dave went through vet school together - but they knew each other before then... Harry, a hillbilly s son from back in the hills, walked twelve miles one way to the Hunterville general store. 'Heya, Harry,' said Dave, the store owner s son. 'Tell me; are you and ya Pa still making fires up there by rubbing stones and flint together?' 'You betcha, Dave. Ain't no 'tother way. Why?' 'Got something to show you. Something to make fire. It's called a "match". 'Match says Harry? Never heard of it.' 'Watch this. If you want a fire you just do this,' Dave says, taking a match and striking it on his trousers. 'Well, that sure is something says Harry, but that ain't for us. 'Well, why not?' 'I can't be walking twelve miles every time I want a fire to borrow your trousers.'

3 Metabolic Management Milk fever is the most common metabolic problem seen in NZ dairy herds. Occurring usually in the days either side of calving, milk fever comes about from the sudden loss of calcium into the milk. The result is a staggery cow that quickly goes down, and if left lapses into a coma and dies. There are also significant subclinical effects that are less obvious. These include increased incidence of disease, reduced reproductive performance & lower milk production throughout lactation. Milk fever is a significant herd health issue. Fortunately it can be prevented but it requires forward planning which needs to begin now. The following are things you should be considering: Magnesium supplementation - for the 3 weeks prior to calving and the following 2-3 months. - MgO (oxide) drenched or added to feed at 20gm/cow/day. If dusting use at 100gm/cow/day - MgCl / MgSO4 (salts) added to drinking water at a maximum of 50g/cow/day. It isn t possible to get enough Mg into the cow through water only as it is too bitter and will put cows off drinking. The Mg salts are however more effective especially at lowering the Cation/Anion balance that makes herds susceptible to Milk Fever. A combination of oxide and salts works best especially where supplementing feeding hay or using a mixer or feed wagon. Talk to Laura to get a mix to suit your farming system. Supplementing calcium your herd shouldn t be supplemented with calcium prior to calving, but once in the colostrum herd cows can be supplemented with up to 300g of limeflour/cow for the first 4 days and then 100g/cow thereafter. Calving cows at a good body condition; ideally you want your cows calving at condition score of 5-5.5, any fatter than this will again predispose to milk fever. Identify and monitor your at risk cows - these will be previous offenders or older high producers. If you suspect anything, treat them at calving with an oral drench; such as Starter Plus. Alternatively use Hideject ADE injection 1 week before calving. Treatment with calcium solutions, both IV and under the skin is common place. IV delivery will give you an immediate boost to calcium levels, but often the cow is not out of the woods. Additional treatment with oral formulations such as Calform Plus will give sustained calcium levels for the next 24 hours and will help prevent relapses. These cows are also energy deficient so use solutions that contain dextrose such as Glucalmax or give them a drench of Ketol Xtra. Metabolic Supplies Easy to use plastic packs Range of products for all situations The Calpro range are VET ONLY and contain B12 for appetite Blue, Brown and Purple are best given IV. The rest are best given under the skin. Special Box (12 bag) prices Calform Plus Spring Promotion Buy a Calform 6 pack and receive a bonus bottle Free + 1 Bottle FREE STARTER PLUS Helps cows stay on their feet and speeds recovery after calving. Benefits include less metabolics, stronger appetite and improved feed conversion efficiency. Starter Plus contains Molasses, Mono-propylene Glycol & Golden Flake Rumen By Pass Fat. These ingredients provide per litre: Energy 15.2 MJME Calcium 54 grams Magnesium 12.3 grams Vitamins Give as a single 1-2L drench at calving or 500 mls daily for 3-4 days. Also used to treat milk fever, either to supplement injection or stand alone treatment for mild cases. Starter Plus June Special 60 litre - $ excl GST 200 litre - $ excl GST Also available in 1L and 15L The 60L, & 200L prices incl. delivery on farm Also available drum pump and drenching hook

4 Calf Rearing and Colostrum Management Seminar Have you had enough of getting scouring sick calves during calving? While the age old advice you all know still stands true, some new trial work has given us further tools in the on going battle against calf scours. How good is your colostrum? Turns out not as good as we might like to think. Out of 55 farms only 2% of farms meet all criteria for good quality colostrum. What can you do? Come to our presentation on the 29th of May for some useful and practical tips to minimise calf scours. Come away motivated and ready to tackle the next calving season! Change the way you think about managing colostrum, and improve the quality of the calves you produce - ALL CALF REARERS SHOULD ATTEND!! Venue: Te Puke Squash Club When: pm Monday 29th May Lunch kindly sponsored by MSD Animal Health Please RSVP by 26 th May Rotavirus Scours Rotavirus scours is an everpresent threat to calves in both dairy and beef herds. Calves are especially vulnerable in the first three weeks of their lives and the results are often fatal. Rotavirus is present on about 70-80% of farms. Calf scour outbreaks often occur at the same time as calving peaks. This can make life very difficult when workloads are already high. Seeing valuable calves suffering and dying is also very distressing for all concerned. Treatment (fluids) is time consuming, stressful and often not successful. Antibiotics are ineffective against the virus. Prevention is the best option to protect your investment in calves: Single annual vaccination with Rotavec Corona - All the herd including two-year-olds, - 3 weeks before calving start. - Also protects against E.coli and Corona virus, two other serious causes of scours. Feed high quality colostrum to all calves. Keep calves dry and draught free. Rear calves in groups of Of the same age, - In the same pen for the duration they are housed indoors. Colostrum feeding It is essential that all calves receive adequate colostrum within the first 12 hours following birth. Even after 6 hours the ability of the calves gut to absorb antibodies has decreased by 30-50%. By around 24 hours the calf can no longer absorb antibodies, but antibodies present in colostrum continue to have a local affect on the gut and therefore help prevent scours. Pick calves up twice daily ASAP individually feed calves 2 litres of undiluted first milk colostrum. Tube feed calves that won t drink or look like they have not drunk from their mother Feed undiluted quality colostrum ad-lib for first 4 days. Continue to feed lower quality colostrum for 3 weeks. This can be diluted 2 parts colostrum with 1 part hot water. Feed 3 litres of diluted colostrum twice daily. Storage of colostrums is critical to quality. Bacteria inhibit absorption. Store in clean drums with loosely fitting lids. For long term storage options talk to Laura or Anna. ENERLECT Electrolyte Enerlect is a high energy source that supplies all the important electrolytes lost during diarrhoea. Enerlect also acts to correct the acidosis that is a common feature of serious diarrhoea in calves. Quality electrolyte Economic pricing Available in 1kg, 3kg and 8kg packs

5 Need your cows to be more efficient? Rumen modifiers adjust bacteria in the rumen of cows allowing them to produce more energy from the feed they eat (equivalent to feeding an extra 0.5kg to 1kg of high quality dry matter). This energy is used to increase milk protein & reduce metabolic disease. Rumenox is a uniquely formulated product containing the rumen modifier Monensin. Increase Milk Protein Monensin is one of the most researched active ingredients in animal health with over 2000 papers having been published internationally. A range of NZ trials consistently show that it increases milk protein production. With the current milk price this equates to a response worth 29 cents per cow per day. At a cost of 7-8 cents per cow/day the financial gains are easily quantified. Bloat Control Monensin out-performs bloat oils when it comes to controlling bloat, due to its longer 24 hour protection. This, along with increased milk protein, makes Monensin the most cost-effective form of bloat control available. Reduce Ketosis The extra energy produced by using Monensin significantly reduces sub clinical ketosis (SCK), a metabolic disease that is now widespread throughout NZ dairy herds. Recent NZ research has linked SCK to increased endometritis (uterine infections post-calving) and a staggering 7% reduction in six week in-calf rates. Rumenox granules are easily administered daily through an in-line water dispenser and are available in convenient 12kg pails (12,000 doses). There is also an option for a premix formulation designed to blend with silage, grains and molasses. Talk to us about this cost-effective option for your herd. "I initially started using Rumenox three seasons ago to help prevent ketosis over calving. Since then I have noticed the cows hold their condition better, have less calving issues and are milking better." Dion Steiner, Dairy Farmer Otamarakau STRESS FREE CALF DISBUDDING The procedure involves sedating calves followed by local anaesthetic and disbudding. The major appeal to the method is the sedation, which means no pain and therefore no restraint required for injecting the local or the disbudding. The calves lie down and they are disbudded in the yard or pen. The method is also quick with 2-3 Vets / Techs attending larger groups. While the calves are sedated we remove extra teats. For best results it is very important that the calves are disbudded before they are 6 weeks of age. Older calves incur a $2.25 per head surcharge. Cost $5.85 per head ex G.S.T. Non-Steriodal Anti-Infammatory Drugs Calves that receive an anti-inflammatory at the time of disbudding are less stressed and have better growth rates. We are providing this option for anyone that is interested - cost approximately $4 per calf. Mastitis Services Grade Busting Milking Investigations Farm Staff training Data Analysis Please ring us during calving if you are worried about your clinical mastitis or are unhappy with your bulk tank somatic cell count We are here to help. KAIWAKA WET WEATHER AND COLD WEATHER PRO- TECTIVE CLOTHING (several ranges inc children) Please pick up a complimentary apron when you pick up your spring order.

6 IVOMEC Eprinex DRENCHING THE DAIRY HERD Eprinex is a unique drench, formulated specifically to enhance performance. It is consistent, persistent and rainfast. NZ trials have shown that treating cows at calving time with Eprinex pour-on: Increases daily milk solid production by 0.03 kg MS per cow per day for the whole lactation. At $6 /kg for 247 days this equates to $44 extra income per cow. Reduces the 2YO heifers calving to conception interval by 13 days and increases the pregnancy rate to first service by 20%. Increases heifer income by $78 each due to 13 days extra milk at 1.2 kg milk solids per day. Improves body condition and increases liveweight. Nil meat, milk & bobby calf WHT s These results are unique to Eprinex. Other worm treatments don t show as significant a production increase. Following the difficult weather conditions recently, cow condition for many is light. These lighter cows should be given special attention, as well as first calving heifers. However the best milk responses are from high producing cows. 5L EPRINEX Buy x 2 & get a FREE Casio Tough Solar watch $495 excl. GST Great value at only $4.95/cow Extended terms Pay September Simply purchase the below products and get an all-weather Navigator jacket by Degree Eprinex 20L Eclipse Pour On 10L Eclipse E injection 3L pack See in store for More details Best time to drench for production gains is at calving. Alternatively use during dry period to help put on weight.