Dairy
Your calves are doing well and suddenly you find one dead in the paddock. There's a great list of diseases that cause sudden death in calves. Some of these diseases are untreatable but are preventable, including bovine virus diarrhoea (BVD), blackleg and haemorrhagic enterotoxaemia. Others are both preventable and treatable if you can get to them quickly enough including salmonella, bloat and listeriosis. There are treatments for yersiniosis and polioencephalomalacia (PEM) or thiamine deficiency. Early diagnosis of sudden death in calves will minimise further losses.
Spring eczema seems to be rampant in calves this year. Although there is little to offer on the prevention front, there are palliative treatments that reduce the stress on affected calves and lessen the check they receive.
Why not have your calves weighed by Totally Vets when you are vaccinating against lepto and clostridial diseases? Growing Great Heifers may be the first step in correcting a poor herd reproductive performance.
Sheep & Beef
The good feed levels produced this spring have produced some great results from the early drafts of lambs and nice improvements in the condition of breeding stock.
Make sure all lambs get a shot of 5-in-1 vaccine around weaning; we've certainly seen more cases of pulpy kidney this year and 5-in-1 vaccine is such cheap insurance against this disease which invariably knocks over your biggest and fastest growing lambs!
Breeding bulls are carrying more weight this spring and could be more prone to ‘sports injuries' whilst out with the cows, so make sure your bull management policy includes good cover for this possibility.
Fly continues to be an issue, and talk to us for options around summer fly control that will also minimise hassles with lice later on.
