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FARMERS WEEKLY AWARDS
Winner of the Beef Farmer of the Year and
also overall Champion Farmer in the Farmers
Weekly 2010 Awards was John Hoskin of
John Hoskin and Sons, Maiden Castle Farm
near Dorchester.
In fact, John, together with his son Richard,
runs three separate beef enterprises - bull beef
finishing, a suckler cow herd and finishing of
heifer stores. Helping him to manage the health
and productivity of these varied enterprises is
vet Mark Burnell of Synergy Farm Health, and
his fellow veterinary colleagues.
PREVENTING DISEASE
AND
MANAGING HEALTH ACROSS
DIFFERENT BEEF ENTERPRISES
Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year 2010:
John Hoskin
Mark Burnell
Synergy Farm Health
Mark Burnell of Synergy Farm Health comments
‘Digital dermatitis was a major issue’
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
9
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
THE BU L L B E E F ENT E R P R I S E
Six years ago, John made the
conscious decision to replace his
dairy herd with an alternative
livestock enterprise, one which
would similarly provide a regular
monthly income.
He signed up to a beef finishing contract
with Blade Farming: 14-week-old
dairy-bred bull calves are brought onto
the farm in batches of 30, on a monthly
basis. These are then ad-lib fed a barley
ration and slaughtered to achieve target
carcase weights of 255-300kg.
‘With cattle coming onto the farm from over
100 herds around the area, we know that
disease is going to be brought in,’ explains
Mark. ‘So we need to manage the hazard,
to prevent disease. This is achieved by
ongoing health monitoring and appropriate
vaccination and protection, where the
length of the animal's life justifies it.
‘For instance the risk of Blackleg infection
is high - the intensive feeding and rapid
growth, plus the boisterous behaviour of
the cattle can predispose animals to
such clostridial infections. So cattle are
vaccinated a month after arriving. It's a
low cost vaccine so well worth taking
the preventative action.’
One health issue that did arise was
lameness. ‘Digital dermatitis was a major
issue,’ explains Mark. ‘It was depressing
growth rates and even causing death.
‘It's impossible to eliminate as there is
always going to be a background level of
infection in the environment. Typically I'd
recommend formalin or copper sulphate in
footbaths but bulls get stressed with lots of
handling. In fact, they can actually lose
weight just due to being handled to put
through a footbath.’
Instead, bulls are put through a double
footbath every six weeks - the first one to
wash their feet clean and the next contains
an antibiotic prescribed by Mark.
‘By using an antibiotic solution, the disease
is hit harder, extending the time period
between footbaths.’ John adds: ‘I expected
the problem in dairy cows, but was quite
shocked at the extent to which it affected
the bulls. The footbathing works well and if
it prevents the loss of just one animal's life
each year, then it has paid off to do it.’
Bulls are finished on an ad-lib barley/
protein blend with limestone flour added
to prevent acidosis, and to which they
have 24 hour access. Chopped straw is
no longer included as it caused bridging
in the troughs, however bulls do pick at
the straw bedding.