Page 5 - Livestock Matters - Winter 2012

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X LVETS NEWS
WINTER 2012 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
4
This year's Livestock 2012 (previously the Dairy Event) returned to Birmingham's NEC for another
busy two days. Armed with an abundance of FarmSkills t-shirts and the now infamous prosthetic
bull’s testicles, members of the XLVets and FarmSkills teams headed up the stand along with many
willing volunteers from member practices.
Livestock 2012
The stand, as ever was impressive with areas
for three skills challenges, a space for visitors
to chat to vets, enter the competition and read
the abundance of literature on offer.
Although numbers at this year's event were
slightly down - mainly due to the exceptionally
nice weather - we had a constant stream of
willing participants for our activities which this
year focused on taking a clean milk sample,
bull and ram fertility and tying a halter from a
single piece of rope.
Although we attracted many new people to
our stand this year, with around 500 people
leaving their details for further information, it
was encouraging to speak to so many people
who had been on FarmSkills courses over the
past twelve months and were keen for more
information on what they could attend next.
A big thank you must go to all the vets and
support staff who volunteered their time to
man the stand throughout the event and
played an important role in encouraging
people to take up the challenges and learn a
new skill.
A special thank you also to Bryony Kendal
from Tyndale Vets who helped the RABDF with
ram MOT demonstrations in the livestock
area, and to XLVet members who flew the flag
in the Farm Health Planning seminars: Nigel
Woolfenden (Bishopton) for his talk on swine
dysentery; Mike Clarke (Minster) for a
discussion on whether poultry and other
livestock mix; Ed Hayes (Endell) who looked
at how to get high yielding Holsteins into
calf and Jonathan Statham (Bishopton) whose
seminar looked at the threats of IBR on cattle.