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SPRING 2014 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
8
HEALTHCARE
“Friesians are also a lot
hardier than Holsteins.”
The oldest cow in the herd will be starting her
14th lactation in March 2014 - prior to that
her lifetime production has been 114,647
litres of milk.
John agrees: ‘As a breed, the Friesian has very
few health problems. There is very little post-
calving or metabolic disease here. In fact, the
herd has only had two LDAs in the past 12
years, and both cases were after cows had
given birth to twins.’
Nor is lameness an issue at Grange Farm.
Brian and John attribute this in part to the
breed, but also the regular hoof-trimming that
is carried out by stockman Eric Tunstall. This
includes the routine trimming of all four feet
when cows are dried off.
The herd calves all year round, and in the last
NMR-qualifying year, the calving interval was
408 days. The 100-day in-calf rate is 45%.
John says: ‘The calving interval could be
lower, but because of the very good pedigree
bloodlines, some cows are kept on and given
further chances to conceive.
‘The good calving interval is testament to
the excellent stockmanship of Brian and
Eric. Heat detection is all done by eye -
watching cow behaviour, rather than using
monitoring devices.’
Brian keeps the herd closed; it is vaccinated
for BVD and leptospirosis, but not IBR as it
has tested clear of this disease. A 30-cow
screening for Johne’s disease has also been
carried out - targeting the older and high risk
cows - and the results were again all-clear.
In the past, there have been problems with
pneumonia in housed calves. There is now
a pneumonia vaccination programme for all
youngstock during the winter months.
Despite being a closed herd with no sheep,
liver fluke entered the herd a few years ago.
It is thought fluke-infected snails were
washed onto the grazing ground which
floods regularly.
John says: ‘We confirmed there was active
fluke infection through routine screening of
the bulk milk, and finding eggs in the dung
of some scouring cows. Cows are now
treated at drying off with a flukicide, and all
youngstock are treated two months after
being housed.
Youngstock graze a separate block of
land, away from the main farm and the
milking herd. Last year, during a routine
pre-movement TB test, a single heifer was
identified as a TB reactor. As the site had
the same holding number as the farm,
it meant that the whole herd had to be
shut down.
Fortunately, the following two TB tests have
been clear, and now Brian is free to sell
animals again. Meantime there are some
knock-on effects for herd management
and health.
Brian explains: ‘Part of the business here is
selling replacement heifers - we usually sell
40 to 50 freshly calved heifers each year.
But with the shutdown, we have had to
hang onto them and will be selling them as
second calvers. This means we currently
have 180 cows on the farm, and not the
usual 150.’
John adds: ‘Problems with stocking density
often occur on farms which have been shut
down with TB. In Brian’s case, it’s slowed
the improvements we were making in
reducing clinical cases of mastitis.’
Disease control
As a routine teats are dipped in foam pre-milking
Bull beef cattle are reared and sold deadweight at
12 months