WINTER 2014/2015 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
12
HERD HEALTH
Calf care
The Harveys’ purpose-built calf shed is
designed with a forced ventilation system;
fans in the roof can be switched on to draw
air up through panels in the side walls,
thereby ensuring that calves are never in
a draught.
Colostrum management broadly mirrors the
XLVets 1:2:3 system in which newly calved
cows are milked within 2 hours and 3 litres
of milk from this first (1st) milking is given to
the calf straightaway. The calf is then topped
up with as much milk as possible, in the first
six hours of its life. At Drum Farm, care is
taken that a cow’s milk is only fed to her
own offspring.
Calves are kept in single pens for the first
three to four days and trained to bottle-feed
thereby enabling a smooth transition onto the
automatic feeders, where they each receive
7 litres/day of milk replacer. Weaning is at
nine weeks of age.
As a check that calves were receiving a
sufficient quantity and quality of colostrum,
Roddy has taken blood samples from
week-old calves for analysis of protein levels
- which correlate with antibody levels and
immunity. As expected, results confirmed
that all was well.
Small details matter
There is a lot of attention to detail on the farm
- both in management practices and facilities.
Roddy adds: ‘The Harveys are fastidious
about setting things up correctly. The sheds
are well-designed, and for example, all
include tip-over troughs which make regular
trough cleaning a lot easier. And there’s a
cluster flush system in the parlour.
‘The Harveys are great to work with - they
take on board my advice and also take
responsibility for their actions. For instance,
the calving index slipped last summer. This
was partly due to the heat detection collars -
there needed to be a more disciplined
replacement of worn batteries and putting on
of collars. The target service period is 40-50
days post-calving, so collars need to go on at
least 14 days before insemination dates else
heats are missed. This hadn’t been the
case... but it is now!’
Another small change which can have a big
impact is the identification of cows bearing
twins. Roddy explains: ‘The herd has a twin
rate of around 11%. We know these cows
tend to be more prone to metabolic problems
and a higher negative energy balance, so we
are deliberately taking extra time to PD each
cow so we can find those with twins and
manage them accordingly.’
Cow comfort is very important for all milking
and dry cows which are housed in sand
cubicles. By using sand saver mats and a
high kerb at the rear, sand usage is minimised.
In addition, as of this year, the calving area
is now also bedded with sand. This means
the cows are removed from contact with any
organic matter. This has helped reduce both
mastitis cases and also metritis cases.
The herd mastitis rate was low - around 20
clinical cases/cow/year - but the Harveys
wanted to see this reduced further. The
infections were mainly occurring in the early
part of lactation, indicating that it was the
conditions around calving that were the
root cause.
Roddy says: ‘Using sand has led to even
lower levels of mastitis, just 10 cases/100
cows/year.
‘Also, previously on my fertility visits, we
noticed a large number of ‘dirty’ cows
that were 20-30 days calved; treating this
metritis takes up to six weeks and delays
their return to service. In that time, a clean
cow could already be back in calf.
‘Metritis is an inflammation of the uterus
(womb). It can occur when sub-clinical levels
of milk fever affect the animal’s biochemistry,
and when cows hold onto cleansing - as
this keeps the uterine tract open so there’s
more chance of E.coli entering the womb.
Prolonged calvings also increase this risk.
‘Metritis cases are now less than 2%; this is
in part due to the sand bedding, but also
because John now checks cow temperatures
three days after calving, and looks for signs
of metritis so that any infections can be
picked up early and treated.’
Sand benefits
Cows calve onto sand
Calf coats - new this season at Drum Farm
Next on the list of improvements - in what
is already a very well-managed herd - is
a greater focus on calf growths.
John adds: ‘We’ve picked off a lot of the
‘easy bits’ and now we are going to
focus on heifer rearing. We’ve got over
100 heifers coming through the system,
we need to identify those which aren’t
worth putting the effort into, so we can
bring the age at first calving down from
26 to 24 months.’
To help them do this, the Harveys will be
monitoring calf growth rates using a
weigh tape. In addition, some new
jackets will be put onto calves when they
move from the single pens into the group
pens. ‘There’s more chance of them
getting chilled here so these will help
them whilst they get established in the
new environment,’ explains John.
Roddy adds: ‘The Harveys will get
their money back on the jackets! The
protection will help improve feed
conversion efficiency and growth.’
Roddy’s regular visits to check fertility and
advice on a range of issues are helping
the Harveys maintain the excellent health
and performance of the herd. A change
in disease control and vaccination
strategy is also planned for 2015.
Plans going forward
Herd statistics
Over the qualifying period (year
ending September 2013), the herd
averaged 11,779kg of milk at 4.25%
fat and 3.21% protein. The average
cell count was the lowest among this
year’s finalists at 102,000/ml. Calving
interval was 401 days and margin over
concentrates was £2,700/cow/year.
Inside the calf shed at Drum Farm
Tip over troughs make cleaning easy
