Livestock Matters - Winter 2018

Livestock Matters Winter 2018 The event focused on beef calf management and was kindly hosted by father and son Derek and Adam Smith, who run 80 suckler cows and was sponsored by XLVets, Zoetis and Volac. Prominence is placed on health and colostrum management and as a result, calf losses from calving to weaning are consistently kept below 2% on average. During the day, the farm’s vet Ben Barber spoke of the importance of recording and reviewing calving data. He showed attendees anonymised data from 40 suckler herds within his practice that calved in 2017. It showed calf losses ranged from 0-14% from birth up until weaning. He said farmers should target <2% calf losses from calving to weaning and if mortality rates were above this, farms should work alongside their vets and carry out investigations to help pinpoint causes. He said key areas to look at included: • When losses are occurring to focus on specific causes • Patterns associated with poor performance such as BCS • Dry cow diet – is it meeting their current needs? • Monitoring colostrum intake by blood sampling calves within 2-7 days of life He said colostrum intake can be a limiting factor affecting calf survivability, particularly high-risk calves. “Calves that don’t ingest an adequate amount of colostrum are three times more likely to get sick and five times more likely to die before finishing.” Thank you to Ben Barber and Esme Moffett, Synergy Farm Health for delivering excellent sessions at the event. XLVets News Rethinking Cattle Performance Workshop Farmers Weekly hosted its Rethinking Cattle Performance workshop at Whitecliff Farm, Swanage, Dorset, last month (22 November). 04