TREAT ANOESTRUS COWS EARLY TO GET BEST RETURN

With the very difficult winter and early spring we have had there are a lot of dairy cows in the district that are in sub optimal condition and are likely to be anoestrus (not cycling) at the start of mating. If these cows are not identified early and treated with CIDRs it is likely that a lot of them will remain in anoestrus well in to the mating period and will become either late calvers or empties. Keeping in mind that empty cows are a huge cost and inducing late calvers is now frowned upon and not desirable, we strongly recommend that you get these anoestrus cows identified before the start of mating and treated.

Better still contact Dave Rankin or John Pickering who can put a tailor made planned programme in place for you so anoestrus cows are identified and treated at the right times. These visits can include sound advice on nutrition and other management issues.

A study by livestock improvement showed that treating anoestrus cows the week before the planned start of mating is very economic providing farmers with a high return on their investment. Early treatment resulted in a net average profit of $74 per treated cow. Delaying treatment to the end of the first round of AB decreased this profit to $23 per treated cow. Farmers that don’t treat anoestrus cows early and are forced in to induction face a $300 loss per cow induced or a $370 loss per cow if they chose not to induce.

The same study showed that early treatment of anoestrus cows a week before the start of mating significantly increased the submission rate (95% vs 63%) and pregnancy rate (55% vs 37%) over the first 21 days of mating and reduced the mean day of conception from the planned start of mating by 6.7 days.

Early treatment of anoestrus cows allows time for the majority of cows to be inseminated at least twice during a normal 42-day period of AB. Earlier calving cows have longer lactations, more milk in the vat, tighter calf rearing with better use of colostrum, tighter calving and less empties the following year.

Some important points to remember

• Tail paint and record premating heats for 30 days prior to the planned start of mating.
• 7 days before the planned start of mating submit all cows calved 30 days for Veterinary examination.
• Later calvers and non-mated cows need to be inspected 3 weeks in to mating.
• Improve oestrus detection with tail paint, or heat detectors e.g kamars.
• NZ trial work showed an 8 day CIDR programme gave a 5%-7% higher conception rate than a 6 day programme.
• Resynchrony of previously treated anoestrus cows particularly if they were quite thin and deep in anoestrus will significantly improve pregnancy rates and lower the final empty rate. More will recycle rather than revert to anoestrus and be presumed to be in calf when they are not. Resynchrony can improve the in oestrus rate by 50% and pregnancy rate by 10% over the first 4 weeks. Resynchrony can be included as part of the planned programme as required.

Separate grazing not beneficial

Scientists at DRC showed in trials that grazing anoestrus cows separately from the main herd during mating had no beneficial effect.

The aim of the trials was to reduce stresses associated with production or herd social hierarchies so that cows might be stimulated to resume cycling activity.

Anoestrus cows in each of 8 herds were allocated to one of 4 treatment groups 7 days before the start of mating. All cows received the same pasture allowance throughout the study period.

• Main herd, no CIDR (Control)
• Separate herd, no CIDR (split)
• Main herd + CIDR (CIDR)
• Separate + CIDR (Split +CIDR)

The reproductive performance of the separately grazed group was poorer in all parameters when compared to the main herd. Compared to control cows, separate grazing did not increase submission rate or conception rates during the 28 day period and the percentage of cows pregnant after 28 days was significantly lower.

In line with results from previous trials, treating anoestrus cows with CIDR inserts was shown to significantly increase the submission rate and the percentage of cows pregnant after the first round of mating.

There was no difference in live weight change due to treatment. Both the separately grazed and main herds gained on average 14.3kg over the trial period.

Other work has shown that once daily milking is not an economic option and maize silage supplementation for a month after calving had no effect on reproductive performance. Once cows have lost condition it is too late except for CIDR treatment.
To avoid anoestrus the key is correct nutrition before calving so cows  calve at condition score 5 and heifers at condition score 5.5 withy optimal nutrition after calving through mating.

SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDS

With the extreme feed shortages on some farms and stock condition sub optimal, supplementary feeding is often the only option. It seemed an appropriate time to prepare a supplementary feed table comparing price and nutritive value of some feeds available.  On some farms at present supplementary feeding is an essential option otherwise animal welfare will be a real issue if it isn’t already so be warned.

It is important to understand that I have priced these products in kg DM but some of the kg have more mega joules of energy in them and therefore more feed value. Eg. barley as cents per megajoule comes out at 3.7 cents and hay comes out as 4.1 cents. I ran out of space for another column and I didn't want to make it too confusing.

You may think my price for barley is high; this is hot off the press from a grain merchant. Price at this time of year would usually be around $100 cheaper. All these prices are in bulk, delivered and including GST. They are not a written quote so you can't ring the relevant feed merchants and be sure to receive the above price!

When comparing these prices urea boosted grass is the most cost effective and is always a good option; provided excessive amounts of N are not applied. Palm kernel is very cost effective, safe and stock perform exceedingly well on it. Quite a few heifers on our Vetcare Grazing scheme have been fed it this winter and have done extremely well. A better option than buying in grass silage, which is often of poor quality, which lifts the price per mega joule. In fact intake is limited when poor quality silage and hay is fed and stock will often lose weight on it.

UPDATE ON BSE (MAD COW) SURVEILLANCE

On the 22nd May 2006 the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) officially approved New Zealand as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) free. 

Participation in the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) surveillance incentive programme has been a vital component in achieving this status. From July 2005 to June 2006 over 2000 cattle brains were
submitted by veterinary practitioners through out NZ, quite a few from WVS.

The TSE surveillance incentive programme has been reviewed to assess its appropriateness and sustainability in continuing to demonstrate New Zealand's freedom from TSE's.

Please note the following changes will apply from the 31st August 2006 in respect to

brain collection:

Cattle, deer, sheep and goats

A maximum of two (2) samples will be eligible from any one veterinary
visit to one property.

Eligible cattle are:

Cattle between 30 months and 9 years
Cattle presenting with
Non-responsive metabolic disorder
'Downer' cattle which have no obvious injury
Dairy cattle culled for behavioural reasons
Progressive non-responsive nervous disease
Abnormal gait or stance without obvious injury

The following cattle are no longer eligible for the surveillance
programme:
Cattle aged less than 30 months or 9 years of age or greater
Cattle presenting as progressive non-responsive cases of ill thrift

$300 is paid to the farmer for each eligible brain.

JOHNES DISEASE IN SHEEP AND VACCINATION WITH GUDAIR VACCINE

Johnes disease in sheep is very common in New Zealand, affecting up to 70% of our flocks. On many farms the disease causes significant losses with high numbers of ewe deaths every year. Often the deaths occur during pregnancy, resulting in the loss of the affected ewes' lambs as well.

But is it worth vaccinating?               Often the answer will be yes.

Is the vaccine effective?                    Yes.
Gudair vaccine has been extensively trialled and shown to reduce Johnes deaths by over 90%. Experience in NZ and Australia shows that Johnes losses become insignificant in vaccinated stock.

At what age should lambs be vaccinated?

Lambs can be vaccinated at tailing but this has the distinct disadvantage that all ewe lambs have to be vaccinated, increasing the cost of vaccination and the potential costs associated with trimming. It is more cost effective to delay vaccination until after the selection of replacements have been made.

Only one shot is required for the lifetime of the animal.

Vaccine Administration

Vaccinated sheep will normally develop a firm swelling or nodule which usually disappears after a few months. Occasionally an abscess will form which may burst. Vaccination nodules may require trimming at slaughter and this may result in costs due to trimming or downgrading. The impact of this can be minimised by only vaccinating replacement lambs so that any trimming losses are in cull ewes only and not in recently vaccinated prime lambs.
When vaccinating ensure that the lambs are suitably restrained, take your time to carefully administer the vaccine, inject high in the neck below the ear using the specially designed Secure Th1 vaccinator, using % inch 18 guage needles. Use clean needles and change needles frequently.

Legal requirements to use the vaccine

The only legal requirements are that vaccinated sheep are ear marked with a special ear marker, available from your vet, and that the works are notified when vaccinated animals are going for slaughter. This allows the works to clearly identify vaccinated sheep and inspect them for any vaccination lesions, which may require trimming.

Safety for the operator

Accidental needle scratch and self injection with Gudair must be avoided. The vaccine has an oily base and can cause severe persistent reactions in people. Adequate restraint of the sheep
and patient administration are required.                        ."
Fortunately there is now a very.innovative vaccinator available which greatly increases the safety to the operator. The Secure vaccinator has two unique safety features. First a needle shroud covers the needle and only retracts when the Iamb is injected, greatly reducing the chance of needle scratch injury. Secondly the Secure has a fluid lock mechanism, which means that the needle has to be fully inserted with the needle shroud retracted, before the vaccine can be administered. This means that the chance of accidental self injection is significantly reduced. The vaccinator also uses a unique action, a push instead of a trigger squeeze, which means that once you get used to the feel of it, it is very easy to use.

Cost benefit
As a rule of thumb it you are experiencing Johnes disease losses of 1 % or greater, then you will receive a positive return on investment. The greater the losses, the greater the return from vaccination; at 2% losses, returns are approximately 3 to 1.

Diagnosing Johnes Disease

Johnes disease is easy to diagnose in clinically affected animals, by identifying typical lesions at post mortem. If you have unacceptably high annual death rates, greater than 1% or a problem with "fading ewes" which die in spite of drench or other treatments, then you should consider Johnes and organise one of our vets to investigate. The return on investment may be substantial because we know that there are considerable losses caused by Johneis in our area.

Summary

Johnes vaccination with Gudair is highly effective, it can be safely administered and where Johnes is causing significant losses, vaccination is highly cost effective. For further information talk to your veterinarian.

INVESTIGATING POOR SCANNING RESULTS

• Were your scanning results below expectation
• Too wider result between MA ewes and 2TH’s
• Big differences between mobs
• Too many dry MA ewes
• Too many dry 2TH’s
• Poor hogget performance
• Too many lamb losses after scanning before lambing (abortion)
• Too many lamb losses after scanning after lambing (high lamb mortality)
• Too many ewe losses.

 If you say yes to any of these, we suggest you contact us for help.

Our Vet John Pickering will come out and visit and go over all the factors that influence fertility and lamb loss and put a plan together to help you improve performance and profitability in the future. At $60 per lamb it doesn’t take much of an improvement to increase income substantially. E.g a lift of 5% in lambing equates to an increase in $3000 per 1000 ewes.

TEAT SPRAYING

 Teat spraying does work.

• It does reduce mastitis and somatic cell counts.
• Don’t be tempted to stop spraying
• If you have stopped, start again
• Spray for the whole season
• Spray effectively ensuring all the teat is covered.

A dexcel study using 500 cows across 5 herds showed that teat spraying was extremely effective in preventing mastitis by both environmental and contagious bacteria. Over a complete lactation, post- milking teat spraying with an iodine based teat spray was responsible for a 50% reduction in clinical mastitis. It also had a substantial effect on reducing somatic cell counts as well. As the season progressed the non sprayed group of cows within each herd had approximately 50% more cows with an individual cow SCC above 150,000/ml compared to the sprayed group. Non sprayed cows tended to be dried off early in order to manage the bulk milk SCC.

The sprayed cows had an average bulk milk SCC of 182,000 for the whole season compared with an average of over 310,000 for the non sprayed cows which allows little room for the spikes and fluctuations associated with mastitis and stage of lactation.

PRESCRIPTION ANIMAL REMEDY AUDIT

 We have been notified that a random audit of Veterinary practices throughout the country will take place this year. We may or may not be targeted. Please keep your prescriptions on hand and be able to produce them if the audit extends to on farm.