Joe and Ro Collingborn run a very traditional dairy farm which was founded in 1910 and has virtually been a closed herd ever since. Their daughter Ceri and son-in-law Chad are partners in the business. They also run the very successful Brinkworth Dairy, using a proportion of the farm’s milk, which produces artisan cheese, butter, kefir, yoghurt and ice cream, as well as a milk round. The rest is sold to First Milk.
Lungworm disease in cattle is caused by the Dictyocaulus viviparus parasite, and is normally seen in mid to late summer, although infections can start as early as July. Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is urging cattle producers to lessen the risk of disease outbreaks by proactively managing pasture larvae levels throughout the grazing season and using an appropriate disease control programme.
Cattle may gain some immunity to lungworm either through vaccination before turnout, or through low level exposure at grass. However, this immunity can be short lived and if natural boosting does not occur during the grazing season, animals may be susceptible to disease when larvae populations on the pasture rapidly increase.
With high fertiliser costs should you ‘batten down the hatches’ or focus even harder on producing good grass silage this season?
With the spiralling costs of fertiliser this year, more dairy farmers are looking at ways of increasing slurry or manure utilisation and growing more forage from less. Most farms appreciate the value of slurry and use it efficiently, but it is possible to further improve utilisation whilst increasing your farms forage utilisation or milk from forage figure – which is where the true value lies.
Improving the lifetime yield of a cow is a top priority in dairy businesses as we continue to improve efficiencies. This can be impacted from the moment a newborn heifer calf arrives, to when the animal enters the parlour at the start of its first lactation.
While there are lots of areas to focus on to set a heifer up for a healthy and productive life in the herd, I’ve narrowed it down to my top three areas to prioritise pre-calving.
The UK is experiencing more frequent heatwaves each summer, with temperatures reaching the highs of 30°C in the day and evening in-shed temperatures staying above 20°C, as a result cows will struggle and performance and fertility may be effected.
One of the most effective ways to prevent grass tetany in dairy cows is magnesium supplementation during the risk period. Choosing the supplementation source is quite challenging in practice, magnesium oxide being commonly used to prevent Mg deficiency, but the solubility and therefore the bioavailability varies greatly in practice (1).
There are no silver bullets in farming. If there was a management practice that resembled one, then relentless attention to detail would have to be the closest option. When it comes to dairy farming and in particular transition cows than the 4 F’s are often cited as the nearest thing (Forage, Feet, Feed, Facilities) although choline nutrition could be considered a close second.
80% of disease and animal losses in the dairy herd occur from 21 days pre-calving to 60 days post-calving. Here are 3 main check-points for drying off, to ensure a more successful transition:
Low magnesium status and sub-optimal rumen pH can be no stranger at spring turn out. At Wynnstay we believe the dual functionality of pHix-up, can be harnessed to both safeguard rumen health and enhance magnesium supply at grass.
