For many of us, our horses come in for winter, and with it come the challenges of keeping horses in stables as healthy as posible. Not least among those is the challenge of keeping your horse free from respiratory disease. So, should we be thinking about our horse’s respiratory health as they come into their stables? Yes we should!
Guinea fowl are small birds with lots of personality, but where do they come from and what do they do?
GrainLink Ltd the grain trading arm of Wynnstay Group PLC was born following the acquisition of Wrekin Grain and the merging of its then in-house grain division Shropshire Grain in 2011.
The strategic merging of these businesses raised the grain trading profile of Wynnstay Group and has resulted in significant growth in volumes traded both regionally and nationally.
Operating from trading hubs in the West and Eastern regions of the UK the trading teams along with support staff in forwarding (Haulage) and administrative departments provide farmer suppliers with an extensive route to the UK markets. Along with the confidence that grain transactions will be managed efficiently and professionally from point of sale, collection and delivery to end use and in the knowledge that trade is being done with a financially secure business.
Housing challenges often compromise calf rearing performance, but attention to detail in areas such as nutrition and hygiene can help offset these weaknesses.
Recently, a project team based at AFBI Hillsborough recorded a variety of different housing systems on commercial farms in Northern Ireland. The study was representative of practices on UK dairy units as a whole and certainly highlighted both strengths and weaknesses in terms of replacement heifer calf management practices.
We have a special place in our hearts for senior horses, Spillers have spent more than 20 years working on senior horse research as part of their dedication to enhancing their health and welfare.
Wynnstay has a dedicated team of RAMAs, fully trained and legally qualified through AMTRA,(Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority) to advise, prescribe and supply certain veterinary medicines. In this issue, we meet Lowri Williams, store manager at the Tregaron store.
Coming from a pedigree sheep farming family in West Wales, Lowri was always drawn to combining this with a career in animal health, an aspiration she followed after studying agriculture at both GCSE and A Level, before achieving an Agricultural Science degree at Aberystwyth University.
In recent years there has been a significant push to calve heifers younger to become more efficient. The benefits of this have been well documented including significantly reducing rearing costs, which account as one of the largest costs on farm.
There are a number of factors that can affect hoof health, one of which is wet weather, which can force water molecules into the tiny cracks within the foot capsule, impairing the hoof walls' general structure and leaving them vulnerable to infection. NAF offer a complete hoof protection range to help maintain all types of hooves.
Ask a farmer what coccidiosis is, and he or she will inherently mention ‘blood scour’. Are they right?
Yes and no.
Coccidia are species-specific, single-celled organisms of the protozoan family. An infected host (e.g. lamb/calf) will shed billions of coccida oocysts in their environment. These oocysts are extremely resilient and can persist across seasons. As a result, it is almost inevitable that commercially farmed animals will be exposed to coccidia.
Clostridial disease management is a common topic in sheep farming with most of the UK’s flock vaccinated before lambing for prevention through passive transfer, but it is not given much thought by calf rearers.
There are multiple clostridial diseases that can affect cattle, however, the most common type of toxic intestine infections in young calves are caused by Clostridium perfringens. These differ from other scour-causing pathogens (E. coli, crypto, cocci) in that calves rarely show any signs of ill thrift and may not even scour before the toxins enter the blood steam followed by inflammation, shock and cardiac arrest.
