Animal health planning delivering benefits

Thursday 26 August 2010

IN the last 12 months more than 1,000 farms in the North West of England have taken positive action to improve animal health and welfare as a result of the Northwest Livestock Programme.

So far around 69 per cent of advisory visits have been to dairy farms, with around 16 per cent to sheep farms and 14 per cent to beef units. More than half of the visits co-ordinated by SAC have so far been in Cumbria, where the project was first rolled out, although momentum is now growing across Cheshire and Lancashire as well.

And there are definite trends in the issues that are being found on farm.

Dairy - lameness, mastitis and fertility

Lameness, mastitis and fertility are the main problems being encountered on dairy farms across the region. By undertaking detailed assessments of the conditions on farm, vets have been able to identify the main causes and suggest changes in management practices to reduce disease incidence.

"Where lameness has been identified as a problem, vets have been able to spend time examining foot lesions to enable them to suggest the best preventative measures," explained Neil Blackburn, Kite Consulting, who is involved in training advisors on the programme.

"This may involve improving cow tracks, reducing tight turns in housing and improving cubicles. In some cases the installation of cow matting has also been suggested to reduce pressure on cows’ feet whilst standing on concrete."

When it comes to mastitis control, vets have found that many farmers want to install back flush systems without really understanding the type of mastitis problem they are seeing.

"Back flush systems can bring advantages when farms are suffering from problems with contagious mastitis, as they help reduce cross infection," said Andrew White, a vet working with the University of Liverpool Vet school who has helped to train and mentor the delivering vets.

"But if you have an environmental mastitis problem then they have limited benefit. By visiting farms, taking milk samples and attending milkings we have been able to identify positive changes that farmers can make to housing management and milking routines to reduce cell counts and mastitis incidence."

Beef - fertility and handling facilities

Fertility has also been a problem on many beef units, and the problems tend to be similar on dairy units and beef enterprises.

"We are finding that many cattle farmers are seeing extended calving intervals, poor reproductive performance and poor conception rates. On dairy farms this reduces total milk output, whilst on beef farms it leads to uneven batches of calves being sold for finishing, reducing annual income," added Andrew.

More often than not much of the problem is down to poor record keeping or other underlying health issues, and time and attention can deliver improved performance. And this time and attention is exactly what the project helps to deliver.

Another issue for many beef units is that they have limited livestock handling facilities and this makes it much more difficult to undertake basic tasks surrounding fertility management.

And this lack of handling systems is even worse on many sheep units, making routine husbandry very difficult.

Sheep - routine husbandry and information management

"Many sheep farmers don’t have access to decent mobile handling systems," said Neil.

"Most of the problems encountered on sheep farms centre around worm infestation, liver fluke and lameness problems, and if you can’t handle sheep easily then what should be simple treatment protocols to avoid these problems can become almost impossible to administer."

Many sheep farmers also lack basic management information, such as growth rates, and so there has been considerable interest in implementing EID along with improved handling facilities.

So the livestock programme’s animal health project, which sees local vets and advisors visiting farms to give funded advice and support, is reaching farmers that otherwise might not see the vet very often.

"It has provided a useful means of getting vets on to farms that rarely request a vet visit and those where vets only visit to treat sick animals," said Andrew. "The project provides the time for vets to talk about proactive health management and has encouraged farmers to solve problems and improve performance."

Not only does the programme provide advice but capital grants are also available. Farmers can claim a 40 per cent grant (up to a maximum of £12,000 per farm) for capital items that will help to improve animal health and welfare.

Overall then the project is delivering real benefits to farmers across the region.

"The project enables farmers to spend time that they otherwise perhaps couldn’t afford working with vets and advisors to identify and manage health and welfare issues," Neil concluded.

"As well as the obvious benefits to the animals in terms of improved health, the project also delivers significant financial benefits to farmers, both through improved performance and via the capital grants, and in this way it is supporting the sustainability of livestock agriculture in the North West for the future."

Animal health planning is also available to pig and poultry producers. If you want more information about animal health plans and the Northwest Livestock Programme then please CLICK HERE

If you would like to register an interest in having an animal health plan, then please contact SAC on 08456 040 535