E coli sepsis in older calves
We've had a few cases of older calf deaths around weaning that have cultured E coli across all body systems - usually E coli causes sepsis which affects young calves in the first few days of life but this seems to be a new strain that's affecting older calves.
The first few cases of this new strain were picked up in Scotland but now cases have been seen across the UK. Affected calves are all strong, fit and feeding well then suddenly become sick with severe pneumonia signs, high temperatures and they rapidly deteriorate and can die in a few hours after first looking sick. Some of the calves submitted for post-mortem had low grade Cocci infections but it's not yet known how much that is playing a role.
The E coli strain is most similar to an E coli found in poultry so it would be sensible to keep birds out of calf sheds, feed and water supplies. The advice from APHA is to minimise contact with any birds, make sure early colostrum feeding is optimal (within 2 hours of birth), keep milk feeders and troughs clean and make sure calves are mucked out frequently and bedded well - especially if they're picking at straw from their beds.
APHA are offering some funding towards free postmortem samples in suspect cases so please get in touch if you've got an older calf that dies suddenly or after treatment for acute pneumonia.
Should we be aiming for 1000kg milk solids?
Maximising the kilograms of fat and protein produced per cow is one way of increasing the sustainability of a dairy business and reducing its environmental impact. While the average solids production per cow in the UK is 675kg there are a small number of dairy farmers in the UK producing near to or over 1000kg of fat and protein per cow.
Rose Jackson from Kite Consulting has looked at a 7 of these herds in order to understand what sets them apart from the average and to identify the key areas relating to genetics, management and nutrition, that are driving this level of production.
Genetics
• £PLI ranking: All herds were in the top 15% of the UK for £PLI.
• Expressing genetic potential for yield: All 7 farms are far exceeding their genetic prediction for total solids production.
• Genetics was found to be responsible for up to 50% of the cows’ milk solid performance.
• Genomic testing: 6 out of 7 farms were basing their breeding decisions on genomic data.
• Breeding Strategy: All farms had a very clear and focussed breeding strategy which they reviewed and changed over time.
• Milk recording: All farms were milk recording; accurate farm level data is essential to feed back into the national genetic evaluation provided through AHDB.
Calves, Health & Fertility
• Sufficient milk feeding rates: 6 out of 7 farms were feeding ≥8l of milk per day to the calves; preweaning feeding and management is crucial for future performance of an animal.
• All health and fertility KPIs were better than UK average demonstrating that production can only be optimal if health and fertility are excellent.
Nutrition
• Target feed efficiency: All farms were achieving target feed efficiency (≥1.4kg energy corrected milk (ECM) per kg DMI).
• What feed additives did they have in common? All farms were feeding a concentrated C16 fat source in the milking diet. 6 out of the 7 farms were feeding Choline in the transition period, while 5 fed methionine.
Environment
• Cubicle layout: 7 out of 8 sites visited had 2-row cubicle housing for their milking stock, indicating there was plenty of feed space.
• Environment enrichment: All of the farms had environmental enrichment, such as brushes and fans available for the cows.
A target of 1000kg/cow/year combined fat and protein production is achievable for UK dairy farmers. All seven farms included in this report are far exceeding their genetic prediction for total solids production highlighting that control of the cow’s environment and nutritional factors were critical.
Farms producing milk on a solids contract need a suitable benchmarking KPI to measure their performance against their peers.
Total solids sold per cow per year could be the metric to look at in performance reviews.
Transition Meeting - take home messages
On Wednesday 8th November we hosted a "Transition Workshop" with kind permission of the Dutton family at Oldfields Farm.
70 farmers and their vets joined us with guest speakers Stephen LeBlanc from University of Guelph in Canada and Chris Hudson from University of Nottingham to look at what's new coming from research on transition health, how we can implement these changes on a practical level on farm and how you can get the most out of technology and collars/tags for health and monitoring.
MILK FEVER:
Blood calcium levels in cows around calving aren't just normal, or low and she's got milk fever - there is also risk associated with "subclinical" milk fever - lower blood calcium levels than normal, but not low enough that she is down and needs treating. Subclinical milk fever is a strong predictor of poor health in early lactation - and especially so if the subclinical milk fever lasts for a few days. So if you are having a few clinical milk fever cases that you're having to treat, know that there will be a bigger number of hidden subclinical cases at the same time too and it is often these that causes the transition problems (ketosis, dirty after calving, LDA).
Get in touch if you're having a few too many milk fever cases and want us to review your milk fever prevention strategy.
KETOSIS:
Another common issue after calving is ketosis - when the cow burns too much of her body stores of fat and these are converted into ketones which cause her to go off her feed, drop in milk and can end up as an LDA. Ketosis is a balance of nutrition and intakes before and after calving - and in almost every situation, simply getting cows to eat more solves the problem. There was lots of discussion about how you get cows to eat more - from feeding twice a day, to frequency of push ups, using resin as a surface and maintaining cow group dynamics.
Thanks to everyone who came for your contributions to the discussion on the day and since - getting transition right makes the rest of the lactation easier on the cow, the bulk tank, the fertility of the herd and for you.
GET IN TOUCH:
Paula: 07764 747855 paula@haywoodfarmvets.com
Tom: 07837 291097 tom@haywoodfarmvets.com
Katie: 07507 656747 katie@haywoodfarmvets.com
Enquiries: mail@haywoodfarmvets.com
Website: haywoodfarmvets.com
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