FETF 2025 - applications open 29th May
The next round of FETF grant funding will open on 29th May 2025 and run until midday 10th July.
This will be the only round of FETF grant funding for 2025 so if you've been waiting - this is your opportunity.
There will be three "themes" again this year and you can apply to any or all of them: productivity, slurry management and animal health and welfare. The total grant funding available for each stream will be between £1000-£25000 if you are successful.
Each item has a published number of "points" which will be added together; this number will then be divided by the total cost of each item to give your total points.
As your vets we can increase your total number of points by 20% by giving evidence that we've discussed the items with you - we can do this as part of your Animal Health and Welfare Review. For the example above, this would mean the points for the application would increase from 0.35 to 0.42.
You may also be able to get a 25% uplift in your points for each stream if you've accessed less than £10,000 funding in previous rounds.
Johne's Declaration 2025 - an update
Phase 3 of the National Johne's Management Plan started on 1st April 2025 and starts to track progress and make more use of the individual cow test results that you are all investing in.
Key changes:
1. Average Test Value (ATV): all herds will have to calculate an average test value for Johne's - for most herds who are testing regularly, this will be automatically calculated via the milk recording. We will be looking at ATV as a way of measuring and monitoring progress with Johne's over the next few years.
2. Testing changes: there used to be an option of doing a 30 cows screen - this has now changed to a "random 60 cow screen" which allows an estimate of the herds ATV to be made. There is a way of making sure the testing is actually randomised - please make sure you get the details from your milk recording company before you start with this.
3. National Johne's ATV target: aiming for ATV to be under 5.5 by 2030 on individual farms and across the national herd. A lot of our herds are already there, or well on the way to this target if they've been managing Johne's disease for a number of years - the main focus with any Johne's strategy is blocking new infections in your replacement heifers rather than just using culling to keep levels under control.
4. Track progress using ATV: this includes tracking progress on individual farms as well as within practices, within regions and across the UK.
5. New Johne's Declaration form for 2025: this includes last years ATV as well as current ATV and also sets out 3 priorities for the next 12 months. We will make sure we get these sorted for each of you over the next few months.
A big thank you to the Apperley family at Wood Lane Farm for welcoming us for our on-farm discussion on Phase 3 of the National Johne's Management Plan a few weeks back.
Take home messages from the discussion group:
- Use your data!
- Make it obvious who your infected cows are (not just the J5s!)
- Calve any risky cow somewhere else to stop the spread to the calves that are born in the pen after
- If in doubt, serve to beef - you will never make it worse by being overcautious
- Don't lean too heavily on culling to try and sort out Johne's - you have to switch off the new infections in your calves
- Know that sorting Johne's is going to take years - there will be legacy infections that are already in place
- Track progress looking at new infections in heifers - especially that first recording of lactation; what you do differently today impacts that first recording in 2 years time
Fly Strike - early season warning
We've had a really warm start to the Spring and the risk of blowfly strike has started earlier than ever.
What is blowfly strike?
In the UK, blowfly strike is usually caused by the greenbottle fly (Lucilia sericata). Female flies are attracted by the smell of wounds and decomposing matter, such as dirty fleece or infected feet, and lay batches of up to 250 eggs at a time. The eggs start to hatch after about 12 hours and it then takes roughly three days for the larvae to mature and drop off the sheep, where they will pupate in the soil. The whole lifecycle takes about four to six weeks.
Blowfly strikes usually occur in waves. The first fly lays her eggs in a damp or dirty area on the sheep and the smell from this infection rapidly attracts other blowflies. The larvae start to feed on the living tissue of the sheep under the dirty fleece, secreting enzymes which eat away at the skin and then chew through the skin with their mouthparts. The first signs in affected sheep are often a patch of discoloured wool and agitation.
Rapid diagnosis and treatment are essential. Increasingly, flocks are using preventative measures such as pour on Clik or Clik Xtra to minimise the risk of blowfly strike, rather than treating strike only after it has occurred.
Blowfly strike was traditionally expected between May and September, but changing weather patterns mean lowland flocks are often at risk from March through to December. Timing of shearing as well as controlling foot infections and worm burdens are all critical in keeping sheep strike free.
How to prevent strike:
1. Minimise mucky fleece: dagging, crutching and shearing as well as good worm control is essential for reducing the risk of strike
2. Treat lame sheep ASAP: infected feet are an easy target for blowflies and can be the source of infection for other sheep
3. Use fly traps to reduce the numbers of blowflies on your farm: these are particularly helpful started early in the season
4. Use preventable pour on products: Insect Growth Regulators (IGR) stop the eggs hatching and so stop strike before it can start - Clikzin lasts for 8 weeks, Clik lasts for 16 weeks, Clik Xtra lasts for 19 weeks but must ONLY be used after shearing
Cocci in lambs - are you having hidden losses?
Coccidiosis is one of the most important causes of scour in young lambs, which can result in reduced growth rates, persistent ill-thrift, and can sometimes even be fatal. It is becoming increasingly common in the UK, especially in more intensive systems.
Coccidiosis in lambs can be seen as clinical disease, presenting as lambs with diarrhoea, but also can have subclinical effects. These lambs will show no obvious symptoms but when monitored, will record reduced feed intakes and poorer growth. A study of housed lambs showed subclinical disease reduced feed conversion rates by around 10% which meant lambs took an extra week to fatten, despite showing no obvious signs of disease.
Lambs which show clinical signs will take much longer to recover and can take many more weeks to reach slaughter weight long-term. A 2005 study estimated that an extra 3 weeks to slaughter would cost £4.40 per lamb in feed – not counting the extra cost of any handling and treatments.
What is coccidiosis?
Coccidiosis is caused by a parasite called Eimeria. This parasite is common in farm environments and most lamb flocks will encounter infection at some stage. Many different species can infect sheep, and most can live in the gut without causing damage or any clinical signs. The two species of importance to sheep in the UK are Eimeria crandallis and Eimeria ovinoidalis, both these types cause disease.
Cocci life cycle:
Oocysts (eggs) are shed in the muck of sheep. These eggs are tough, survive in the environment for up to 18 months and mature in the environment for several days when temperature and moisture conditions are suitable. If these eggs are eaten by young lambs without immunity, they enter the cells lining the gut and reproduce, causing huge damage as they do so. These infected gut cells produce very large numbers of oocysts/eggs which are then shed in the muck to contaminate the environment and start the cycle again.
What do you see with Cocci?
Coccidiosis causes damage to the intestinal lining which stops them absorbing water and other nutrients, leading to scour and poor growth. In many cases this damage will never fully heal, meaning poor growth rates for the rest of the lamb’s life. The damage to the gut, along with reduced immunity (due to a lack of nutrients) can increase the severity of other gut diseases (such as Nematodirus, a gut worm which can affect young lambs at a similar time of year).
Clinical signs are most commonly seen in young lambs 4-8 weeks old, usually with most/all of the group affected
- straining and scour - the scour sometimes contains blood and there's staining around their backend
- pain and a "tucked up" appearance
- weight loss
- deaths if it's not treated
Are my lambs at risk of coccidiosis?
Eimeria oocysts are present in the environment in most flocks, however this does not always mean every flock will have signs of disease. Two factors affect whether lambs in a flock are at risk of clinical coccidiosis.
1. The level of contamination of the environment with oocysts.
Low levels of contamination can be beneficial as lamb’s develop immunity faster than the oocysts cause disease and become immune without getting significant gut damage. However, heavy environmental challenge can overcome the immunity and you get affected lambs. High levels of oocysts in the environment can be caused by:
2. Animals with poor immunity are most susceptible to clinical coccidiosis.
How do we diagnose coccidiosis?
Early diagnosis is crucial as clinical coccidiosis can be a significant welfare concern and can be fatal. It also can lead to poor weight gain long-term which has huge economic impacts for sheep farms. Effective treatment can minimise these effects if diagnosis is made promptly.
The main diagnostic test for young lambs with diarrhoea is to check for coccidia oocysts in a muck sample - we do these in our lab at HFV meaning you get results the same day.
How do we treat cocci?
This drug kills the cocci in the gut on the day you treat but doesn't persist, so timing is critical; you need to dose "just in time" and if you're a bit early you may have to dose again.
This drug kills all the stages of cocci in the gut and in the gut cells and persists in the guts of lambs for 1-2 weeks which gives their immune system chance to catch up so they can fight off any further cocci challenge. The persistency also means there's a bit more wriggle room with timing.
Meds Update
Apologies for all these swaps and changes - the medicine supply chain seems to be under some pressure at the minute - we'll keep you updated as and when the products come back into stock.
Bluetongue Vaccine
Your orders of Bultavo 3 bluetongue vaccines are filtering through - remember for sheep it's one dose of 1ml under the skin, and with cattle it's two doses 3 weeks apart of 1ml into the muscle.
Norbrook Products
There's been a disruption to the supply chain with one of our manufactures and so there's a few swaps and changes to be made short term:
- Betamox: we're using Vetrimoxin LA or Trymox LA instead - 1ml/10kg IM and repeat in 48 hours
- Alamycin / Alamycin 300: we're using Tetroxy LA - 1ml/10kg IM once
- Penstrep: we're using Pentomycin instead - 1ml/25kg IM
- Adrenacaine: we're using Pronestesic instead for disbuds
There will be some small changes to milk and meat withdrawals with some of these alternatives - this will always be written on the label; but just ask if you want to make sure.
Synulox Injection and Lactating cow tubes
Synulox Injection has been gone for a little while and most people will be used to using Clamox RTU as an alternative but we're now going to have to swap over to an alternative Synulox lactating cow tube too - we're using Intramar LC - same dose "1 tube per affected quarter at each milking for 3 milkings" and same milk and meat withdrawals (milk: 3.5 days, meat: 7 days)
Rispoval IBR Inactivated 10 dose bottles
Rispoval IBR inactivated will now only be coming in 50 dose bottles as Zoetis has stopped production of the smaller 10 dose bottles. We do have a bit in stock with good dates (April 2027) if you need some short term.
Get in touch
Paula: 07764 747855 paula@haywoodfarmvets.com
Tom: 07837 291097 tom@haywoodfarmvets.com
Katie: 07507 656747 katie@haywoodfarmvets.com
Open hours: M-F | 8:30 - 16:30
Out of Hours: 01630 810016