Dairy 7 Flashcards
amount of milk (% BW) should calves be offered per day before weaning?
20%
How to test passive transfer in calves?
Serum total protein
or Serum IgG
Typical Herd Health
-Early on was all about sick cow work and routine procedures BUT producers have learned procedures now and treat themselves
Herd work now
-focused on reproductive performance
-some nutrition, mastitis, disease outbreaks
-vets are source of information
Rules in some European nations
Vets must treat certain conditions
*anything to do with antimicrobial therapy
As a result animals often culled rather than treated
What are vets doing now in Canada?
Mixed practices and dairy practices similar
-abdomen examination
-injection
-BCS & physical exams
-LDA
What do dairy vs mixed practioners think is most important for future vets to learn?
-pregnancy diagnosis
-general surgery (DAs, C-sections)
-Physical exams
**felt that mentorship can solve herd health and nutrition
-many feel that herd health management not as important coming out of school (dairy vs mixed)
-nutrition unimportant by dairy practioners
Importance of herd health as industry changes
Industry is ageing and when people retire, farms will likely consolidate
-producers will be doing more and more by themselves (can use ultrasounds themselves)
-producers can employ vets from 3rd world countries that cannot be licensed here
**Vets will be doing more in herd health and less preg checks etc. They will play a large role in ProAction Initiative!
Vets role in the future
-ID bottlenecks on farm= timely intervention
-management deficiencies (animal health, animal welfare, productivity)
Team members on the farm
-owner
-farm manager
-vet
-nutritionist
-bank manager
Important skills
-communication
-continuing education critical
-evidence based interventions & if not evidence, then perform trials of interventions
-economic modelling of interventions
Value on dairy farms
Make the dairy more money than vet costs them
eg. every $ they were paying vet, saw $15 increase in production
Goal setting on Dairy farms
-ensure you are taking into account your goals and the producers goals
-long term vs short term, quantifiable, clearly defined
-how are they monitored?
-typically want 1 goal
Vet contributions
1.Vaccination programs-tailored for each individual farm
- Sick cow treatment protocols- allows producers to control drug use because vets won’t likely be called anyway
*vets conduct necropsy on dead/euthanized animals - Mastitis- reduce antimicrobial use; 80% of antibiotics used for mastitis
- Passive transfer and calf feeding programs
