Dairy

Ensuring newborn calves are receiving good quality colostrum as early as possible is crucial to their health. We recommend 2 litres of Brix tested >22 gold colostrum within 6-12 hours of birth. We can blood test calves up to a week of age to check they are receiving good levels of antibodies via colostrum feeding.

We offer calf disbudding from 2-6 weeks under sedation and local anaesthetic (+/- NSAIDs). This has been proven to minimise both the stress on calves at the time of disbudding and the subsequent effects on growth rate. This also provides an ideal opportunity for tagging and DNA/BVD testing.

Do your calves need drenching? Drop in a sample at the clinic for a 24 hour turn around (Mon-Thurs). Develop a drench plan with one of our vets and monitor if your drenches are working.

Weighing calves can be a useful tool for making decisions such as weaning times and feed allocation. It can also help to identify individuals not meeting growth targets. We have a set of scales and trained technicians who can weigh your calves, record the results and upload them to MINDA if required.

We can offer the usual array of mineral testing including blood sampling and Liver biopsy, together with works monitoring of cull cows.

If you would like to discuss a Mineral Supplementation Programme specific for your farm, we can formulate a mix and provide quotes.

We have several Vets and Technicians accredited to condition score your herd. We can offer both mob scoring and individual cow scoring to help with management decisions at key times of the season.

Louise Ingram has a particular interest in Ruminant Nutrition and can provide feed planning advice to improve herd production.

We have Veterinary Technicians qualified to administer intra-uterine antibiotics, so this can be tied in with the visit to metri-check the herd. Alternatively, we can arrange a time for the cows to be treated by one of our Vets.

There are several options available to synchronise heifers and we would recommend speaking with one of our vets to find the best option for your herd.

We can offer treatment options for your non-cycling cows to assist with condensing your calving pattern. We can also offer options for cow synchrony programmes if you have scope.

Early-aged and yes/no ultrasound scanning depending on your needs. We can also offer manual pregnancy testing where appropriate.

If you would like to discuss the reproductive performance on your farm, we can analyse the results and identify areas for improvement. We will require access to MINDA and preferably Infovet in order to perform the full InCalf analysis, but this will offer the most information on herd performance.

Our vets are trained in lameness treatment and preventative hoof trimming. We can provide treatment for affected cows, together with on-farm training in preventative hoof care for you and your staff.

If you are concerned about a larger scale lameness problem in your herd, we can offer herd lameness scoring to identify problem cows.

Teressa is an accredited Healthy Hoof Advisor and is available to perform on-farm assessments to identify risk areas for herd lameness.

We have a mastitis lab on site where we can provide a preliminary result within 24 hours. In most cases, we are able to confirm the mastitis pathogen and an appropriate treatment option within 48 hours. Occasionally samples will need to be sent away to the laboratory for confirmation.

Need advice on mastitis treatment? We can offer both case-by-case treatment advice and herd level treatment options to help control mastitis on your farm.

If you are having problems with mastitis and/or high BTSCC on your farm, we are available to perform an on-farm investigation to help identify the cause.

We provide an annual Animal Health Consultation to discuss your animal health needs and Restricted Veterinary Medicine (RVM) requirements for the year ahead.

Following consultation, we are able to provide Animal Health Plans specific for your farm.

With the current guidelines surrounding Veterinary authorisation of Dry Cow Antibiotic Therapy, we are required to collect and analyse your Milk Quality data prior to authorising any DCAT products. Once we have this information, we are able to discuss any particular milk quality issues over the season and outline the most appropriate treatment option for your herd.

Infovet is a veterinary software program designed to collect, analyse and review data from dairy farm clients to help plan and improve farm systems for the coming season. We strongly encourage all of our farmers to register with this program.