Keep up to date with all our latest news, articles of interest, and case studies from the veterinary world around Hawke’s Bay, Dannevirke, and the Wairarapa.
There are three stages to calving: Stage 1 (should take around 6 hours): The fluid sac around the calf is visualised and bursts, the cow may have her tail up, be restless and isolate herself, may mother other calves, cervix gradually dilates Stage 2 (should take about 1 hour): Delivery of the calf. Stage 3…
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Growing young stock to their full potential involves many factors. The main focus should be great nutrition with all animal health considerations including trace minerals, vaccinations and parasite control covered. Even with all of that considered, aside from poor nutrition, parasites can often be the most growth limiting factor of young stock on pastoral farms…
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Facial Eczema Pasture Spore Counting Facial eczema is a disease caused by the fungus Pithomyces chartarum; which produces a toxin (sporidesmin) resulting in liver damage and photosensitivity. It grows on dead plant material at the base of the sward and thrives in warm, humid conditions. A good way to determine the risk level of your…
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Incidence of lameness varies between herds and varies during the season. Smaller herds still have an incidence of 10% lame cows in the herd, larger herds often show higher incidences: up to 30%. Wet periods will boost the number of clinically lame cows, due to gravel being pushed into existing white line defects, softening of…
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While we are well underway with the teatsealing and dry cow season, we have spaces available to help with both. Herd dry off: Drying off herds is a time consuming job that needs to be done correctly and hygienically. Whether you need another pair of hands or are looking into staff training, we have spaces…
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Feeding Stock this Winter – What Stock This season has been extremely challenging for all farmers in the Hawke’s Bay, the prolonged dry spell and lack of Autumn growth, difficulty in finding supplementary feed, delays in killing space, and cancellation of sales have all had a massive impact. The feed requirements of livestock are well…
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Hi everyone, The hot weather we have seen recently have caused facial eczema spore counts to start rising. The samples collected this week has shown counts are rising to moderate levels across the region, therefore it is important to ensure you are underway with preventative measures. After several weeks of moderately elevated spore counts there is a real risk of accumulative subclinical liver damage occuring in your stock along with…
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Low levels <30,000 spores/gram High levels 35,000 – 95,000 spores/gram Long term exposure to high levels can results in facial eczema symptoms. Dangerous Levels 100,000 spores/gram If you’re putting the ram out in the next few weeks, consider treating rams and ewes with zinc capsules to protect sheep in case spore counts rise during…
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Dairy calves are thick on the ground here in Dannevirke and we are very busy with debudding! The optimal time to debud calves is when they are 2-6 weeks of age so horn buds are removed before they have a chance to attach to the skull, this makes the job quicker and reduces the risk…
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