Articles

Investigating all abortions can help with planning culling decisions and breeding strategies.

The main signs of urea poisoning are due to the alkaline-corrosive effects of the high NH3 levels in the digestive tract and other tissues and the neuro-toxic effect on the brain.

SRUC researcher Cathy Dwyer shows how basic research into the hormones that regulate the birth process can help guide lambing management.

E.coli is a type of bacteria that is found on all farms. It causes many problems in young lambs including watery mouth, navel ill, joint ill, meningitis and septicaemia.

Joint Ill is most common in lambs less than four weeks of age and in flocks housed for lambing.  Response to treatment can be poor leaving crippled, ill thriven lambs.

In an ideal world investigate all abortions but remember that they don’t all have an infectious cause.

Always take care pushing animals up a race but particularly when handling small light breeds who have the physical build to mule kick.  In addition if you are going to encourage them with a stick make sure it is at least as long as the cow is high so you stay out of kicking range.

There is no doubt winters are getting milder.  Unfortunately however the growth of a “winter coat” in cattle is controlled by day length not temperature. 

To improve herd profit we need to pay a lot more attention to foot care/locomotion.  The first way to do this is to have an annual hoof trimming session – but when is the best time to do it?

Generally lameness is considered just a major problem in the dairy industry where surveys show around 25 – 35% of cows are considered lame at any one time!  However lameness is not uncommon in beef herds and is often given as a reason for culling both cows and bulls.