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Liver Fluke – Take dung samples to check Pneumonia – Many producers are reluctant to bring cows and calves in due to the mild weather.  Had they routinely vaccinated against…

In areas suffering from the very wet autumn many livestock producers are desperately short of forage to feed their stock through the coming winter.  For arable producers the problem is how to harvest their remaining fields of cereals and get the next crops successfully planted. 

There are many advantages of away wintering to both the livestock and arable producers.

With mature grass still to cut another option is deferred grazing.  Leaving the crop in the field now negates the cost of harvesting and the risk of soil damage. 

Some areas on the west coast have been so wet producers have been struggling to make silage or hay recently.  The obvious consequence is a severe shortage of forage to overwinter stock but, equally important, is the impact this has had on the performance of animals this summer. 

The poor weather over the past few months has caused many farms to house stock earlier than anticipated.  It has also hampered silage making efforts, resulting in some farms having lower forage stocks than usual.  Going forward into winter it is essential to know you have enough forage to see the stock through until next spring.

It is likely that rats wills start to come back into farm buildings earlier this autumn as temperatures fall and their natural feed supplies dwindle.

There are three main reasons to check trace element status

Relative to some diseases footrot is minor, but individual farm circumstances matter. 

In the run up to the main tupping season checking ewe body condition score (BCS) and considering the impact that disease may be having on it is an important part of flock health planning.