Looking ahead – animal health planning

Potential animal health issues, tasks to consider and reminders for this month include…

This is a crucial month for both the spring calving animals and the autumn calved animals so this newsletter contains a lot of information that caters for all dairy stock classes.

Cherry pick at your leisure and thanks for taking the time to read.

These newsletters are designed to be an animal health planner and we hope they are beneficial to your farming enterprises and that they help you with your animal performance and health challenges over the designated months.

We appreciate and thank you for your support.

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Spring calving herds:

July is the month a lot of farms start their transition/springer herd management ready for spring calving.

The transition period is generally regarded as the period ranging from 3 weeks prior to calving to 3 weeks after calving for a heifer or cow.

All ‘springing’ cows need magnesium from somewhere prior to calving and all cows and heifers are low in calcium when they calve and need calcium asap.

For any calving cow or heifer (and for farm productivity and profitability) this is an important time as it is critical to the ongoing health and productivity of both cow and calf and it influences the seasons animal health, reproduction, production, and profitability metrics. Management and monitoring are critical.

Heifers need training and exposure to all of the things they will be exposed to as a milking animal before they calve so the only thing that is new for them on the day of calving is the calving process itself.

Parasites can be a problem for heifers, as well as lighter cows, and warrant treatment close to or at calving.

Calving is a stressful event for a heifer and a cow (and the calf) and much of how she performs for the rest of the season hinges on the management of these animals around her calving date.

Newly calved animals are highly fragile animals and require attention as soon after calving as possible.

Once a day milking for a period of time post-calving is now the normal and not the exception and is implemented to allow an animal time to recover (and with that her appetite) before she is milked twice a day.

Anti-inflammatories and vitamin B12 are supportive treatments that help with pain relief, reducing inflammation and helping tissue repair after a calving, an illness or an event requiring antibiotics.

It is an important event for calves as well. Keeper calves need good quality colostrum as soon as possible after birth (and enough of it) which is more influential on these animals lifetime performance than most of us realise.

Vaccinating cows with a calf scour vaccine like Rotavec Corona or Scourguard to boost colostral antibodies and injecting calves with Multimin at birth help boost calves immune function to get them through this early calf rearing stage.

Actions:

1^st calving heifers:

•  Revisit the FARM FOCUS – MANAGING FIRST CALVING HEIFERS on page 4 of last month’s newsletter for the importance of introducing them to as many new things as possible prior to calving and how to do this so that the only new thing they experience at calving is the calving process itself.

In the Farm Focus this month we look at the recently calved (colostrum) heifer and cow and on the management and treatments for the newly calved heifer. Pregnant cows and heifers (pre-calving):

• Calf scour preventative vaccinations: These vaccines reduce the shedding in the faeces, and the severity and incidence of scours caused by the targeted pathogens:
  • Bovilis® Cryptium vaccine booster injection:  A booster injection is required 4 – 5 weeks after the initial sensitiser injection and is to be administered at least 3 weeks out from calving (it can be given at the same time as the Rotavec® Corona or Scourguard® vaccines).
  • Scourguard® vaccination: A vaccine covering Rotavirus (G6 & G10), Coronavirus & E.coli. Previously unvaccinated heifers or cows should receive 2 doses at least 3 weeks apart with the 2^nd dose given 2 – 12 weeks prior to calving. An annual booster injection is required the following year to those animals that were either vaccinated with Scourguard or Rotavec Corona vaccines, 2 – 12 weeks prior to calving. Animals booster vaccinated 2 – 4 weeks prior to the start of calving will cover calves born in the 1^st 8 – 10 weeks of calving.
  • Rotavec® Corona vaccination: A vaccine covering Rotavirus (G6 & G10), Coronavirus & E.coli. Only 1 injection is required to all cows and heifers annually, 3 – 12 weeks prior to the start of calving.

• Trace element supplementation: A MULTIMIN®  (or MULTIMIN®  EVOLUTION) injection 2 – 4 weeks prior to the start of calving helps reduce the incidence of clinical mastitis and somatic cell count (subclinical mastitis) across the herd and is useful as part of an herd mastitis management program and can be given at the same time as the calf scour vaccines. Trace minerals help boost immunity and improve the effectiveness of cattle vaccines when used as part of a vaccination protocol. Check out link ‘The importance of trace elements’

• Mastitis prevention: Whenever the heifers or cows are brought through the shed teat spray their teats and trim shaggy tails as necessary. MULTIMIN®  is also used as a tool for minimising calving mastitis.

• Parasite control: We recommend administering an eprinomectin-based pour-on drench like Eprisure™ or EPRINEX® to dairy heifers and light cows close to or at calving to knock out internal parasites at a time when these animals are undergoing a highly physiologically stressful period.  These products have nil milk and nil meat withholds, making them an ideal option for both pre-calving and early lactation treatments. These drenches can be used prior to calving without fear of bobby calf residues. Parasitism can lengthen calving to 1^st heat intervals and time to conception especially in stressed newly calved heifers. 

• Provide magnesium: All springer cows (and ideally heifers) need magnesium from somewhere prior to calving. Magnesium oxide (CausMag) is neutral on DCAD and can be supplemented from 4 weeks (and longer) prior to calving while magnesium sulphate and magnesium chloride are the other main magnesium sources that are used to help lower DCAD. These 2 products can only be supplemented for a maximum of 4 weeks prior to calving and can be added to feed (most effective) or water.

• Draft heifers and cows into springer herds: Most farms need to have cows that spend time in a springer herd where cows transition:
  •  between a lower intake, lower energy and often different dry cow diet to a higher intake, higher energy lactating cow diet
  •  from a metabolically different pregnant non-lactating cow to a non-pregnant lactating cow that has to get back in calf.

Recommended pre-calving springer periods:

• 14 – 21 days for healthy cows of body condition score of 4.5 – 6.0 producing less than 600 kg milk solids/cow/year.
  • 21 – 30 days for higher producing cows (> 600 kg milk solids/cow/year) and for problem cows (over fat cows, carry over cows, twins, submissive cows, very thin cows, liver disease, cows that have had facial eczema in the past, cows that have been eating fodder beet prior to going into the transition mob etc).
  • A springer period less than 10 days is too short.

• Check out the link ‘Transition Time’.

Down cows:

• All down cows require a thorough check as they could be down due to:
  • calving
  • a metabolic problem (low energy, calcium, magnesium or phosphate)
  • a musculoskeletal problem (e.g. dislocated hip, leg paralysis, the ‘splits’ etc.)
  • or a toxic condition (e.g. mastitis, pneumonia, dead rotten calf).

They could also have a secondary problem that keeps them down after they have had the original reason they went down for treated e.g. muscle damage from being on the affected leg too long. For any down cow we are happy to get involved. We may want to check blood samples from other cows or we may want to examine the affected animals. At a minimum treat down cows with an anti-inflammatory like Metacam® 40, Ketomax 15% or Rimadyl® to minimise inflammation and pain until a diagnosis is made and other treatments are given. 

Farm focus – The recently calved heifer and cow – management and treatments: The recently calved animal is the most inflammatory and metabolically fragile and therefore the most important animal on the farm yet her needs are often only met once all the other groups of animals have been dealt with. These should be your number one priority animals. Some of the actions you can take to minimise disease and productivity problems in the recently calved animal (heifer or cow): Remove from springer cows and remove the calf as soon as possible (ASAP). Provide unrestricted (and at all times) feed ASAP that the cow can easily eat, that is palatable and that her rumen is adapted to. In-paddock trough trailers with high energy feeds plus calcium (i.e. palm kernel and calcium) are an ideal addition to pasture. These animals eat little and often. Leave high residuals. Not a time to introduce new high starch feeds. Provide some effective fibre (hay, straw) ASAP to help restore rumination rates, to minimise risk of displaced abomasum, to minimise risk of sub-acute rumen acidosis post-calving. Fibre intake can limit energy intake – palm kernel, maize silage feeds are finer particle energy sources that filter around the fibre in the rumen. Provide access to ad-lib palatable water ASAP. Milk out fully ASAP post-calving. Supplement with calcium ASAP. Essential. Heifers and cows. Transition Calcium boluses provide fast and longer acting calcium and fast acting energy and are good for cows 4 years and older and for problem/sick cows. At a minimum (sick, twin bearing, retained membranes, timid, thin, very fat, metabolic, assisted calving, short transition period, udder oedema cows and heifers) and ideally (all cows and heifers): provide monopropylene glycol (MPG) as a drench (e.g. Calstart or Starter Drench), inject with a high dose of vitamin B12 (e.g. Duomax 4000 B12, Prolaject 2000 B12 – both stimulate appetite and lead to glucose production, B12 also helps with tissue repair) and provide anti-inflammatories (e.g. Metacam® 40, Ketomax 15%, Rimadyl LA) to reduce pain and inflammation. Ketomax 15% and Rimadyl® LA have nil milk withholds. Provide shelter or put a cover on thin/problem cows during bad weather. Provide space – no back fencing. Keep in the colostrum mob until they are eating properly and until they have good rumen fill. Keep in for a minimum of 4 days. They could be in the mob for weeks (especially problem/sick cows or heifers).Milk once a day while in the colostrum mob. Check every colostrum cow twice daily for mastitis and teat spray every milking. Rapid Mastitis Test (RMT) all animals on the last day of their colostrum period. Stick to the recommended dry cow antibiotic withholds before putting into the main herd.

Farm focus – New born calves – day 1: To maximise life time production and longevity in the herd the mind set needs to be that new born calves are invaluable and that their management, on day 1 particularly, is critical to how they perform for the rest of their lives.   Picking up calves from the paddock: – Remove calves from mum ASAP after birth (minimises stress). – Pick up at least twice per day and more often during bad weather); – Allow at least 1m² per calf on the trailer/transport tray; – Avoid damaging the navel/umbilical cord when picking up the calf; – Spray calf navel cord with Iodine Spray 10% alcohol-based iodine as calf is placed on the trailer (NOT teat spray or 2.5% stock iodine); – Transport in clean dry draft proof trailer, not over-crowded, protected from wind and rain, with slip proof floor; – Drive slowly; and – Hose, clean and disinfect the collection trailer daily (or at LEAST twice weekly). At the calf shed: – Assess each calf as it comes into the shed – any calf that looks dull, cold, unhealthy or any assisted calving calf treat as a problem calf (see following). – Don’t ignore the pain from inflammation or tissue damage and bruising caused from birthing (especially assisted calvings), transport or rough handling – they won’t drink properly – if in doubt treat with an anti-inflammatory like Metacam® 20 as a minimum. – Repeat the Iodine Spray 10% naval spray. – Only put into a pen that has had the water and feed troughs cleaned and disinfected, the walls and gates disinfected, and the bedding topped up with clean, dry, fresh bedding and disinfected and only put into a pen with calves of a similar age. – Use a disinfectant like Sterigene or VetSan (if there is a history of cryptosporidium). – Feed the calf with warm good quality first milked ‘gold’ colostrum (≥ 22 on Brix refractometer) at a rate of 15% of its birth weight in litres over 2 – 4 feeds within 24 hours and inject with Multimin® Evolution or Multimin® (copper, selenium, zinc, manganese trace elements) under the skin at a dose rate of 1ml/50kg. – Offer clean palatable water and Optiguard from day 1. These actions are aimed to minimise inflammation and disease exposure and to maximise immune function and energy intake ensuring a good robust start to life. Something to think about: A calf with no immunity can get sick with just 500 Salmonella bacteria (worse if the calf is stressed – think of those that buy your calves or contract rear your calves) and a calf that has been managed well (with respect to colostrum quality and intake) can withstand 10 billion Salmonella bacteria. Problem calf management: Unhealthy, dull, slow, wet, cold, hypothermic calves; calves pulled from a cow; calves born to milk fever or low body condition score cows or poorly grown heifers; roughly handled calves; and slow birth calves are problem calves and need managing as such. – Move the calf to a sheltered area away from wind and rain and off cold surfaces. – Dry off any wet calf with a towel avoiding damage to the navel cord. – Treat with an anti-inflammatory like Metacam® 20 and with vitamin B12 like Prolaject 2000 or Doumax 4000 B12. – Feed warm ‘gold’ colostrum (37 – 390C). Give smaller feeds and feed often (3 – 4 times) throughout the day until drinking properly. Tube feed if calf can’t suckle. – Monitor rectal temperature (it should be tracking to > 380C). – Probiotics, like OptiGuard® BioBoost paste, are also recommended to any sick or stressed calf or any calf treated with antibiotics to assist with the re-establishment of gut microflora (OptiGuard® BioBoost can be used in any calf at birth). We can help with calves not progressively improving. We offer a wide range of products, solutions and expertise to cover your calf rearing needs. Check out the links ‘First aid in calves’, ’ Colostrum – the key to good calf rearing’ & ‘Getting the most out of spring calf rearing’

Monitoring:

• Calving mastitis: Record all the clinical cases of mastitis over the calving period. We can culture milk samples to see what the pathogen is if there are too many cases (> 1 per 100 heifers calved or > 8 per 100 older cows calved), if there is a spike of cases, and if the antibiotics used don’t work effectively. Remember to take milk samples hygienically. Contaminated milk samples give an unusable result.

Check out the link ‘Peri-calving mastitis’

• Wearable tech (Allflex, Halter, Cow Manager, Smaxtec) herds – tracking transition cow rumination rates and health alerts: How well the cows perform during the transition period has a big impact on the reproductive and health (as well as production) performance of the herd for the season. Use wearable tech to track rumination rates going into calving and coming out of calving. Rumination rates are affected by intake behaviour and the health of animals. Poor rumination rates prior to calving can indicate poor intakes, health problems like metabolic disease and/or not enough time transitioning from one diet to another. In well transitioned herds rumination rates should improve within 3 – 5 days after calving and fewer than 40 – 50% of the herd should trigger a health alert within -14 to + 30 days in milk. Low rumination in early lactation is linked to negative energy balance, inflammation and delayed resumption of heats. If you are not hitting these metrics or cannot view them or evaluate them – we can help. We have access to a data analysis platform called CowSmart. CowSmart can track how well your rumination rates and health alerts are performing over the transition period, offering multiple transition reports over the calving period that can be actioned early and changes tracked into following reports.

Check out the link ‘Data analysis focus: CowSmart’ or the CowSmart website at https://www.cowsmart.co.nz. for more information or call Juan on 0211183097.

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Autumn calving herds:

Winter mating continues this month. If there are still some non-cycling cows we can intervene with a CIDr based synchrony program to give these cows at least an AB mating chance before the end of the mating period. We can also do an early pregnancy scan near the end of the mating period to check for and treat phantom cows giving some of these another mating opportunity. Keep an eye on milk production – any big daily drop can cause early embryonic loss, particularly to those cows mated around 12 days previously.

The weather is turning into more like a traditional winter – the wind, rain and cold have returned. Keep monitoring calves for coughing and scours, especially outside calves. Pneumonia, worms, coccidia and Yersinia are common in cold-stressed young calves – Salmonella can also cause problems. Get faeces checked for worms, coccidia or Yersinia if scouring is a problem so the right treatments can go into calves. Multimin® all calves at weaning to improve their disease resilience and provide them with some shelter.

Actions:

Milking cows:

• Non-cycling cows: This was covered in detail in last month’s newsletter edition – June 2026. It’s not too late to treat non-cycling cows (especially young and high producing cows) with a CIDR® synchrony program to give these animals an AB mating chance. Check out the link ‘Dairy cow reproduction’.

• Phantom cows & early pregnancy scanning: Phantom cows are cows that have had a mating event but have not held the pregnancy nor have they had a return heat and mating within the 28 days after that mating event. Of the cows that are mated and then don’t have a return heat and mating event within the following 28 days, around 90% are cows that have held the pregnancy and the remaining 10% are these phantom cows. We can pregnancy scan a mated cow 28 days after the mating event to check for a pregnancy. If she is empty we can treat her with a CIDR® synchrony program or with a prostaglandin injection to try and get her cycling again to give her another mating chance before the end of the mating period. Or, what is more common, we can pregnancy scan all of the cows that haven’t had a return mating within the last 28 days near the end of the mating period and treat all of the phantom cows we find. For more information regarding this please ring Juan on 0211183097.

Weaned calves:

• Clostridial & Leptospiral vaccinations: Covered in detail in last month’s newsletter. Has the booster (2^nd) injection been completed 4 – 6 weeks after the initial sensitiser vaccine injection? Check out the link “Calf vaccination and mineral treatment”

• Cold calves: Again – covered in last month’s newsletter. Basically, cold calves equal increased risk of scouring and pneumonia diseases while reducing growth rates. Cold calves are also stressed calves. Stress can result in scouring diseases (like Salmonellosis) that can be transmitted onto humans (a zoonosis), especially children or the immunocompromised, so preventing disease is important.  Provide calf sheds, shelter belts, calf covers, extra meal and/or extra milk solids – the investment is worth it.

• Trace element supplementation at weaning: We recommend supplementing all calves with a product like Multimin® Evolution at weaning (we recommend Multimin® Evolution because it has the highest trace element profile of any other injectable trace element product in NZ) to boost immune function at a highly vulnerable and highly stressful time. Or, supplement with a long-acting injectable selenium product like Selovin™ LA and a copper bolus product like Coppergain™. Check out the link “Looking after dairy weaners”

• Drenching at and beyond weaning: If there is a history or diagnosis of coccidosis on farm or calves are ‘weaned’ off meal too quickly a product like Turbo® Initial is a good starting choice for the first post-weaning drench (it provides broad round worm parasite coverage as well as helping to protect against coccidiosis). Otherwise, choose an oral combination drench product (that doesn’t contain the drench active abamectin) like Turbo® Advance. We also have a product called Catolyst® which is an oral drench that just kills coccidia. Just because it is winter in name don’t be tempted to just start stretching out drench intervals without checking calf faeces first. There have been a number of incidences of parasitism in young calves so far this ‘winter’. We can check 10 calf faecal samples 28 days after the last drench to see what the level of parasitism is. If it is low, then we can stretch out the drench interval. Check out the link “Looking after dairy weaners”

Monitoring:

Milk production:

• Drops in milk production: A big drop in production on any given day over mating can mean a big drop in conception rates to those cows mated around 12 days previously (12 days, give or take a few days, after a mating event is when a developing embryo implants to the side of the uterus to continue the pregnancy). Underfeeding, under estimating allocations, higher than expected wastage, poor weather, increased time off feed (e.g. increased time in the yards), using milking cows to control residuals can all affect intakes and daily milk production and most of these can be managed such that cows don’t go hungry during the mating period. Hungry cows 12 days after a big AI day (think fixed time AI after a CIDr non-cycling cow program) can result in high early embryonic losses (which is seen as a poor conception rate on the big AI day when analysing mating results) that can be costly.

Replacement weaner calves and 1 year old heifers:

• Growth rates and/or disease incidence: Regularly weighing heifers of any age is an important monitoring tool in the pursuit of hitting weight for age targets which are important milestones for setting up: reproductive success; lifetime milk production; and longevity in the herd. The regular weighing events also enable up close monitoring of animals in the yards. Yarding can bring on coughing which can highlight a lungworm problem, scruffy coats can highlight poor grooming and a feed problem, discoloured hair can indicate a mineral deficiency. Drops in weight gain can point to nutritional or health issues and can be costly in the long term if left unresolved. Poor pasture quality and/or quantity eaten, parasites, Yersinia, trace elements, BVD etc. are the main culprits and are problems we can help you with diagnosing, treating, correcting and preventing. It is also easier to take faecal samples off animals in the yards which we can check for parasites or Yersinia.

Sheep, Beef, Deer

The last Sheep and Beef newsletter for May/June focused on the general management of ewes from the end of mating through to lambing and is a good supplementary reference for feeding, body condition scoring and its management, and pre-scanning, scanning and pre-lamb management in the ewe including iodine supplementation.

This newsletter will dive further into post-scanning and pre-lamb management in the ewe and pre-calving management in the beef cow.

Sheep:

Ewes – pregnancy scanning through to lambing:

Now is always a good time to reflect on pregnancy scanning results – to not only plan ahead for the remainder of this season, but to also look ahead to next season, to reflect on what made this year a success or what may need fine tuning next season and also to compare against last season’s results.

There have been reports of good scanning results and of ewes holding body condition well this season. What could be the contributors to this success and equally if you have not had success what could be holding that success back?

A couple of thoughts to ruminate on regarding this season as to why you may have had better (or worse) success:

• How has your lamb sale policy impacted on ewe condition? Strong lamb prices meant many lambs were sold earlier than normal this season. With fewer mouths to feed there is more feed for ewe replacements, but also with fewer lambs there are less parasites deposited on pasture which when consumed are also appetite suppressants – factors positive for ewe body condition. How can you get lambs off early every year? One tool that is getting adopted to help with getting lambs to a heavier weight by weaning, and the following few drafts, to get lambs off farm earlier to the meat processors, is by supplementing lambs with Smartshot® B12 +/- selenium at docking.

• How is your whole farm parasite management program going? Do you regularly check faecal samples before and after a drench to check how well your drench is working or to see if drenching is actually required? Have you taken advantage of the new Gastrointestinal Nematode (GIN) PCR test to identify worm species that may be causing resistant or seasonal issues? Do you do targeted knock out drench events to clean out resistant worms that survive your routine drench products? Could liver fluke be causing a problem? The common drenches won’t kill all liver fluke. We can help identify if liver fluke is present. If you don’t have a parasite management plan or would like advice around fine tuning your program please contact your local clinic.

• Have you culled any ewes yet? Have you had liver samples checked for selenium, B12 +/- copper – results can be used to see how well your supplementation program is working or to see if trace mineral deficiencies can be holding you back? Mineral deficiencies can impact lamb survivability and growth off mum as well as affect reproductive performance. We can help with organising this testing.

• What other animal health feedback comments do you get back from your meat processor? Liver cirrhosis can indicate a past facial eczema problem, pleurisy can indicate a past pneumonia, liver tracts or liver fluke can indicate a past or present liver fluke problem – all problems we can help with managing and all can affect ewe body condition and reproductive performance.

• Have you had more dead ewes than normal or have you normalised a lot of dead ewes? Do you post-mortem your dead ewes? Do you have a tail end of ewes that can be sacrificed to do post mortems on? Liver fluke, facial eczema, Johnes disease, poor teeth, pneumonia/lung damage are a few diseases we can identify straight away from a post-mortem.

• Has Salmonellosis been a problem? If we can get to dead ewes or sick ewes earlier enough we can get samples to check for Salmonellosis. It is a disease that is getting diagnosed more frequently and is one that is causing problems across whole regions. If it is a problem it is time to reflect and review your Salmonellosis risk management and vaccination program. For more info on Salmonellosis check out the link ‘Salmonella in sheep’.

Hopefully everyone also did some ewe body condition scoring at scanning and recorded this data.

When looking ahead to maximising lamb survival (and some early lactation lamb growth), one of the biggest influences is ewe condition.

Having good information around body condition score at scanning and again at set stocking is really important – make sure no ewe goes backwards.

When looking for ‘silver bullets’ to maximise lamb and ewe survival, there is yet the perfect one to be invented, but there are a few products and management strategies that can help, such as:

1. Trace Elements: It is now recognised that immune function is vitally important around high stressor periods, such as lambing, and is critical to ewes and lambs (and cows and calves) survival. Good feeding plays a core role with immunity and so do trace elements. With our now high value, high performing sheep flocks these are certainly worth considering to maximise ewe and lamb survivability and growth rates. If nothing else, consider using them in multiple bearing ewes and/or your younger ewes.
2. Selenium: Most of our regions are low in selenium requiring ewes to be topped up prior to lambing. Selenium has a role in the function and activity of white blood cells which function to destroy circulating pathogens in the animal. It also acts as an antioxidant protecting cells from damage and it passes through the placenta into the lamb and through the milk during suckling helping lambs fight off early disease. Lambs born with low selenium take longer to stand and nurse increasing risk of death. Ewes with low selenium take longer to stand and recover post-lambing.
3. Zinc: Zinc also has a role in the function and activity of white blood cells and with the production of antibodies helping animals fight infections. It also helps with increasing the concentration of antibodies in colostrum which then pass onto the lamb. Zinc also helps with tissue repair in the uterus and vagina after lambing and with keratin production, strengthening hooves and helping prevent footrot.
4. Copper: Another trace element that can potentially help sheep. Copper plays a similar role as zinc and selenium with respect to immune function. We know that copper drops away significantly in pregnant ewes from scanning to lambing and in many cases supplementation can help.
5. Multimin® Plus Copper for Sheep contains copper, selenium, zinc and manganese and is specifically designed for sheep with a lower level of copper than our normal Multimin® and is an easy-to-use trace element product at 1ml/50kg. Take care when using this in Texels or 1/2 Texels. Copper and selenium levels in your sheep can be assessed by on farm liver biopsies or via dry ewes sent to the works, although these are likely to be higher in copper than in-lamb ewes so not a true reflection. Do not use this product unless testing has confirmed that copper levels are not excessive before treatment.
6. Multimin® Copper Free contains selenium, zinc and manganese is a product that can be used when we do not know the copper reserve levels in your ewes.
7. Both Multimin® products are best administered around 4 weeks prior to lambing.
8. Another trace element product we recommend for consideration is Healthy Ewe.
9. Check out the link ‘Sheep Flock Productivity’
10. Bearings: Bearings (vaginal prolapses) in ewes are caused by a combination of physical, nutritional, and genetic factors that put pressure on the reproductive tract in late pregnancy. No one has totally sorted this problem yet but we do know some key risk factors which include: most commonly, multiple lamb bearing ewes that have gained weight after ram removal; older ewes; ewes that have had a previous bearing; unfit ewes – ewes that spend too much time sitting down – often due to lameness or steep terrain; grazing moderate to steep paddocks in late pregnancy; feeding bulky, poor-quality roughage (like long, poor-quality pasture) and/or feeding salt in late pregnancy. Identifying multiple lamb bearing ewes at scanning and running these on your flatter (with some shelter ideally) paddocks will help as does limiting salt blocks in these ewe during late pregnancy. Mid-pregnancy shearing also reduces risk.

A trial 10 years ago supplementing ewes with Vitamin A, D and E (Hideject™) at scanning showed a drop in bearings compared to those not supplemented.

While this wasn’t able to be repeated the following year, anecdotally, farmers that use Hideject™ say they still have success with it reducing bearing numbers.

It is also recommended to give Hideject™ 6 to 8 weeks out from lambing to triplet lamb bearing ewes to decrease the risk of metabolic disease.

• Vaccinations: One part that is often forgotten is – how many 5 in 1 vaccinations (clostridial vaccinations) have my maiden ewes received prior to the pre-lamb vaccination? The pre-lamb clostridial vaccine is a booster and assumes that the sheep have had a primary course somewhere in their lives – often this bit is missed, especially if hoggets are not mated. Ideally, the older ewes should be treated with a clostridial vaccination booster before lambing. We recommend Multine® 5-in-1 given 2 to 4 weeks prior to lambing. Multine® 5-in-1 can include selenium and/or B12. There are not many situations where the extra selenium is not warranted. Nilvax® is an alternative 5 in 1 clostridial vaccine. It also contains levamisole which is not used for its anthelmintic properties but for its enhancement of the immune system. Nilvax® can be administered 6 weeks out from lambing and, depending on when it’s given, can push out the clostridial protection, passed onto lambs via the colostrum, out past docking. Nilvax® provides up to 16 weeks of lamb protection, making it ideal for early vaccination of heavily pregnant ewes. Check out MSD Animal Health

• Drenching: Good condition ewes should not need drenching prior to lambing. Situations in which you may consider drenching would include:
  • Light tail end ewes.
  • Ewes lambing on pasture that has had lambs on it from weaning until lambing.
  • Ewes under pressure – e.g. very short pasture.
  • Hoggets or multiple lamb bearing ewes.

As always – drench to the heaviest, practice refugia, minimise long-acting product use – make good decisions. The decision to use pre-lamb drenches is a complex one, so please feel free to talk to us if you have any questions about this or if you want to plan risk mitigation around the use of certain products.

Check out the link ‘Anthelmintic treatment of ewes pre-lamb’

Learning from lamb losses – the value of post-mortems:

Lamb loss remains one of the biggest areas of wastage in the NZ sheep industry, with up to 25% of lambs lost between scanning through to shortly after birth. Often this is put down to the storm that inevitably comes through in the middle of lambing every year, but are there other areas where we have some more control over this wastage?

By performing simple post-mortems on 10-20 lambs – collected across the lambing period (and stored appropriately) – that were either born dead or died soon after birth, you might find there are some levers you can pull to reduce this. In many cases, lamb deaths are multifactorial, but understanding the main drivers enables farmers and vets to put plans in place to reduce losses in future seasons.

In just 10 to 15 minutes, a lamb post-mortem can often determine whether death occurred before, during, or after birth, and whether it was from birthing difficulties, starvation and exposure complex, infection, congenital abnormalities, or trauma.

We look at a few key areas to give us these answers:

• Birth weight.
• Swelling under the skin and/or around the navel.
• The size of the thyroid glands vs. the rest of the body.
• The umbilical vessels.
• The lungs, heart, stomach, liver, kidneys and intestines.
• Any fluid present in the body cavities.

Looking at all of the above will give us clues as to what factors caused the death of the lamb being examined. Once these are identified, we can dig into wider contributing factors, such as ewe nutrition, ‘litter’ size, trace element status, shearing time, and infectious disease challenges within the flock.

While post-mortems may not prevent further losses for the current season, they can provide valuable information to help improve survival rates next season.

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Beef cows:

Pre-calving tip for beef cows:

The humble beef cow is often underappreciated on our farms. They are stoic and just chug along, a true champion that sets up sheep systems for success. Below are a few tips for managing beef cows over the next few months:

• Magnesium: Each farm’s magnesium risk will be slightly different in this regard depending on cow age, pasture management, time of calving and cow breed. The best way to assess risk is via a blood test of the older cows. Other supplementation options include magnesium boluses/bullets and More-Mag® – ideally used together. More-Mag® acts for 10 days and lifts the magnesium levels while magnesium bullets maintain these levels. Other options include dusting mag oxide on pasture and supplementing mag chloride or sulphate through the troughs with a PETA dispenser. Check out the link ‘Magnesium in beef cows’

• Trace elements: Similar requirements and benefits as explained in the previous ‘Ewes – scanning through to lambing’ section. Multimin® given 3 to 4 weeks out from calving or a straight copper injection in known copper deficient regions can help.

• Prolapses: We see 3 types – all of which can be successfully fixed (most of the time).
  • Vaginal prolapse – similar to a bearing in a sheep, but not as bad. Usually happens before calving and generally easily fixed if seen early.
  • Uterine prolapse – most commonly occurs in the 24 hours after calving. They look alarming but most can be fixed if attended promptly.
  • Cervical prolapse – normally seen at least a month post-calving once cows start cycling again. Rare. These can be replaced and sown in, and these cows can go to the works once they have weaned their calves.

• Vaccinations: Where the herd faces high risk to, or has a history of, E. coli or Rotavirus scours in the beef calves – Rotavec® Corona vaccine is a good option. It is a one off injection given to cows 3 weeks before the planned start of calving to boost antibody concentrations in their colostrum providing calves protection against these diseases. Can be given with Multimin® which will help boost antibody production from the vaccine. Especially useful in: intense wintering systems where there is high stocking densities on winter crop pads or muddy transition paddocks before calving; severe, wet and cold spring weather conditions that force cows to congregate increasing exposure to infectious faeces – all opportunities for E. coli contamination of teats; situations where the same calving paddock is used year after year; stud farms where maximum protection against all diseases is warranted because of the value of the calves.

Beef calving top tips:

• Lube makes any calving that much easier. If you find yourself caught without, then be creative and make some soapy water to assist with calf delivery. We sell lube in 5L containers – it never goes off so a good idea to have some on the shelf.

• Ideally every breeding cow farmer should have calving chains or ropes. Whatever you are using, technique is important – the correct placement of chains/ropes/twine is a double hitch above and below the fetlock (dew claws) on the calf’s legs. This protects legs from breaking and allows you to have a better pull.

• Always put a clean arm back in the cow to check for extra calves and any damage to the cow.

• Assisted calvings resulting in a hard pull where there is bruising and tissue damage warrants anti-inflammatory treatment to both the cow and calf. Any tears or a rotten calf warrants antibiotic treatment.