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To
run a successful dairy herd a farmer must achieve good fertility
in his cattle. He must rear his youngstock
well to provide replacement dairy cattle and beef animals. He must
control the incidence of mastitis to ensure
high quality milk. He must also strive to reduce lameness
in the cattle and give careful consideration to the nutrition
of the herd.
Our
vets will visit dairy herds at regular intervals, usually of two,
three or four weeks, to carry out routine health and fertility visits.
At these visits the vet will be shown cows which have recently calved
and need a post natal check, cows which are late coming into oestrus,
cows for pregnancy diagnosis, sick cows, and cows with mastitis
and lameness. He will also observe the bodily condition of the cows,
discuss their milk yield and quality and their nutrition.
Pregnancy
diagnosis can be carried out manually or using an ultrasonic scanner
and we can advise those who wish to use progesterone assays on milk
samples. If problems are identified, such as mastitis, a special
visit may need to be arranged to properly investigate this (see
page on mastitis). It is normal for one vet to do all of
the non–emergency work on a particular farm so that a good working
relationship develops. In emergency situations a different vet may
attend.
Most
farms will have good on farm recording systems for Health and Fertility
but for those who do not, we can assist by using our Daisy Herd
Health and Fertility programmes to producing action lists and analysis.
It
will be important in the future to be able to analyse disease incidence
as these figures will be required in Farm
Assurance Schemes.
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