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UK Vet Conference logo

The UKVet – Livestock group are launching an innovative and FREE, ONLINE conference for farmer and vets. The programme is relevant to the times and hosts interesting and informative speakers from the industry. The impact of COVID-19 to both producers and vets will be discussed, with another focus on how to improve the sustainability image of the dairy industry. You can REGISTER by clicking on the picture above, or following this link: https://www.ukvethealthyherd.com/register.

There will be two days of talks to choose from, with emphasis on farming on DAY ONE (Wednesday 21st October from 12:00-16:50), with Dairy, Sheep and Pig talks and a veterinary programme on DAY TWO (Thursday 22nd October from 13:00-15:50).

FARMING STREAMS:

  • COVID 19 and the future of vet/farmer collaboration (Boehringer Ingelheim)
  • Responsible Use of Medicines and Recording (Prof. David Barrett)
  • Vet/Farmer Collaboration, An Open Discussion (Fiona MacGillivray and Owen Atkinson)
  • Diversity in Practice (Navaratnam Partheeban)
  • Mental Wellbeing (Caroline Crowe)
  • Sustainability and Health (Dr. Jude Capper)
  • Integrated approaches to worm control (Sioned Timothy)
  • Don’t leave milk production to chance: ground-breaking new information on the impact of BVD (Ellen Schmitt)
  • The role of vets and farmers in controlling TB (James Russell)
  • Modernising BRD (MSD animal health)
  • Calf Scour Management
  • PRRS – The most costly disease of pig production (Dr. Laura Hancox)
  • Promoting health rather than treating disease (John Carr, Mark Howells)
  • Vet/Farmer Engagement (Fiona Lovatt)
  • Stay Alert, Control Abortion, Save Lambs! (JP Crilly)

VETERINARY STREAM

  • Improving the outcome when advising on treatment of clinical mastitis in dairy herds (James Breen, Kath Aplin)
  • Youngstock Diseases – an immunological perspective (Ellen Button)
  • BRD (Dr Tim Potter)

Sign up today!

If you have been trying to follow the trend in Evidence Based Medicine but don’t know where to start, Inspire Cattle Solutions’ Dairy Coach, Mike Steele has just published an article in this month’s UK Vet (Livestock) Journal to get you on the right track. Part 1 of 2 publications shows the reader how to search the vast online databases of research in the most efficient way to answer their Clinical Question. It then describes how to choose papers on their reliability and level of evidence and once all have been reviewed, the novice Evidence Adventurer can make an informed and guided conclusion based on a compilation of this knowledge.

READ THE ABSTRACT

This article is for all the busy practitioners out there that don’t have hours to spend painstakingly reviewing complicated scientific papers. The idea is to break this down into small pieces that can be shared with colleagues: perhaps one colleague can write a Knowledge Summary every few months, but if everyone in the practice contributed, a database of common questions could be compiled to support everyday decisions or Standard Operating Procedures.

Mike and Dog

Mike Steele is a veterinary consultant and helped design the course in Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine at Bristol University Veterinary School in the UK. He applies these techniques when gathering data on farm projects, to support the knowledge base before designing countermeasures to improvement schemes. The more we can understand of the background of our challenges, the better we can build programs to fix them.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

InspireCows has launched a NEW VIDEO explaining where milk fats come from and how to deal with Milk Fat Depression. Milk components are a major source of income on dairy farms around the world and when the amount of fat in milk decreases, so does the dairy’s income. To manage this, it is important to understand what milk fats are, how they are made and how to manage diets to maximise the potential of milk fat quantity and quality.

“You are what you eat”

Milk components are highly influenced by diet ingredients and composition. The main parts of a dairy cow’s diet are forage and concentrates (maize, grains and other feed ingredients). Forage is a great source of Triglycerides and the maize/concentrates can be a high source of Glycolipids.

Triglycerides
Glycolipid

Bugs in the rumen find it hard to break these down at first, as these molecules often are UNSATURATED (have double carbon bonds). These can be quite toxic to some rumen microbes. So they add Hydrogen atoms to the unsaturated bonds, thus saturating them (in a process called Biohydrogenation).

Cis and trans bonds

This process takes TIME, as the microbes add one Hydrogen atom at a time in a stepwise fashion. Fat molecules are in long chains (2 to up to >24 carbon atoms described as C18 – 18 carbon atoms and :3 which would be 3 unsaturated bonds) so the bugs tend to add atoms in patterns such as: C18:3 then C18:2 then C18:1 etc.

The importance of C18:1 trans10

One of the most POTENT inhibitors of milk fat is a lipid of 18 carbons long, with one unsaturated, trans bond at position 10 (C18:1 trans10). Even tiny amounts of this in the rumen can depress milk fat by over 20%. So managing milk fat depression is often about allowing sufficient TIME and the right POPULATIONS of bugs in the rumen to fully hydrogenate this milk fat to C18:0.

Managing Milk Fat Depression

Fibre in a dairy cow’s diet is extremely important for microbe health as well as decreasing food throughput times. So making sure that there is enough physically effective fibre in the feed is crucial to manage milk fats and decrease the risk of build-up of C18:1 trans10. Making SURE that you are using shaker boxes such as a 4-stage Penn State Sieve on feed-out and refusals will give a really good idea of how much chance cows have to SORT the food and how much fibre is getting into the rumen.

Watch this video on Milk Fats and Milk Fat Depression on INSPIRECOWS and remember to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE if you found it useful

Cow and new calf

It’s YOUNGSTOCK MONTH on InspireCows and we start at the very beginning. Birth in calves is the foundation of the future. Maximising the chances of a live mother and calf involves co-ordinating people, management, environment, equipment and attention to detail. Cleanliness, preparation and training is the key to success.

In this NEW video, you can learn the 3 stages of birth and watch as each is explained. Find out what you need to watch for, when you need to intervene and when to call for professional help.

Remember, if you like this video don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE and click on the Bell notification so you don’t miss the next installments of this Birth to Weaning series.

InspireCows YouTube Channel image

Dairy Profitability Video Series

black and white cows

NEW! 3, Brand new videos explaining dairy profitability are now available on InspireCows, the new YouTube Channel dedicated to Dairy Health. Discover the opportunities available to your dairy business and where more value can be made on dairy farms. Find out how to read your herd lactation curve to its best advantage and deep-dive into marginal milk profits.

Cute calves with tags

Understanding marginal milk can help you to identify where to make the best changes to bring your business into POSITIVE PERCENT GROWTH! Increasing the herd average lactation curve can drive much more profitable milk and bring you closer to that farm upgrade or new piece of machinery you dream of…

InspireCows also has videos on transition management, heat stress and a lot more to come VERY SOON. So don’t forget to Subscribe and click on the Bell icon so you don’t miss out on future tip and tricks.

SEE YOU THERE!