Beef Herd Health Plans
The ultimate aim of a profitable beef enterprise is to produce one calf per cow per year with minimum cost input.
Our dedicated farm vet team are committed to working together with the farmer to achieve this goal. From extensively grazed commercial enterprises to high health pedigree units, we can advise you on the best strategy to suit your system.
Routine and Emergency Work:
Our emergency work covers everything from difficult calvings and caesarean sections to scouring calves and down cows.
The farm practice always has a minimum of two farm vets on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
Our larger beef units may require regular visits to assess health and production, or we can also come out an adhoc basis to carry out routine work such as pregnancy diagnosis and fertility management, blood sampling for Cattle Health Schemes, Bull Breeding Soundness exams etc.
Our Beef services include:
Herd Health Plan Review:
At this visit we will not only go through and update your farms Herd Health Plan and come up with targets or action points for the year. If you require a regular routine visit, we will also confirm the dates of your subsequent visits for the following:
Bull Health Visit:
Every bull that is used should be tested for breeding soundness every year (Bull Breeding Soundness Exam). Just because your bull worked last year or even 6 months ago does not mean that he is working now! We can carry out a full physical examination, including electro-ejaculation to assess semen quality. For bull sales, we can provide you with a written report of any bull we examine.
Heifer Health Visit:
Your youngstock are the future of your herd and need to be looked after. We can help with assessment of heifer health at the pre-breeding stage to help decide which animals to keep and which to sell. This is done based on BCS, weight and genetic history.
Pregnancy Diagnosis Visit:
We can PD all of your cows/heifers, ideally this would be done between 30 and 60 days of gestation. By having your pregnancy diagnosis carried out early rather than at 5-6 month, it allows empty cows to be dealt with immediately rather than having lost 5 or 6 months on her. There are a number of reason for empty cows e.g. Bull not working (although ideally a Breeding Soundness Examination will have been carried out), deficiencies in different vitamins and minerals, infectious diseases etc. We could use one if your visits to blood sample any empty cows to double check for infectious diseases and mineral levels.
Post Calving Checks Visit:
This visit is ideal for making sure that your animals are fit and ready to go back to the bull. All heifers and any cows that have had difficult calvings or have had twins should be examined around 3-4 weeks after calving to make sure that they do not have any ongoing uterine infections and that their ovaries are working. This should help to get these potentially ‘problem’ cows back in calf as soon as possible and this in turn will help to keep your calving period compact.
Annual Blood Sampling Session:
This visit could be used for your annual blood sampling e.g. Johnes testing (N.B. If your Johnes screening is to be done at your TB test the bloods must be taken on day 1 of the TB test). These blood samples can be used as part of your Premium Cattle Health Scheme should you wish to be an accredited herd.
