Snow-topped mountains

Winter is finally here, and there is talk of it being a rather cold winter, which we have not had in a while. This means it is important to watch for winter storms if you are shearing sheep. Not only do sheep need more feed in the first 2-3 weeks after shearing, if there is a cold storm due, you may need to consider shelter or postponing shearing (which isn't always an option), so they don’t get a sudden cold shock and hypothermia with their woolly jumper now taken off. (I can imagine standing in a field last Friday afternoon with no jumper wouldn't have been nice!).

It is also a good time to review your winter feed budget alongside assessing the quality of the feed you have. Something we have learnt from past years is that with quantity, the quality can diminish. Making sure you have the energy and protein in your budget correct will help make sure your animals grow and stay in condition. Remember, in the late stages of pregnancy, protein as well as energy is needed to grow a good, healthy calf or lamb.

NCVC Top Tip!

If you are getting lots of lambs dying around lambing time, picking up 10-15 and popping them in the freezer means that if this is becoming an issue you want to investigate, we have lambs to post-mortem to start the process off!

We generally can’t tell what might be happening without the lambs to look at, so keep some in your freezer to see if there is a common cause of death, such as iodine deficiency.

Bearings - not just a pain in the backside for the sheep

Managing bearings can be tricky, and sadly, as much as we have tried, there is no silver bullet to prevent them. This is because the cause of bearings is multifactorial – meaning there are a number of different things that can contribute to a ewe getting a bearing, and they are not all necessarily the same thing each time, making it very hard to prevent them.

Examples of potential causes:

• Fat sheep.
• Ewes carrying multiple lambs.
• Ewes sitting down on a hill (bum facing down hill, so all the organs push down the vagina).
• Giving salt at pre-lamb causing them to drink more and increase their bladder size (some people find salt stops them though?!?!).
• Ewes putting on condition mid-pregnancy.
• The list continues…

However, one more reliable pattern where we do seem to see more is in a good feed year, when ewes may be putting weight on in mid-pregnancy, and are in very good condition before lambing.

Lots of people have different theories and ideas on how to manage bearings, but regardless, we can’t always stop them. So, how should we be treating them to get the best results?

Of course, some do die, despite all our efforts. Therefore, some of you may choose to cull ewes with a bearing, and humane euthanasia is an adequate choice in these situations. However, for those who do wish to try and treat a ewe with a bearing, we have found some success in using anti-inflammatories.

Once you have replaced the bearing, and placed your harness or spoon on the ewes, by giving the ewe an injection of long acting anti-inflammatory such as Meloxicam (Metacam or Reliven, for example), what we find is that she is less likely to push the bearing back out again, and will start eating and concentrating on her lambs.

If you would like to trial this on your farm, Meloxicam is an RVM product, so you will need to discuss getting some from your local NCVC vet.

NCVC Top Tip!

Remember, shearing increases the feed requirement of ewes by 10–30% for two to four weeks after shearing, depending on temperature, wind, and rain, as they need extra energy to maintain body heat. Ensure you have included this in your budget and can increase their feed for a minimum of two weeks after shearing – otherwise, they will be losing condition.

Don't let metabolic issues hamper your lambing numbers

If you are bringing pregnant ewes into the yards for a period of time, like at shearing or pre-lamb treatments, remember that keeping them off feed for long periods of time can result in hypocalcaemia. This occurs because they have a sudden drop in dietary calcium (from being starved), and due to the high demand of calcium from pregnancy and/or colostrum production, they can’t mobilise enough calcium from their bones to keep their blood levels high enough and go down with “milk fever”.

Ewes who have a large demand for energy on them due to carrying multiple lambs, or they are well conditioned, can go down with pregnancy toxaemia, also known as sleepy sickness.

• This is usually when they cannot eat enough energy to keep up with all the demands. This might be due to the fact that there is not enough food in front of her.
• OR she physically cannot eat enough – for a 70kg ewe eating 2.8kgDM/d while your belly is now full of big lambs – that’s not always possible.

Hypocalaemia looks very similar to sleepy sickness, but normally, there is a triggering event, such as yarding.

BHOB assesses the immediate adequacy of the dietary energy being supplied to the ewes relative to the demand of the growing fetuses. High B-OHB indicates the energy supply does NOT meet the demands.

When serum B-OHB levels exceed 1.1mmol/L, this indicates energy levels are not sufficient to produce enough colostrum or grow lambs of normal birthweight, and they are therefore at risk of sleepy sickness.

When assessing flock data, a target of <0.8mmol/L B-OHB is used. Anything above this can indicate an increased risk of feed energy deficit.

If you would like to know more, contact your local NCVC vet for more in-depth discussion.

NCVC Top Tip!

Make sure you have a pre-lambing and lambing kit ready for the season. Do you have:

• Glucalphos and ketol for down ewes
• Penicillin
• Bearing spoons/harnesses
• Anti-inflammatories (Meloxicam)
• Dextrose for comatose lambs

Remember, antibiotics such as penicillin and the anti-inflammatories are RVM products. They must be authorised by a vet, so make sure your RVM authorisation is current before you get bogged down with lambing!

Every lamb counts - abortions

With lambing fast approaching, it is worthwhile being aware of what is going on with the ewes in the lead up to lambing. We all expect the odd abortion as we get closer to the start of lambing and calving, but when should you start to be concerned? If you are finding several abortions occurring in a short amount of time (2-3 days), it might be worth investigating further.

Most farmers vaccinate for the most common causes of abortion in sheep (Toxo and Campy), and what we found last year for those who decided not to, for financial reasons, did see a large number of abortions in hoggets, highlighting the importance of these vaccinations!

However, there are still a number of other things that can cause abortion, such as:

• Salmonella Brandenburg – ewes normally become sick and may die after they abort
• Hairy shaker/border disease
• Helicobacter
• Neospora caninum
• Nitrate poisoning

Cattle can also have abortions due to:

• BVD virus
• Bacterial infections such as Salmonella, Listeria, Leptospirosis etc
• Fungal infection
• Neospora caninum
• Macrocarpa and pine needles
• Nitrate poisoning

But determining the cause isn’t always as simple as looking; normally, some form of testing needs to be done on the foetus and placenta.

We have also seen a few isolated cases of listeria causing abortion within the District. This is not a common cause of abortion, but it appears to affect farms in more than one season. We are keen to investigate these abortions further, but we need samples to confirm the cause of abortion to see how widespread it is, and try to figure out any common traits.

If you do start to get some abortions in your flock, don’t assume “she’ll be right”. Collect any foetuses and placenta and get them tested. If possible, more than one sample is likely to yield a result, so the more the better.

Remember when handling aborted material, wear gloves and remember basic hygiene, as some causes of abortion, like Salmonella and Toxo, are zoonotic and can pass on to you, and you don’t want that!

NCVC Top Tip!

Talking of vaccines, don’t forget your pre-lamb clostridial vaccine for the ewes.

Maternal antibodies start to wane in lambs (who have a good drink of colostrum at birth) at about 4-6 weeks of age, which means they are no longer protected. Therefore, giving a clostridial vaccine to lambs at tailing can help reduce any sudden deaths.

Beef scanning - how did you do?

Pregnancy scanning in the cattle this year has been very mixed, and this is largely to do with the feed situation and condition in the cows at the end of the spring and start of the summer in 2024, just before we got all that wonderful rain at Christmas.

Hopefully, with a kinder year, we can get that condition back on the cows and aim for a more positive result next year.

However, we have also had a few BVD diagnoses in the area, which have potentially affected scanning as well.

Therefore, do you vaccinate for BVD in your breeding cows? If not, do you know your BVD status? It is starting to show up, so it is worth testing 10-15 of your 8-10 month old calves now to see if they have been exposed to the virus (this is a great screening test, if its negative all good, but if it shows up BVD you need to question what might be lurking in your herd).

If you would like to talk more about BVD, please do not hesitate to chat with one of your local NCVC vets.

NCVC Top Tip!

Testing 10-15 R1 calves pre-winter for BVD antibodies can help you identify if BVD has snuck into your herd.

How to get the most out of your fattening cattle

The price of cattle is doing well at the moment, and if you are able to purchase some to grow out and fatten over winter, you will want to get the most out of them while they are on your property and get them growing as fast as they can.

But what might be holding them back?

Trace elements - You are unlikely to know what their trace element status is when you bought them, so do they need supplementation? It’s a waste of money if they don’t and you routinely give them treatments, but it can cost you in reduced growth over the winter if they do need it and you don’t! So, testing the stock you have bought on arrival can help you make an informed decision on the treatments they may need.

BVD – This virus is not just detrimental to your breeding cows, but can reduce growth rates of fattened stock if there is a persistently infected (PI ) trojan cow amongst the mob. This PI will be infecting its herd mates over and over again. Although the herd mates will keep getting over the virus, they will keep being hit by it and using energy to keep fighting it off. It's like when you keep getting a cold after cold – you are pretty tired after the 3rd or 4th bout! It's the same with BVD, and it affects growth rates.

So, what can you do? – Why test, of course. But how would you like to be able to do some tests for a reduced cost?

Well …. If you request these cattle to get tested for m.bovis (paid for by the government), we can add on a few extra blood tests (such as trace elements and BVD antibodies), and all you do is pay for the discounted lab fees. How does that sound!

If you are interested in doing some tests, please contact Nicole at NC Vets on 027 662 8387

Grass - how much do you have this season?

This season is looking MUCH better than last season – mainly because we haven’t been feeding out for the past 6 months like last year. However, looking at your feed for lambing remains important. What does your feed budget look like?  What is your demand vs supply?

The last 4-6 weeks before lambing and 3-4 weeks after lambing are the most critical for feeding ewes well and getting the most out of them and their lambs. Ewe’s peak lactation is about 4 weeks after lambing.

Remember, a lambing ewe and peak lactating ewes need to eat 4% of their live weight in dry matter a day.

• So, if your ewe’s weight on average 70kg – she will need to eat 2.8kgDM/d.
• Are your covers enough for the number of ewes you want to lamb in that paddock for the number of days you are set stocking them for?
• Using apps like the Beef and Lamb NZ Feedsmart app can help you work this out (feedsmart.co.nz).

Alternatively, if you would like to discuss your winter feed budget with one of our vets, just give us a call and we can go through this to see how we are tracking this year. Yes, things might be easier, but don’t take your eye off the ball!

Conveyor & Tech Team update

Exciting News – Our Fantastic Deal Continues!

Pre-lamb is fast approaching, and the team will be flat out helping our clients organise their treatments to maximise their lambs for this season. Book the conveyor for your pre-lamb and receive 50% off the conveyor hire price!

Take advantage of this great opportunity to save while ensuring your products are handled efficiently and correctly by our certified and experienced team.  Contact us today to secure your booking for all your pre-lamb needs! Phone Annabel on 027 889 9107.

Winter care for working dogs

Its not just your shorn sheep you need to think about during these cold spells, but also your working dogs.

Keeping warm requires a lot of energy utilisation, so you may find you need to up the amount of feed you are giving your dogs to make sure they don’t lose weight.

Better still, keeping them warm in their kennels when not working will help them maintain body condition, and improve their comfort. Insulating kennels or investing in some dog coats can help with this.  Giving your working dogs something extra to help keep them warm will mean they will have a lower requirement for food and more energy for a day of mustering.  We have a good selection of dog coats suitable for working dogs - check out your local clinic.

Building for the future

In the photo above, we are excited to show you the progress of the new clinic being built beside our current location on the main road in Cheviot.  This is a major investment by Ian Page (Vet, NCVC Director and developer) and North Canterbury Vets in the town of Cheviot, demonstrating a commitment to the future of providing veterinary services for both companion and production animals. 

It will provide a modern purpose-built facility designed to deliver the latest in veterinary medicine and attract new talent in order to provide a sustainable veterinary service for the community.  More news to come as the project moves forward.

NCVC PROMOS

Our two major sheep promotions are well underway and are being warmly received. This is the team's favourite time of year, so if you're wondering how you can be involved in this amazing promotion ... ask one of our Animal Health Representatives: Nic - 027 436 0484; Zena 027 889 9102; or Ali 027 836 4444.

CURRENT PROMOS

As always, we are proud to be your animal health partners.  Please never hesitate to get in touch.

Erin Riley
Editor, and the S&B Veterinary Team, AHVS Reps, Technicians & FOH:
Ian, Trish, Sarah, Erin, Brooke, Sam, Ingrid, Lily, Emily, Georgie, Nic, Zena, Ali, Annabel, Catherine, Madi, Rosemary, Abbey, & Nicky.