Animal Health

Keep cows cool this summer

CLIMATE CHANGE is leading to warmer Australian summers with an increased number of hot days and warmer nights. This increases the risk of heat stress, leading to adverse effects on herd health and farm profitability. Effects of heat stress Reduced...

Gemma Chuck

No flies on us — eventually

PAUL* HAD made some small but significant changes to both his milking equipment and milking routine after our initial visit had exposed some mastitis risks that he had been unaware of. A change to a different liner, a small change to the system...

Rod Dyson

Is it too hot in the ‘kitchen’?

SUMMER IS almost here, and there will be some consistently high temperatures as well as some very hot days coming, especially in some of our warmer regions. Unfortunately, heat and sunlight can be an enemy of many products used on farms. One of the...

Rod Dyson

Is it too hot in the ‘kitchen’?

SUMMER IS almost here, and there will be some consistently high temperatures as well as some very hot days coming, especially in some of our warmer regions. Unfortunately, heat and sunlight can be an enemy of many products used on farms. One of the...

Rod Dyson

Look out for cancer eye

THE WARMER weather is just around the corner for many of the dairying regions in Australia. The longer summer days can bring new animal health concerns, one of which is cancer eye. This article discusses the most common types of cancer eye in cows...

Gemma Chuck

Udder health costs dairy $150 m each year

MORE THAN $150 million is lost to Australian dairy farmers each year through poor udder health. Mastitis is the major cause of this loss as it reduces milk yield and leads to poor quality milk. The investigation of mastitis does not rely on the...

Gemma Chuck

An assumption is just an assumption

WE REGULARLY find that our milking time and farm visits are quite illuminating. Not only do they allow us to demonstrate and reinforce procedures that have been discussed both at training courses and on the farm, they also allow us to see firsthand...

Rod Dyson

Teat vs tube feeders?

CALVES LEFT to suckle the dam for colostrum intake are at a greater risk of low antibody absorption and increased morbidity and mortality. Research has shown that dairy calves should be actively fed good quality colostrum as soon as possible after...

Gemma Chuck

“Just the person I wanted to talk to”

COFFEE AND a slice on a Saturday morning is a bit of ritual for us these days, and my coffee had just arrived when John entered the café. I have never been to John’s farm, but I had met him a few times over the years at various industry seminars...

Rod Dyson

Is off-label drug use off limits?

THE OFF-LABEL use of veterinary medicines on dairy farms is surprisingly common. This article discusses the safe use of veterinary medicines and scenarios where these medicines are unintentionally used off-label. There are many definitions...

Simone Dunne

Every picture tells a story

AT OUR farm visits, we often take photos of key factors that we identify, and also the dairy shed layout — it helps us to quickly and easily recall the details later. But as the collection of images has got larger, finding a specific image has got...

Rod Dyson

Do you have the facts on mycoplasma?

MYCOPLASMA IN dairy herds is a topical issue. Much of the media coverage has related to farm biosecurity, management options and the decision to eradicate. This article discusses mycoplasma in relation to animal health: how does Mycoplasma cause...

Gemma Chuck

Detecting cause of lameness the first step

LAMENESS CAN be on par with multiple mastitis cases as one of the costliest animal health issues on a dairy farm. More than 75 per cent of all lameness in Australian dairies is related to non-infectious lesions, with White Line lesions being the...

Dairy News

An unintended consequence

CAMERON* WAS feeling comfortable. The expansion plan for the family farm had gone well. He had secured a long term lease on the block next door, added another 50 cows (with plans for more), extended the dairy shed, and employed a labour unit to...

Rod Dyson

Virbac launches Australian-first combination treatment for BRD

ANIMAL HEALTH company Virbac Australia has launched a brand new combination treatment designed to tackle Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD).Virbac Technical Services Manager, Dr George Cox, said BRD is on the most costly diseases to affect cattle...

Dairy News

Assess internal development by hip height

REARING OUTSTANDING dairy replacement heifers is viewed by many successful dairy businesses as an absolute non-negotiable. So an appropriate contextual question to ask is, “How relevant is calf nutrition to sustainable business performance in...

Dairy News

Keep an eye on E.coli

THE RAIN and cooler weather has arrived in many dairying regions of Australia and while these changing conditions have been welcomed by most dairy farmers, cool wet weather also favours the survival and proliferation of many calf scour pathogens. In...

Gemma Chuck

Simple steps can prevent lameness

LEADING NEW Zealand vet Neil Chesterton visited the Murray region in April for a series of workshops and on-farm demonstrations focused on preventing lameness. Lameness is a significant cost to dairy businesses and to herds, and in most cases it is...

Dairy News

There was no growth so what went wrong?

“THAT’S REALLY disappointing! What went wrong? How could there be “no growth”? They were all clinical cases! Do we need to re-train the milking staff?” These are not uncommon questions when discussing milk culture results and they arise...

Rod Dyson