Good health is key to driving efficiency and profit in suckler herds

Maintainig herd health and clamping down on infectious diseases are major factors in improving the efficiency and potentially increasing the profitability of suckler herds.

Infectious diseases affect bull and cow fertility, calf performance and daily liveweight gains (DLWG), some of the key drivers in creating an efficient and profitable herd. They also have a major economic impact, with £15 billion lost to the industry in the past decade due to disease.

“You can create all the potential you like within a herd, but if infectious disease comes in it can undo everything and destroy efficiency,” vet Sara Pedersen, a specialist in cattle health and production, told farmers at a Farming Connect event. “If you’ve got healthy animals and their welfare’s compromised they’re not going to perform as well as they should do. Healthy cows and healthy bulls breed healthy calves.”

Sara focussed on four of the main diseases that can affect cattle efficiency; Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD), Leptospirosis, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) and Johne’s Disease. These diseases can affect cow and bull fertility and have a major impact on calf health and performance. Sara suggested that herds with a barren rate of 5% or more and reduced DLWG in calves could have an underlying health issue. She urged farmers to test to determine the disease status of their herd, remove any infections found and then try to keep out disease through vaccination and improved biosecurity.

“If you’re not aware of what you’ve got find out because then you can do something about it,” she added. “Biosecurity is all about minimising risk. A few hours spent on disease planning and looking at biosecurity could actually be the most cost-effective for your business.”

Alongside infectious diseases, parasites such as roundworms and fluke are one of the main issues affecting DLWG, while mineral and trace element deficiencies can also affect fertility. Other factors affecting efficiency include calving spread, with more efficient herds having a tighter block calving pattern. Disease can be one of the major influences on calving spread, along with sub-fertile bulls resulting in cows taking longer to get back in calf or failing to get in calf altogether. Another key success factor for efficiency is cow size.

“If you’re running a mixed breed herd, moving to a smaller cow can make it more efficient because you can keep more cows and they eat less. Compared to a 500kg cow, a 700kg cow needs 25% more energy just for maintenance. That’s equivalent to about £50 per cow per year.”

Based on weaning at 240 days, the connection between cow weight and the DLWG needed for calves to reach the optimum weaning weight of half the weight of the cow (50kg of calf per 100kg of cow) was also highlighted.

“Smaller cows can still be very profitable when it comes to producing DLWG because as the cows get bigger the calves need greater DLWG to achieve our target of 50% of cow weight at weaning, and there’s a cost associated with that. Keep a smaller cow and keep more of them because then you’ve got more calves and calves are what drive profit,” said Sara.

Farming Connect is running a series of events on maintaining efficiency in the suckler herd:

• Monday, 12th December 2016 7.30pm-9.30pm Afon Veterinary Centre, Llettynedd Penydre, Neath, SA11 3HH
• Tuesday, 13^th December 2016 12.30pm-3.30pm Lan Farm, Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthenshire SA33 6SP
• Tuesday, 13th December 2016 7.30pm-9.30pm Maesmawr Hall Hotel, Caersws, SY17 5SF
• Wednesday, 14th December 2016 7.30pm-9.30pm Ruthin Farmers Auction Co Ltd, Vale of Clwyd Livestock Market, Parc Glasdir, Ruthin, LL15 1PB

All welcome. For further information about the event at Lan Farm, or to book a place, contact Menna Williams on 01970 631405 or 07399 600146 menna.williams@menterabusnes.co.uk.

For details about the other events, contact Carys Thomas on 01970 631402 carys.thomas@menterabusnes.co.uk