In this edition of our newsletter, we cover three topics, one dairy and two for sheep farmers, all three of which have direct effects on farm efficiency. It is the efficiency of converting pasture and crops into milk, meat, and wool that drives profitability and contributes to decreasing a farm’s environmental presence.
Last season, Peter Aitken our senior dairy vet working from our Awapuni clinic worked with Zoetis on new methods of improving the reproductive outcomes for dairy heifers. The work of Peter and his team is exciting and groundbreaking.
The program if implemented in 100 heifers will result in 17 additional heifers in calf to AI, 13 additional heifers in calf after 6 weeks of mating, and 10 days extra days in milk for the heifer mob during their first season.
For our sheep farmers, we look at two matters, one of which is front and centre for all sheep farmers, and that is the issue of anthelmintic resistance. While not a new problem, it is one which we have conveniently ignored as we develop drenches with combinations of actives or we spend more on the novel drenches Zolvix Plus and Startect.
Trevor Cook in his article provides background to this problem and how he is getting spectacular results with farms that are adapting their farming system to lower larval ingestion of internal parasites.
And with lambs on the ground, we remind ourselves of the value of supplementing lambs at docking or weaning with Smartshot and the importance of Vitamin B12 in modern fast-growing lambs.
For a limited number of farms this season, we are offering free Vitamin B12 monitoring for those using Smartshot. On local farms we are seeing bodyweight gains of 1kg to 3kg between docking and weaning for lambs being supplemented with this long acting B12 even when their B12 levels are in the normal range.
In future editions we will have more to say on the importance of trace elements in sheep flock performance.
While not mentioned in this edition, a reminder to all dairy herd owners, inject your cows with Multimin 4 weeks prior to the start of mating.