Eltham Vet
Eltham Vet Services is a 10-vet practice that has served the farms and family pets of Central and South Taranaki with distinction since 1937. For your pet’s healthcare & your peace of mind contact or visit us.
September always feels like a bit of a turning point where our focus shifts from calving cows to getting them back in calf. It has been a spring to forget for most, with wet and cold conditions meaning little grass growth which has been especially trying for those farmers that had a rough summer. One good thing is cows calved fast for most farmers which means they will have plenty of time to sort themselves out and get back to cycling, however with grass pretty short, there might be a few cows milking off their backs at the moment which is something to be wary of.
This is the time to set the tone for the rest of the season. The weeks leading into mating are arguably just as important as mating itself. A cow that’s cycling well, at good body condition and healthy in the rumen & udder is going to give you the best chance of hitting those six-week in-calf targets. It’s worth taking the time now to sort out the details – a little extra effort in September can pay off come mating time. Make sure you are body condition scoring, metrichecking, doing premating bloods and ticking all those boxes to make sure your cows are ready to rock come October.
On the calf side of things, it has been a very tough time for calf rearers all over the North Island with record levels of calf scours. So much rotavirus has been diagnosed that the company that makes Rotagen powder has sold 300% more than last year and ran out of stock for the South Island farmers. Hopefully with some sunshine around you can all get calves outside and away from the bugs! If you have experienced or are experiencing calf illness, please get in touch around whats best to get your calves back to full health and caught up to their herd mates
We’ll be out and about over the next few weeks helping with pre-mating checks, metrichecking, and general herd health. If you’re unsure about your herd’s readiness, give us a call – it’s much easier to fine-tune things now than try to catch up mid-mating.
On another note, you may have noticed a new face at the front desk. We have hired Briani Watson on the reception, she comes with plenty of experience so please be sure to say hi when you pop in or call up.
It has been decided by our board that for the health and safety for our staff members Leptospirosis vaccination is a mandatory requirement for our dairy farm clients.
Without up-to-date herd Lepto vaccinations we will not be able to attend farm calls. Please get in touch if you need to book in your vaccinations
Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by the Eimeria species. It primarily occurs in young cattle aged 3-8 months but can occur as young as 3 weeks old. Coccidia are widespread in the environment but disease is only seen when there is a huge environmental load, in times of stress, concurrent illness, poor nutrition or poor weather. The disease is self-limiting and calves can build an immune response to it.
Coccidia can stay in the environment for a very long time so can build up year-on-year in the same pastures. These parasites are found and spread in infected feed and water, and disease is more common in intensive systems inside rather than in calves kept on pasture.
The main financial loss in affected calves is due to lower weight gains which can have several knock-on effects such as delayed maturity and therefore puberty meaning these heifers will have reduced fertility in their first mating.
Symptoms
Calves typically present with acute bloody diarrhoea often with mucus in it. They can seem uncomfortable or show signs of abdominal pain, can strain a lot to pass faeces, are more reluctant to eat and have a fever.
Affected calves can lose weight rapidly due to impaired gut health which can affect daily liveweight gain (DLWG) for months afterwards. In very severe disease, death can occur and may be the first noticeable sign.
Diagnosis
History and clinical signs are often enough to make a diagnosis of coccidiosis and faecal test to confirm coccidia oocysts (eggs) can be taken. Outbreaks are common after a stressful period, such as weaning or changing environment, overcrowding or feed changes.
Treatment
Prevention
Bravecto Quantum has arrived at Eltham Vets, and we are excited about this new product for flea and tick prevention.
Bravecto Quantum is an injectable form of fluralaner, the same active ingredient in other Bravecto products, and is formulated in a way that offers a whole year of flea and tick prevention all at once. This means that you can tie in your flea and tick prevention at the same time as your annual vaccinations and rest easy that they are fully covered until next year!
We are currently offering a deal on this product to celebrate its arrival, mention this article when you are booking in your dog for its Bravecto Quantum, and you will receive $20 off your vet fee, valid until end of October.
In a few months time when we start scanning herds, and everyone starts asking “whats the scanning rate like?’. Herd body condition is the a hugely important factor in improving your in calf rate.
Cows that are too light at calving & mating take longer to start cycling, have weaker heats and lower conception rates. Cows that get in calf later have less days in milk and are more likely to be culled.
We can assess body condition score at targeted times & come up with a plan for how we can improve your mating results. Cows that are 0.5 BCS under target at calving time can cost up to $300 per cow in lost milk production and reproductive performance so it makes financial sense to focus on BSC. It has been a rough start to this season with low pasture growth, meaning there may be a number of thin cows in your herd. Focus on these animals to improve their repro outcomes, this could include multimin injections, covers, OAD milking, metrichecking & early CIDRS.
Give us a call if you would like to discuss this further.
“High producing cows struggle to get in calf…. right?”
We hear this said quite a bit. People think that as we select cows heavily for production their body is going to keep putting more of their energy and resources into producing milk, and so their ability to get back in calf quickly will suffer. And this seems to make sense right? As vets however, we get a look into a lot of different farms in terms of both their production and their in-calf rates and we don’t tend to see this trend. Often the farms on our books who have the best in-calf rates also have really good production. Recently we had a really interesting presentation from LIC going over a bunch of their statistics and this one table in particular stood out. In the table below is every cow in Taranaki who has records on MINDA (every cow from every farm that uses LIC) in the 2024-2025 season (98,000 cows). Cows were ordered in terms of total milk production for the season, within their individual herds, and split into quarters. The average for the top quarter of producers on each farm was 473 kilograms of milk solids per cow. This is compared with the average of the bottom quarter of cows, within each herd producing only 344 kilograms of milk solids per cow. Interestingly, the highest producing cows on each farm had the highest average 6 week in calf rates highest average 3 week submission rates, highest average conception rates (equal with the second highest quarter), and lowest average empty rates (equal with the second highest quarter). This is pretty solid evidence that, in-fact, higher producing cows do not struggle to get in calf within our systems. If we feed cows enough we can get them to both produce and get in-calf well. Give us a call if you want help with either!
Calf vaccination timing can be hard to get your head around. We have a planner that can be emailed/printed off for your farm with suggested dates of vaccination for all our calf vaccines. See our Admin team to get yours.
Want a more detailed planner for the whole herd including vaccines and important repro dates eg blood testing, scanning, CIDRs. Contact your key vet for a personalised seasonal calendar
We will again be running the two options of the CIDR programme this season.
Research published in 2021 showed a 4.2% increase in First Service Conception Rate by adding in a second prostaglandin shot on Day 8 of the program.
Further research undertaken in the 23-24 season showed an additional 5.6% increase in first service conception rate by adding in another prostaglandin shot on day -3 (3 days before CIDRs go in). This results in a tighter synchrony, allowing for better conception to fixed time AI.
Together these two additions increase the First Service Conception Rate by 9.8% over our previous program (a 33% relative increase over our previous program).
This coming season we will again be running the double PG shot program (“CIDRsynch”) as standard but the deluxe triple shot version (“CIDRsynch plus”) will be available for those that wish to use it (for CIDRs going in on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays).
The cost will be $60/cow + visit fees for CIDRsynch and $68/cow + visit fees for CIDRsynch plus.
If you have any questions please contact your vet to discuss these programmes.
Studies show that around 17% of cows in New Zealand herds will have endometritis (be a “dirty” cow). Some herds will be higher than this. Cows with endometritis will take longer to cycle, longer to conceive and ultimately will have a higher empty rate.
Metrichecking identifies cows that are dirty so they can be treated.
Metrichecking can be approached in a few different ways.
1) Metricheck at-risk cows (assisted calvings, twins, retained fetal membranes, skinny cows, sick cows, down cows) around a month prior mating. While this is better than not metrichecking at all it risks missing 30% of the total number of dirty cows in the herd.
2) Metricheck the whole herd around a month before mating starts.
3) Do multiple metrichecks beginning around three weeks after the first cow calves and then repeating them around every three weeks so that the herd is checked around three times (referred to as batch metrichecking).
A large NZ study involving 15,500 cows on 29 dairy farms compared doing one whole herd check with the batched metricheck approach, as above. This study found that the metricheck positive cows identified and treated in the batched approach had a 10% higher six week in calf rate and a 3% higher twelve week in calf rate (or a 3% lower empty rate) than the cows identified and treated using the one whole herd metricheck approach! This study showed that many cows that may appear to have “cleaned up” on their own were actually still infected, their cervixes had just closed.
So, from New Zealand research, it is clear that:
Can you afford to leave your dirty cows untreated this mating season? You could gain a lot of extra days in milk and reduce cow wastage simply by metrichecking!
Call the clinic to organise your metrichecking and/or your metricuring.
Mating performance in your herd can be broken down into 8 key areas and each area needs to be focussed on to maximise results. Calving pattern is non-adjustable now but we can investigate how we can improve all the other areas. The fertility focus report is an excellent starting point, so now is the time to download last years and call us to discuss it with you to improve your 6 week incalf rate.
Cow health can include retrospective discussions around transition (milk fever, retained membranes, down cows, ketosis), but also consider including metrichecking, body condition scoring and trace mineral testing prior to mating. Ideally blood test 4-8 weeks before the planned start of mating which allows time for supplementation options to be discussed, implemented and retested if indicated.
Commonly run blood tests include magnesium, copper, selenium, ketone bodies, vitamin B12 and iodine. Your vet will email you a report with the results and discussion. We will test 10 animals; we like to include 2 heifers in the group as we know that R2 heifers are especially vulnerable to inadequate copper and selenium. Low magnesium can lead to “grass staggers” but more subtly, it can reduce milk yield or limit animal performance even before obvious signs appear.
Not every herd needs the same trace-element programme. Testing yearly will provide you with the best information and prevent over or underdosing trace and macro minerals. At the same time as our visit we can carry out a mob body condition score to give you an idea of where your mixed aged cows and heifers/R3s sit, relative to targets, leading into mating.
Hi, I’m Briani, and I’m excited to join the team and be one of the receptionists at the clinic. I’ve worked in the rural veterinary industry before but had a few years away. I am looking forward to being back. Outside of work, I’m usually spending time with my husband or keeping busy with our three dogs. I love competing with my youngest dog in agility while the other two are enjoying retirement.
I can’t wait to meet you and your animals soon!
Eltham Vet Services is a 10-vet practice that has served the farms and family pets of Central and South Taranaki with distinction since 1937. For your pet’s healthcare & your peace of mind contact or visit us.
