25 June 2012

1 minute read

Oceania

Cattle veterinarian Rod Manning urges southern producers to plan ahead to avoid the major pitfalls of good springs – dystocia in heifers, disease and mineral deficiencies leading to metabolic disturbances such as milk fever and grass tetany.

“Ideally older cows should have a fat score of about three (not above 3.5 and not below 2.5) and heifers should have a fat score of no-more-than three otherwise you can have increased problems with dystocia (calving difficulties). Hill paddocks, where they can walk, are ideal for heifers.”

Rod emphasised the importance of keeping a herd in condition score of high twos to low threes to control body weight and an increasing plane of nutrition post calving to aid a rapid return to oestrus post-calving.

“If cattle are overweight you run more risk of calving difficulties, if cattle are underweight you can have a slow return to oestrus post calving and effect reproductive performance,” he said.

“Ideally you want a cow back in calf by day 82 post-calving to maintain the same calving period each year. At the end of the day, it’s about getting kilograms of beef out the gate – you don’t get paid for over feeding a fat cow sitting in the paddock. That extra feed would be better allocated finishing off young stock.”

BetterBeef Network (BBN) presenter and consultant with the Mackinnon Project at the University of Melbourne, John Webb Ware also highlighted a number of post-calving issues producers should be aware of.

“The low calcium levels in very lush feed can cause lazy calving syndrome where the heifers don’t push very well during labour,” he said.

“Sometimes all the producer will notice is a dead calf in the paddock. This is more common during seasons when there’s been green feed all the way through. Putting animals in paddocks with roughage or feeding out hay can help boost calcium availability and can go some way to reducing this.”

In lush seasons older cows are at increased risk of milk fever (hypocalcaemia), particularly in the first week post-calving, as well as the onset of grass tetany a little later in the gestation usually in the first 4–6 weeks post-calving.

In situations with these high risk older cows, they need access to low risk paddocks that contain more roughage and no history of recent potash application.

“If you wait until you’ve got losses, it’s almost too late to get an effective response from blocks and dry licks as it’s hard to gauge how many cows actually bother to use them and it takes time to get all the cattle interested in eating salt,” John said.

Clostridial diseases such as black leg and pulpy kidney are also a concern, particularly to weaners during good seasons that don’t have a full, effective vaccination programme in place.

The risk of selenium deficiency is higher in rapidly growing young stock in lush seasons in certain areas and supplementation should be implemented to improve growth if selenium deficiency is known to be a problem in your area.

TheCattleSite News Desk