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WHY TAKE THE BVD RISK?WHY WHY WHY TAKE TAKE TAKE THE BVD THE BVD THE BVD RISK?RISK?RISK?BOVELA® lyophilisate and solvent for suspension for injection for cattle contains modiﬁ ed live BVDV-1, non-cytopathic parent strain KE-9: 104.0–106.0 TCID50, modiﬁ ed live BVDV-2, non-cytopathic parent strain NY-93: 104.0– 106.0 TCID50 UK: POM-V. Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone. Advice should be sought from the prescriber. Further information available in the SPC or from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd, RG12 8YS, UK tel: 01344 746957. Email: vetenquiries@boehringer-ingelheim.com. BOVELA® is a registered trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, used under licence. ©2024 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd. All rights reserved. Date of preparation: Nov 2024. BOV-0134-2024. Use Medicines Responsibly.BE CONFIDENT ABOUT BVD PROTECTIONWHY TAKE THE RISK?• BVD severely impacts animal welfare – aﬀ ecting dairy and beef proﬁ tability, and farm sustainability.1-4• Persistently infected calves are pivotal in maintenance of infection. Control eﬀ orts that fail to recognise this are doomed to fail.5• In studies, BOVELA® prevented the birth of PI calves in 100% of vaccinated dams, compared with unvaccinated control animals which all produced PI calves.6 Up to 8% more beef calves weaned3 Increased individual daily milk yields of up to 1.8 L4 Over 30 million foetuses protected worldwide since launch7Just one shot provides proven protection against both BVDV-1 and BVDV-2 infection for 12 months8DONT TAKE THE RISK – oﬀ er your farm the UK’s market leading BVD vaccine91. Moennig V, Becher P. Pathogens. 2018;7(1):29. 2. Yarnall MJ, Thrusﬁ eld MV. Vet Rec. 2017;181(13):347. 3. Yarnall MJ, et al. Research Square. 2024 (submitted for publication). 4. Schmitt-van de Leemput E, et al. PLoS One. 2020;15(10):e0240113. 5. Moennig V, Yarnall MJ. Pathogens. 2021;10(10):1292. 6. BOVELA® European Public Assessment Report. 7. Boehringer Ingelheim sales data 2024. 8. BOVELA® Summary of Product Characteristics (Nov 2024). 9. Kynetec 2024. BVD sales data by value.

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1cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Charlotte Ashley:“Data from the robots allows us to keep on top of cow health”CONTENTspecial grassland & forage305221focus feed & nutritionherd health mobilityRichard Simpson: “Always celebrate the little wins when working to improve mobility”248ON THE COVERLooking ahead: spring is just around the cornercowmanagementFEBRUARY 2025WWW.COWMANAGEMENT.CO.UKFeed & nutrition: pointers to optimise herd performanceBreeding & fertility: tips to maximise genetic potentialGrassland & forage: timely focus on home-grown feedSCAN & WIN FEATURES  Cow Talk  National Youngstock Conference  preview  ForFarmers nutrition news / Thompsons nutrition news  Roger Evans  Ro Collingborn  New products  Events & contacts REPORT  Jersey-herd investment allows couple to realise dairying dream GRASSLAND & FORAGE SPECIAL  Pointers to maximise sward performance  Fodder beet adds ﬂexibility to forage planning  Silage additive key to protect crop investment  Slurry innoculant trial results  Crimped maize grows in popularity FEED & NUTRITION FOCUS  Camera system supports feeding to manage individual-cow BCSs  Rehydration advice for cows and calves  Feed update BREEDING & FERTILITY FOCUS  Improving the odds of breeding ‘better’ replacements  Customised index simpliﬁes genomic data interpretation  Inbreeding reassurance from leading dairy geneticist HERD HEALTH  What are motivating factors for using pain relief when treating sick calves?  NSAID use is key to improving herd mobility  Allocating responsibility is ﬁrst step to tackling hoof-health issues  Take time to review drying-o protocols HERD NUTRITION  Rapemeal oers home-grown protected-protein option / Soil health is key to supporting forage quality and yields

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By the time this issue adorns kitchen tables in mid-February, spring should feel like it’s on its way. Thoughts will be focusing on 2025’s grass and forage-crop growing season. Our timely special on grassland and forage production oers some technical articles, including the latest advice on optimising fertiliser use and mitigating risk when faced with making silage in challenging conditions. We also take a look at some grass alternatives – fodder beet and crimped maize. Both can add some ﬂexibility for producers looking to ﬁll rumens and clamps as the growing season – and all its vagaries – unfold.This issue’s breeding and fertility focus looks at genomics and inbreeding, as well as pointers on how to improve the odds of producing high-genetic merit replacements. We also take a close look at other aspects of dairy management, from feed and nutrition through to herd health. The latter includes technical features on improving mobility, the beneﬁts of adding pain relief to treatment, and how a stress-reducing pheromone is keeping heifers – and sta – calmer on one Devon-based unit.If you visited our stand at Dairy-Tech earlier this month, we hope you picked up a goodie bag and took the time to enter the competition we ran in conjunction with Sylgen, for the chance to win £1,000-worth of Slurry4Soil. The winner will be announced in March.Looking further ahead, tickets are already selling fast for CowManagement’s 2025 National Youngstock Conference, which will be held on July 16 at the National Conference Centre, in Birmingham. See page 14 to secure your place.Roger Evans is also looking to the future, and shares his thoughts on the Government’s changes to Farm Inheritance Tax. See page 38. And our third new female columnist, Ro Collingborn, tackles another contentious topic on page 60. Have a read and see if you agree.Forage, fertility and ﬁrstsFROM THE EDITOR3cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025COW TALKRACHAEL PORTERInnovative calming product packs up for grabsHelp your cows and heifers feel more Zen-like this spring, and enjoy the beneﬁts of handling a calmer herd, by taking the chance to win a pack of a bovine pheromone developed for easy topical application to reduce stress in cattle.CowManagement has teamed up with the makers of FerAppease, a synthetic analogue of a naturally occurring pheromone secreted when a calf suckles its mother. This pheromone is called maternal bovine appeasements (mBAS) and when inhaled it passes to the brain where it blocks cortisol release during periods of stress. We are giving away 10-dose packs of FerAppease, each worth £35, to three lucky winners, and LED light-up beanie hats are also up for grabs for 20 runners up.The product is widely used in US dairy and beef production systems, with more than 15 million doses sold during the past 12 months. The cost beneﬁt of using the pheromone has been proven when used at high-stress events and also when cattle are being handled during routine tasks.The product is applied topically to the skin above the muzzle and in the area between and behind ears, from where it is then inhaled to deliver the same comfort to the animal that they would have had with their dam. This helps to mitigate stress. There is a response within 30 minutes of application and this persists for at least 14 days. Initial results from UK on-farm trials, where the product is used on dairy heifers, revealed: rapid parlour training with milking times reduced, on average, by 50%; faster rise to peak yield, by an average of 11 days; increased daily milk production, by an average of an extra three litres by day 21: and continued added production, with daily 60-day yields 1.6 litres above the predicted level.For the chance to win a prize, simply scan the QR on this issue’s front cover. It takes just ﬁve minutes to ﬁll out the short entry form and answer three simple multiple-choice questions.Entries close at midnight on March 15, 2025, and the competition winners will be notiﬁed either by telephone or email. So scan the code and enter today. And good luck.See page 64 of this issue to ﬁnd out more about how the product is working to keep cattle calm on one Devon-based unit.New partners strengthen national mobility initiativeFollowing the success of its ﬁrst national mobility survey and its launch in 2024, three new partners have signed up to the Stride initiative.Stride is entirely supported by industry partnerships and was established as a major industry-wide initiative, committed to helping dairy producers reduce the consequences of compromised mobility in their herds to improve productivity and reduce losses.“The initiative’s ﬁrst year was a great success with an inﬂuential national survey to help better understand dairy herd mobility,” said a spokesperson. “We also ran a series of well-attended farm meetings, helping to shine the spotlight on the key issues that dairy businesses should address.

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Prepare for spring turnoutParasite Watch For more information, talk to your vet or animal medicines advisor. Sioned Timothy, Technical Services Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal HealthEPRINEX® Pour-On for beef and dairy cattle contains eprinomectin. POM-VPS. Advice should be sought from the prescriber. Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone. Further information available in the SPC or from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd, RG12 8YS, UK. Tel: 01344 746957. Email: vetenquiries@boehringer-ingelheim.com. EPRINEX® and the Steerhead® logo are registered trademarks of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health France SCS, used under licence. ©2025 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd. All rights reserved. Date of preparation: Jan 2025. UI-BOV-0003-2025. Use Medicines Responsibly.As spring turnout approaches, it’s important to ensure that parasite control plans are in place to support a productive grazing period. Summer grazing brings opportunities for better productivity but also challenges, particularly regarding parasite management. Proper preparation is key to safeguarding herd health and maximising performance throughout the grazing season.Here are some steps to take before turnout:Plan pasture usage: Use clean paddocks for youngstock, particularly calves and heifers, to minimise exposure to gutworm larvae early in the season. Rotate pastures, or rest elds where possible, to manage parasite burdens effectively.Monitor FECs: Regular pooled faecal-egg-count testing of youngstock, at two to four week intervals from turnout, will give an indication of when worm burdens have established, and treatment can be targeted to protect production and reduce pasture contamination.Prioritise susceptible stock: Calves and rst-season youngstock are more at risk from parasitic disease. Allocate cleaner grazing areas to these animals and consider moving them to silage or hay aftermath later in the grazing season to reduce worm burdens.Consult your vet or a Suitably Qualied Person (SQP) at your local merchant to develop a parasite control plan tailored to your herd and farm. Balancing exposure to parasites like gutworms and lungworm allows immunity to develop while minimising parasitic disease risks. Farms with known lungworm may benet from a vaccine administered before turnout, but continued monitoring remains crucial.Remember, targeting early-season wormer treatments based on FEC results can reduce overall wormer use, can reduce costs, and helps preserve their efcacy.If wormer treatments are required, EPRINEX® Pour-On is a tried and tested zero-milk withhold wormer that treats and provides protection against reinfection with the most pathogenic gutworm species Ostertagia ostertagi and the cattle lungworm for up to 28 days.COW TALKUK producers continue to reduce antimicrobial useStride’s founding partners are Ceva, HerdVision, IVC Farm Vets, Neogen and Zinpro. And now, following the success of phase one and the impact the initiative is having, three new partners have come on board.Specialists in lameness detection and prevention equipment, Hoofcount is a leader in the design and manufacture of automatic footbaths. Its innovative lameness detection device, PediVue, uses AI to highlight the earliest signs of digital dermatitis, as well as changes to the hoof.NoBACZ is a wound care company, specialising in sustainable, rapid-setting ﬂexible barrier dressings. These are made using a patented natural polymer that sets rapidly on contact with wounds to provide a waterproof barrier. This keeps environmental pathogens and contaminants out and facilitates skin repair.Teemore Engineering is a leader in animal comfort, supplying an extensive range of cubicle mats and mattresses in addition to Magellan rubber ﬂooring and cattle-handling equipment. All its products are targeted to increase eciency, comfort and handler safety.“These new partners complement the existing group and will extend its knowledge and capabilities,” added the spokesperson. “Phase two of the initiative will focus on using the survey results to deliver practical, producer-centric advice to make a real dierence to improving mobility and hoof health on UK units.”The use of antimicrobials on UK dairy units has reduced by almost a ﬁfth during the past ﬁve years, according to the latest Dairy Antimicrobial Focus Report from Kingshay.The report compiled by Kingshay, which is part of the VetPartners group, is based on data from 879 dairy herds across the UK using its Antimicrobial Monitoring Service for the period ending March 2024.The report shows that individual herd antimicrobial use ranged from 0.02 to 90.45mg/PCU. However, average total antimicrobial usage for the year was 12.7mg/kg PCU – down from 13.7mg/PCU in 2023 and 15.7mg/PCU in 2020.

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5Westpoint Farm Vets’ and report co-author Tim Potter said the ﬁgures show that industry eorts to reduce antimicrobial use are paying dividends. “The aim isn’t for zero antimicrobials to be used in farmed animals, but instead for their use to be reduced as much as possible while still maintaining their availability and eectiveness to treat disease.“The latest data suggests that neither herd health nor milk production have been impacted by this reduction in use,” he added. “In fact, as total antimicrobial use has decreased, mastitis rates and bulk somatic cell counts have also reduced, and there hasn’t been a rise in culling for mastitis or an increase in the rate of cows leaving the herd.”The report, which also includes health data from Kingshay’s Health Manager Service for the ﬁrst time this year, found that mastitis rates fell to 26 cases per 100 cows – down from 29 in 2023 and 42 in 2020.Antibiotic dry-cow tube usage declined by 5.8% in the year to 0.425 DCDVet (the deﬁned course dose) while lactating-cow tube usage reduced by 10.2% to 0.386 DCDVet.Mastitis treatment is one of the key reasons for using antimicrobials in the dairy sector, but the fall in the number of cases and associated decrease in tube usage demonstrates the dairy sector’s commitment to addressing the challenge of this disease, according to Dr Potter. “The dairy industry has made huge strides in its eorts to reduce the use of highest priority, critically important antimicrobials, and the number of herds using any at all has dropped by nearly three-quarters since 2020 to 3.9%,” adds Kingshay’s Emma Puddy, who co-authored the report. Despite this progress she believes there is room for continued improvement, particularly in the 25% of herds using the most antimicrobials. “The impact of these higher users is signiﬁcant because they account for 50% of total group usage,” she adds.cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025EPRINEX®, a zero milk withhold wormer, is proven to improve the productivity of dairy cows and heifers by removing production-limiting gutworms and lungworms.• Increases milk yield by up to 2 litres per day1• Protects fertility and reduces calving interval2• Protects against reinfection by gutworms and lungworm*1. McPherson WB et al. (2001) New Zealand Veterinary Journal. 49:106-110. 2. McPherson WB et al. (1999) Proc AAVP, New Orleans. Up to 28 days control of reinfection with O. ostertagi and D. viviparus, and up to 21 days control of reinfection with Cooperia spp.EPRINEX® Pour-On for beef and dairy cattle contains eprinomectin. POM-VPS. Advice should be sought from the prescriber. Further information available in the SPC or from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd, RG12 8YS, UK. Tel: 01344 746957. Email: vetenquiries@boehringer-ingelheim.com. EPRINEX® and the Steerhead® logo are registered trademarks of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health France SCS, used under licence. ©2023 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd. All rights reserved. Date of preparation: Feb 2023. UI-BOV-0025-2023. Use Medicines Responsibly.Proven parasite control, trusted by farmers for generations.Find out more, visit beattheparasites.comHerd progress: antimicrobial use is falling

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Supercharged with PATRIOT GOLD Additive PackFor more details contact:TBA Ltd. Unit 3, Pulham Business Park,Pulham, Dorchester, Dorset DT2 7DXt: +44 (0)1300 345711e: enquiries@tbagri.co.ukwww.tbagri.comBritannia Advanced Energized Calf Milk (ECM) is fed by many high genetic merit herds to capture youngstock potential. ECM has been designed to support the LifeStart objectives: OPTIMAL DEVELOPMENT RESILIENCE TO DISEASE LONGEVITYReview biosecurity protocols nowUK producers should make sure their herd and unit biosecurity protocols are up to date and robust, following the recent conﬁrmation of a case of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany.“DEFRA has acted quickly to ban the import of beef, sheep and pigs – and their products – from Germany,” says Neogen’s Jonathan Thomas-Nash. “But it has also urged livestock keepers to remain vigilant to the clinical signs of the disease.”He adds that maintaining good biosecurity is essential to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and preventing an outbreak spreading in the event of cases being conﬁrmed in Britain. “All livestock farms should minimise potential outbreak risks by having biosecurity protocols that can be implemented rapidly, as required.” Central to eective biosecurity is a strict approach to the disinfection of everything and everyone coming onto the farm using a DEFRA-approved disinfectant. “This should be proven to deliver a high degree of ecacy against a broad spectrum of disease-causing pathogens including bovine TB, FMD, cryptosporidium, coccidiosis, rotavirus and BVD,” says Mr Thomas-Nash.Neogen Farm Fluid MAX is DEFRA approved and can be used in a variety of applications for the disinfection of both indoor and outdoor livestock housing, as well as in wheel and boot dips, with minimal degradation by direct sunlight. “The hope is that DEFRA’s prompt actions mean that producers here are not aected by FMD. But it is a case of ‘forewarned is forearmed’, so take the time to review biosecurity plans and maintain stocks of appropriate disinfectants so they can be use, as required, to protect herds and businesses.”

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DO YOUREALLY KNOW HER? ExtraUnderstand her potential through genomics and know she’s BVD FREE.Genomic Result£378 PLIBVD POSITIVEGenomic Result£-91 PLIGenomic Result£673 PLIBVD POSITIVE£289 PLI Genomic ResultGenomic Result£184 PLI © Neogen Corporation, 2024. Neogen and Igenity are registered trademarks of Neogen Corporation. All rights reserved.SCAN ME Official_Genomics_Igenity-Extra_Half-Page-Ad_254x89_EN_EU.indd 1Official_Genomics_Igenity-Extra_Half-Page-Ad_254x89_EN_EU.indd 1 24/09/2024 10:41:2224/09/2024 10:41:227cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Calf innovation roadshow datesA series of LifeStart roadshows, hosted by Trouw Nutrition and sponsored by MSD Animal Health and SCCL, will put the spotlight on the latest developments and innovations to improve calf health, resilience and lifetime productivity.“Focusing on optimising calf development to ensure resilience, supports their health and really pushes the boundaries on calf growth and performance,” says Trouw Nutrition’s Georgina Thomas. “We know that improving calf-rearing systems is essential to achieve economic and sustainable milk production. And these roadshows will outline the latest research and practical innovations for improving calf-rearing system eciency.”Topics up for discussion will include the latest developments in health monitoring and vaccine technology, new research and practical advice on colostrum utilisation, and a major development in milk-replacer formulation.“New research has rewritten the rulebook on fat composition in calf milk and its impact on disease resilience and performance,” says Ms Thomas. “The ﬁndings, and details on how the patent-pending technology has been incorporated into Milkivit ONE calf milk, will be shared at the series of roadshows.”Dates and venues for the roadshows, which all begin at 10am and ﬁnish at 3pm, are: Tuesday February 18, Carlisle Racecourse; Wednesday February 19, Uttoxeter Racecourse; Tuesday February 25, Welshpool Livestock Market; and Wednesday February 26, Exeter Racecourse.The roadshows will be of value to producers and calf rearers, calf specialists, vets, feed advisers and consultants. To register scan the QR code or go to: www.trouwnutrition.co.uk/CalfInnovationRoadshow.

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8 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025TEXT SARAH ALDERTONRoy and Charlotte Ashley always intended to milk cows on their 81-hectare unit after buying the farm in 2016. And in May 2024 the couple, who farm near Bolton, made their long-held dream a reality, replacing their 50-cow Limousin cross and British Blue cross suckler herd, and 100 Lleyn sheep, with a herd of 137 milking Jerseys.“We always wanted to set up a dairy when we came here,” says Roy. “The person we bought Laitha Farm from had Jerseys, and that stuck with us. But we wanted to do it right, and we’ve been planning this move for many years.”The couple’s decision to choose Jerseys stemmed from the breed’s economic advantages and ability to produce premium-quality milk. An article Roy read in The Cumberland News, back in 2012, about the Farlam Jersey herd, which is based near Brampton, helped solidify their plans.“It made sense to go for a smaller cow that produces better quality milk that commands a premium price,” says Roy, adding that back in 2012 the article stated that Jersey milk secured an additional 12.5ppl.Local vet Neil Frame also played a role in shaping the couple’s breed choice. “Neil suggested we ﬁnd a niche. The Jersey breed ticked all the boxes and allows us to carve out a distinct market for high-quality milk.”Farm infrastructureBefore investing in their herd, the Ashleys ﬁrst focused heavily on improving farm infrastructure, for several years, to ensure a smooth transition into dairying. Their primary focus was on building a 150ft-long by 100ft-wide cubicle house tailored to Jerseys. The barn features 160 Mayo Cow Comfort cubicles and mattresses, which are designed speciﬁcally for the breed.Charlotte says they took some of their inspiration for the shed from Menai Jerseys in Anglesey after seeing videos of their herd and unit. “We liked the design of the shed, how light it was, and the airﬂow.” They also opted for extra wide passages, approximately four metres, to provide the cows with plenty of space One Cumbria-based partnership has swapped beef and sheep for a dairy enterprise, investing more than £1 million to create a high-welfare robotic dairy system.Charlotte Ashley:“We want to stamp out Johne’s disease early on”Robots and Jerseys drive couple’s dairying dreamHERD REPORT LAITHA FARM

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9cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025and to minimise any hierarchal or ‘bullying’ issues. The building has Yorkshire boarding on one end, with open sides. The other end has a solid top line instead of Yorkshire boarding, as sunlight coming through boarding can affect cows going to the robot due to the intensity of light.Another notable addition was a FeedStar conveyor feeding system, supplied by Tim Gibson. Due to a four-metre drop on one side of the shed, traditional feed delivery methods were impractical. “The cost of aggregate and concrete to overcome the drop would have surpassed the cost of the FeedStar,” explains Roy. The £20,000 system allows feed to be loaded at one end and delivered along the feed face via a conveyor belt. This ensures cows always have access to fresh feed while keeping the eating surface clean. Roy says the FeedStar is handy for farms with access issues or where producers are trying to reinvigorate an old shed without space for additional feed troughs.The Ashleys also opted for robotic milking, driven by high welfare standards and the convenience of cows being able to milk ‘themselves’, so to speak, without needing to employ additional staff. The unit’s two Lely A5 robots provide critical health data for individual cows, such as somatic cell counts and early mastitis detection, as well as eliminating the requirement for labour-intensive milking routines.Bolton,Greater ManchesterCharlotte and Roy Ashley137 cows, plus 64 youngstock23.5 litres per cow per day, at 6% butterfat and 4.3% protein 81 hectares150,000 cells/ml3.3 milkings per dayOwners:Herd size: Average yield: Unit size:Somatic cell count: Average number of milkings:“I can’t understand why anyone would want to stand in a parlour for several hours a day. Having robots frees up more time for us to spend with the cows to focus on management and other day-to-day husbandry tasks.”Labour shortages were another factor in their decision to take the automated route. “We were keen to keep the labour requirements to just the two of us,” says Roy, adding that the building also has cow brushes and LED lighting to maximise cow welfare.Dairy investmentThe couple’s investments have been substantial. As well as the robotic milking system, which was partly funded by a 40% grant, the Ashleys have built a dedicated calving shed, a calf shed where calves are initially housed in pairs on straw before being moved into groups of ﬁve, and a roofed handling system. Roy conservatively estimates that these upgrades, in addition to the farm purchase, have exceeded £1 million.Their latest investment has been the arrival of the Lely Discovery Collector 2, a robot that vacuums manure from the ﬂoor. Charlotte says scraping with a tractor is labour intensive, and they dismissed rope scrapers due to injuries they can cause to animals. The collector cost £37,000 but they hope to recoup their money by keeping cows cleaner and reducing cases of digital dermatitis and lameness, which are currently quite Cubicle housing: cubicle shed was designed to suit the Jersey herd

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10cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025HERD REPORT LAITHA FARMhigh. They believe this is partly as a result of the unit’s new concrete ﬂooring.The buildings stood empty for almost two years before any cows arrived, with the couple waiting for the right opportunity. During this time, they managed to secure a milk contract to supply Graham’s Family Dairy after visiting the company’s stand at the Royal Highland Show in 2023.Jersey herdThe stars ﬁnally aligned in May 2024 when the Clitheroe-based Ribble Jersey herd, owned by Paul Ingham, came up for sale. The cows, of high pedigree status, had all been genomically tested and were being milked on two Lely A4 robots, making the ﬁt even more perfect.The Ashleys purchased 137 milking cows through Norton Brooksbank and have since bought a further 64 youngstock and in-calf heifers from the same herd, paying more than £200,000 for the stock. They also opted to buy the Lely collars that the cows were wearing, which gave them a seamless start to milking.“The cows literally walked off the lorry and into the building and started milking. It was a seamless transition, and we had no labour costs as the collars were already on the cows and the herd was already familiar with the robots. Milking – and milk production – began immediately,” says Roy.Milking cows are housed, with dry cows turned out to grass in the summer. The all-year-round calving herd is fed a TMR, with concentrate fed to yield through the robots. Initially, the couple intended to allow cows out to grass using a Grazeway gate – something they invested in. But, after nearly a year, they believe the cows are better suited to being managed inside in a controlled environment. The Grazeway gate will now be used to segment cows that need close attention. Cows are being milked on average 3.3 times a day, yielding 23.5 litres at 6% butterfat and 4.3% protein. Average somatic cell count is currently below 150,000 cells/ml, with Bactoscan below 100.Charlotte says the data from the robots allows them to keep on top of cow health, with the robots alerting them to potential problems before any clinical signs. “You can stop mastitis on the day it starts,” she adds.Plans are in place to continue genomically testing the herd to aid breeding decisions. Roy and Charlotte currently select their best cows using robot data on yield and health, as well as NMR records, to identify the top 25%. These are put to sexed semen to breed replacements, with the rest of the herd bred to Aberdeen Angus sires, which they plan to rear on. Johne’s-disease testingAny Johne’s-positive cows are removed from the herd. “We want to stamp out Johne’s disease early on,” says Charlotte, noting there are very few Johne’s-positive cows in the herd. The couple have also established their own herd preﬁx, Luz Beck, named after the local stream running through the farm.Some cows arrived in-calf to Beef Shorthorn sires, but they had problems calving, which is why Angus is now the preferred breed. “Angus calves are just slipping out,” says Roy.As well as investing in infrastructure, the duo has been reseeding around 10 hectares each year with conventional ryegrasses to optimise grass yields. Some of their land is in a stewardship scheme, which ends this year. But with a desire to farm for productivity rather than being tied to environmental constraints, they are deciding whether to renew or farm the land as they wish.There is room for expansion on the unit, but the couple plans to ﬁne-tune the current setup during the next few years before making any further expansion decisions. |Dairy-cross calf: using Angus sires makes for easy calving

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12 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025TEXT KAREN WRIGHTmilk at 4.6% fat and 3.5% protein. Milk is sold to Arla on the Arla Care scheme.“We run a fairly intensive system and are fully committed to dairy,” says Joe, who adds that joining Arla Care in 2021 formalised much of what they were already doing and achieving, but gave them benchmarks and encouraged progress. Johne’s-disease screening“For example, we carry out an annual individual-cow Johne’s disease screen across the herd, through NMR’s HerdWise service, using the milk sample collected for quality testing. “The herd has been completely closed for 30 years and we’ve no symptoms of Johne’s at all. This annual test meets our Arla Care requirements and conﬁrms our almost negligible infection rates. But if any cows did show Johne’s infection, the testing frequency would be increased.”NMR milk recording, carried out monthly, keeps tabs on somatic cell count too, which currently averages 120,000 cells/ml. “We get results back in 24 hours, so I can pick up any problems and see how the cows are doing almost in real-time,” says Joe.But problem-solving is not the underlying ethos for this Every cow counts at Marsh Farm, where Joe Welford and his father Andrew look to breed productive and proﬁtable cows that have the potential to do well in their herd-management system. Based near Saltburn, in North Yorkshire, the business has come a long way since Joe’s great grandfather took on the tenanted 60-hectare dairy unit in 1944. Since then, the family has taken on more land and expanded, and in 2020 Joe and his father had the opportunity to buy the farm. Now they run 320 Holstein cows, plus 160 followers, on 162 hectares of mainly grassland with a small amount of cereal grown for the dairy ration, rotated with grassland reseeding. The herd is run by Joe and Andrew, with full-time herdsman Roger Wilkinson, and part-time help. Cows are milked twice a day and herd average yield is 10,500kg of Breeding from the best is key to a building a herd of proﬁtable and productive cows. And genomic testing has a vital role to play in allowing informed selection choices to be made.Genomics pave the way for future successBREEDING GENOMIC TESTINGJoe Welford:“Testing has resulted in a big leap forward in genetic potential”

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13cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025herd. The key driver is to improve the efﬁciency and proﬁtability of each cow by breeding healthy, long-lasting and productive animals.“I don’t want to achieve the same milk sales from more cows or ﬁll the tank at any cost. I want every cow to produce high-quality milk as efﬁciently as possible,” explains Joe, adding that this was the driver behind him starting genomic testing of heifer calves in 2020.They use Nordic Star’s Tag-and-Test to take an ear tissue sample for genomic testing of heifer calves at three weeks old. The DNA blueprint for each young calf is processed and reported through Zoetis’ Clariﬁde Plus service to provide a dairy wellness and proﬁt index (DWP) for each animal. “It’s an ideal index for me,” says Joe. “It’s weighted to producing a healthy and fertile cow with a good leaning towards fat and protein, which is what we’re paid for.“While we’re keen to keep increasing production, we need to breed healthy and fertile cows to be proﬁtable. It’s a balance.”Pleased with the progress, Joe says it has resulted in a big leap forward in genetic potential, seen in the current average DWP values by lactation (see Figure 1). “Our selection cut-off for heifers to breed replacements from was a DWP index of 600 in 2018, and now it’s 700 – that’s good progress,” he adds.Genomic data“Milk yields and quality have gradually increased in the past four years, but so have health traits and fertility. Genomic data have been key to identifying the best heifers and speeding up breeding a healthier, more productive and efﬁcient cow that works well on our system, which is what we’re aiming for.“Also, in my mind, genomics is just as much about deselection and not breeding from heifers and young cows that don’t make the cut.”Animals not assigned to a dairy sire are bred to Wagyu beef sires and resulting calves go to a rearing unit at three weeks old. “This works well for us as the sires are easy calving.”He considers genomic testing to be a long-term investment. “If you want to breed replacements from your best animals and you’re using sexed semen and can manage the system, the £30 genomic test is extremely worthwhile.Joe looks to produce 75 replacement heifers each year, and he earmarks three or four possible sires, which is narrowed down via the Genus mating program. “I’m fussy. I look at PLI, and want sires noted for good fat and protein, as well as high values on traits that promote improved feed efﬁciency, longevity and can support environmental criteria. Future generations should be more efﬁcient, and this, for me, also means slightly smaller cows.”Fertility in this all-year-round calving herd is important and by using the DWP index, which has a 17% weighting on fertility, the herd is improving. The current calving interval is 390 days with 2.08 services per conception and a pregnancy rate to ﬁrst service of around 50%.“We do our own AI,” says Joe, adding that his wife Wendy, who is a vet, does the weekly PD testing.The Welfords have never been averse to new technology that advances and future-proofs their business and supports cow performance. In 2008 a wind turbine was installed on the farm to provide 10kW of energy and more recently solar panels can supply up to 130kW of energy. Joe is keen to make even better use of these renewable energy sources, perhaps with battery storage when the time and cost is right.In 2024 they invested in a 40:40 herringbone parlour, with GEA software to record yields and alter feed rates. “This reduced milking times by three and a half hours a day,” says Joe, who does all the milking and admits that technology that can ease the pressure on labour, which is a limiting factor on many dairy unts, is an important consideration.“We’ve also invested in cow collars to improve heat detection, and a robot to scrape out the sheds. Cow comfort has been improved with cubicle mattresses and ﬂexible bars, and cow brushes, which are strategically positioned in the shed, are in almost constant use through the day.” To date, a third of the milking herd is genomically tested and the average PLI of the most recently genomically tested heifers is double that of third-lactation cows. “We’re feeding and managing cows with far more potential,” says Joe. “Genomics is working well and helping us to build a herd of cows ﬁt for the future. Our challenge is to manage these cows well, so we can reap the beneﬁts.” |Genomic report: DWP ﬁgures for each animal are easy to accessFigure 1: Progress in DWP at Marsh Farm from 2020 to 2024 Row Labels Min. of DWP Ave rage of DWP Max. of DWP2020 54 479 8842021 199 587 9302022 317 720 1,0842023 287 690 1,1232024 380 855 1,226Grand Total 54 673 1,226Maximum 884 930 1,084 1,123 1,226Average 479 587 720 690 855Minimum 54 199 317 287 38002004006008001,0001,2001,4002020 2021 2022 2023 2024Dairy Wellness rofit IndexYe a r of birthMin. of DWPAverage of DWPMax. of DWPyear of birthdairy wellness proﬁt indexminimum of DWPaverage of DWPmaximum of DWP

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14 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Tickets are already selling fast for this year’s National Youngstock Conference, which will be held on July 16 at Birmingham’s National Conference Centre. And preparations are well underway to ensure the day offers delegates a varied programme, packed with the very latest ideas, innovations and information to take calf-rearing to the next level on all beef, dairy, and specialist calf-rearing units.The third National Youngstock Conference (NYC), held in July 2024 in Exeter, was a resounding success, attracting close to 400 producer, vet and trade delegates. They travelled from across the UK to listen to leading dairy and beef professionals share a wealth of knowledge and expertise on calf and heifer rearing. Sell-out audienceAnd demand for tickets was such that there was a waiting list, just as there was in 2023. The packed one-day programme, which ﬁlled two lecture halls, delivered 17 technical presentations to a sell-out audience. The event also included 40 trade stands, which offered delegates the opportunity to network, catch up with conference speakers, and ﬁnd out more about the latest products and services on offer.Best practiceAs in previous years, 2025’s conference will provide something for everyone, such as calf rearers looking for a ‘best practice’ refresher on the cornerstones of good management, such as colostrum, milk feeding or weaning. But, more importantly, there will be a wealth of information and expertise on hand for rearers wanting an update on the latest research and technology, or how to manage more challenging issues, such as mycoplasma. The conference aims to be the leading technical conference for rearers looking to take their systems and units to the next level when it comes to maximising health and welfare, and optimising growth to hit key targets for both beef cattle and dairy replacements.The NYC will be chaired, again, by the event’s clinical director Tim Potter, and will also involve other leading industry professionals. Providing a forum for producers, vets, researchers and other dairy and beef professionals, the NYC aims to promote best practice and facilitate the exchange of ideas relevant to all stages of youngstock rearing.Varied programmeThe programme of presentations for the 2025 event will cover topics and issues including: calving and colostrum management, milk feeding and weaning, preventing and controlling of disease, hygiene and the calf environment, and calf housing. More information about speciﬁc presentations will be released in the spring, as more sessions – including interactive workshops – are added to the programme. All presentations will be recorded and made available, free of charge, for everyone who attends the conference.The event will also host a trade-stand area that offers delegates the chance to network and also talk to nutritionists, vets and other calf-The National Youngstock Conference is back this year with another packed programme that oers something for all calf rearers – whatever their calf-rearing management system, or level of experience or expertise.NATIONAL YOUNGSTOCK CONFERENCE EVENT PREVIEWMust-attend event for all calf rearers

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16 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025 Platinum sponsorsNATIONAL YOUNGSTOCK CONFERENCE EVENT PREVIEW Gold sponsorsrearing specialists and ﬁnd out more about the latest products, services and the technology and ideas on offer to improve calf and youngstock rearing management and outcomes.Calf-rearer awardOnce again, we’ll also be presenting the Calf Rearer of the Year award, sponsored by Wynnstay, at the event. This is the competition’s second year, with the aim of promoting and raising awareness of best practice among calf rearers, particularly the younger generation of beef and dairy producers who are typically tasked with looking after youngstock on farm.The winner will scoop a top cash prize and the three shortlisted ﬁnalists will also win free tickets to the National Youngstock Conference.Actionable insightsThe conference’s ‘actionable insights’ competition will also be repeated this year. Delegates are encouraged to make notes about the key things they’ve learned during the day and that they plan to put into action when back on farm. More than 100 delegates entered the competition at 2024’s conference, for the chance to win one of dozens of prizes, supplied by the conference’s sponsors. Moving the NYC to Birmingham allows the organiser, CowManagement, to realise its long-term plan of alternating the event between a base in the southwest and a central/northern venue. Birmingham’s International Conference Centre has excellent road and rail links, and there are plenty of hotels and pubs close by for accommodation. Tickets are now available, sold on a ﬁrst-come-ﬁrst-served basis. To buy tickets visit www.cowmanagement.co.uk/youngstockconference or use the QR code.2024CalfRearer of the Year2025

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Reference: 1. APHA 2012-2019 Neonatal, Prewean, Postwean calf groups. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/veterinary-investigation-diagnosis-analysis-vida-report-2012Bovilis Cryptium® contains inactivated Cryptosporidium parvum Gp40. POM-V. Bovilis® Rotavec® Corona contains inactivated rotavirus, coronavirus and E. coli strain CN7985, serotype O101:K99:F41. POM-VPS. Vecoxan® contains 2.5mg/ml diclazuril. POM-VPS. Bovilis® Bovivac® S contains inactivated cells of Salmonella dublin, strain S342/70 and Salmonella typhimurium, strain S341/70. POM-V. Halocur® contains 0.5mg/ml halofuginone lactate in an aqueous excipient. POM-V. Further information is available from the respective SPC, datasheet or package leaflets.MSD Animal Health UK Limited. Registered office Walton Manor, Walton, Milton Keynes MK7 7AJ, UK. Registered in England & Wales no. 946942.Advice should be sought from the medicine prescriber.Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone.Use Medicines Responsibly.Copyright © 2024 Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. UK-VCN-240900001THIS CHANGES EVERYTHINGONLY MSD Animal Health helps protect against all the key calf scour pathogens in GB.1In the event of a Cryptosporidium parvum outbreak Halocur® can help.Contact us to  nd out how we can help protect the long-term productivity of your herd or visit www.msd-animal-health-hub.co.ukROTAVIRUS, CORONAVIRUS, E. COLISALMONELLOSISCRYPTOSPORIDIOSISCOCCIDIOSIS

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18 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025TEXT RACHAEL PORTERTrials using NSAID meloxicam (Metacam) at a rate of 0.5 mg/kg, increased feed consumption, reduced diarrhoea, and decreased signs of colic. And using NSAIDs in BRD cases also helped to lower inﬂammation and the clinical severity of the disease, reduced pain and saw feed intakes back on track sooner. “Research also shows that using NSAIDs as part of BRD treatment improved long-term weight gain and reduced the percentage of lung tissue damaged when compared to control groups not offered pain relief,” adds Dr Sherwin.Survey resultsDespite this research NSAID use is still relatively low. A recent survey of more than 150 producers from across the UK, carried out in 2024, revealed that 45% of respondents ‘always or often’ used NSAIDs when treating diarrhoea in calves. And 75% ‘always or often’ used NSAIDs for cases of pneumonia, or bovine respiratory disease.“A potential limiting factor to NSAID use in sick calves is the issue of producers and rearers not being aware of the pain levels that individual calves are feeling, due to the stoical nature of ruminants,” says Dr Sherwin. Diarrhoea and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) are the main causes of mortality in pre-weaned calves. The average calf-mortality rate on UK units is currently 3.87% within the ﬁrst three months of life, costing the industry an estimated £11.6 million each year. The good news is that the use of non-steroidal anti-inﬂammatories (NSAIDs), as part of treatment strategies, can help to reduce the impact of these diseases, speeding up recovery and improving cure rates, according to University of Nottingham’s Ginny Sherwin. “Using a NSAID to treat calf diarrhoea helps to reduce inﬂammation within the gastrointestinal tract and limit the damage caused by bacteria, as well as offering pain relief,” she says. Research to understand barriers and motivations when it comes to using non-steroidal anti-inﬂammatories to treat sick calves is also highlighting the wider beneﬁts of administering pain relief.NSAID use – what’s stopping you?HERD HEALTH PAIN RELIEFGinny Sherwin:“Easy-to-follow protocols help to support increased NSAID use”

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19cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025“Identiﬁcation of pain in ruminants relies on a combination of pain-speciﬁc behaviours, and changes in certain behaviours,” she adds. “This makes practical evaluation difﬁcult and subjective. Other barriers include a lack of producer knowledge around pain relief and inadequate vet discussion with producers about NSAID use. Also, research to date has focused on the use of NSAIDs in either adult cows or for routine husbandry procedures in calves, rather than when treating sick calves.”Dr Sherwin studied the potential motivators and barriers for NSAID use in pre-weaned dairy calves on UK units, and discussion groups and surveys with producers and vets formed the basis of her investigations. Intrinsic motivation“During the surveys and interviews, both producers and vets said they used NSAIDs for sick calves to improve the welfare and health of the calf in the short and long term. This highlighted their intrinsic motivation of wanting to ‘do the right thing’ by the calf,” says Dr Sherwin. Discussions also revealed that extrinsic factors, such as response to treatment, cost beneﬁts, ease of use and the potential to reduce antibiotic use are additional motivators for NSAID use in sick calves. “Response to treatment relates to the respondents’ perception of the effectiveness of NSAIDs for improving short-term calf health, the chance of survival, an increase in recovery time and overall pain experienced by the calf,” says Dr Sherwin. “One producer said he treats sick calves with anti-inﬂammatories ‘just to try and reduce her temperature and make her a bit more comfortable’. “Another user was aware of the statistics on how much lung damage is actually caused, even in mild cases of pneumonia, and the impact that has on ﬁnishing times and lifetime or ﬁrst-lactation yield.”She says that other respondents felt that NSAIDs were part of a multimodal treatment plan, and without them there would be less chance of cure. As for the cost beneﬁt of using a NSAID, respondents believed that they offered an economic beneﬁt when treating calves, as the cost was small in comparison to the cost of losing a calf and the potential longer-term impacts of the disease. “One producer said that because they’re not expensive and are so effective that, for him, using a NSAID was a ‘no brainer’,” says Dr Sherwin.NSAIDs are also easy to access and perception was that administering a NSAID was a simple thing to do because they tended to already be in stock on the farm. In the UK, NSAIDs are categorised as prescription-only medicines, but producers are allowed to personally administer NSAIDs and maintain limited supplies for future use, in accordance with the obtained prescription. And when it comes to antibiotic or antimicrobial stewardship, producers taking part in the survey wanted to ‘do the right thing’ by reducing the amount of antibiotics used, through utilising other options available for treatment. There was also the perception that using a NSAID could also reduce the overall herd antibiotic use, particularly if calves were treated early enough and were able to make a quicker and ‘better’ recovery. The survey also highlighted barriers to NSAID use in sick calves. These included the perceived return on investment on NSAID use. “In a situation where calf prices are poor, and there’s no willingness or incentive to pay for a decent stock person, there’s a greater risk of poor decision-making. The end result is often poor-quality calves,” she says, adding that this ﬁnancial barrier also included the impact of repeat treatments for an individual animal. Farm priorities were another barrier to NSAID use, particularly the perceived importance of youngstock and whether the priorities of the business owners aligned with those of the staff. This was often inﬂuenced by whether the unit had experienced a previous problem and how issues had been resolved. “Producers who have had pneumonia outbreaks, for example, and have dealt with it are, typically, much more ‘on it’ because they’ve seen how bad it can be.”Ease of treatment can also be a barrier to NSAID use, as well as a motivator. Disease detectionDetection of disease relies on the ability of staff to pick up abnormal clinical signs, as well as pain, in order to know whether an animal requires treatment or not. Access to a second opinion from a vet or a more-experienced member of staff was also a barrier, particularly for less conﬁdent calf rearers. And the ability of staff to deliver treatment also plays a role here, such as available time to treat the calf and the ease of handling the animal without creating stress, which could be detrimental,” says Dr Sherwin. “Easy-to-follow protocols and training given to staff also determined motivation towards the use of NSAID for pre-weaned calves. This links to whether staff had the skill set to administer the treatments competently and conﬁdently.” “While there is a strong intrinsic motivation to improve calf welfare, limited knowledge, confusion about the use of injectable treatments, and acceptance of endemic issues acted as barriers to NSAID use. The study highlighted a desire for increased education on NSAID use, as well as a potential beneﬁt from a more collaborative, industry-wide approach to improve youngstock care and integrate calf management on dairy units,” she adds. |● Keep NSAIDs in a lockable medicine cabinet in calf shed● Post laminated treatment protocols on the wall; include number of who to call if sta are unsure about NSAID use● Know the signs for treatment – through regular calf-team discussions with vets and post pictures/pointers on the wall● Use a treatment book for recording and assessing NSAID use ● Check all members of sta are happy with when and how to administer NSAIDs ● Make it easy to separate and restrain calves requiring treatmentNSAID-use recommendations

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IVC’s Gill Whitehurst is a Midlands-based vet working with more than 60 dairy clients, ranging from 600-cow spring-grazing herds down to 150 all-year-round calving family-run businesses.Knock-on eect“Pain causes cattle to eat less, which has a knock-on effect to dry matter intakes and, in turn, will reduce milk yields and growth rates. Nutritional stress also impacts the animal’s immune system, making them more susceptible to other diseases and health conditions that will further hamper productivity,” she says.“If pain occurs around the point of calving this can impact colostrum quality and quantity. This then impacts calf performance – and the future potential of the dairy herd.”There is a wealth of research on the use of NSAIDs Poor mobility has a major impact on herd welfare, health and productivity, and results in substantial economic losses. The average herd lameness prevalence in the UK is estimated to be 30.1%, and compromised hoof health is associated with, among other losses, reduced milk yield, increased mastitis, and infertility.The Stride UK dairy mobility report, produced from a national survey carried out in 2024, revealed that 7% of producers were not using NSAIDs to treat lame cows. “While more than 90% of Stride survey respondents said they use a NSAID to treat some cases of lameness, just 20% reported using a NSAID in all lameness cases,” says Ceva Animal Health’s Katherine Timms.“This indicates that pain management is considered important and a key part of the tool kit on many units when addressing mobility problems. But also highlights that more could be done within the industry when it comes to pain relief and herd welfare, particularly as we’re still seeing high levels of lameness throughout the UK,” she adds.NSAIDs have an extensive role to play in providing pain relief in cows, while also helping to reduce antibiotic use. “Producers are keen to provide pain relief for their animals,” adds Ms Timms.Results from the ﬁrst Stride UK dairy mobility survey, carried out in 2024, revealed that NSAIDs could be used more widely to relieve pain when treating hoof health.TEXT GILL AINGEMake pain relief standard protocol21cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025HERD HEALTH IMPROVING MOBILITYGill Whitehurst:“NSAIDs’ ROI is substantial, at £1.66 for every £1 spent”

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HERD HEALTH IMPROVING MOBILITY22 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025times so they can be administered according to the vet’s herd health plan.”Staffordshire-based producer Adam Ball runs a 230-cow Holstein herd and supplies milk to Arla on a Morrisons high-welfare contract. He has embraced the use of NSAIDs on his herd, using them for ‘most procedures and treatments’. “Our protocols for difﬁcult calvings, all cases of mastitis, lameness, sick calves, and disbudding include using NSAIDs,” he says. “We also use NSAIDs on any cows that are ﬂagged as having a low rumination rate on our SenseTime collars. Using pain relief is part of our procedure to get them eating again.”He says he’s gradually been using more NSAIDs and fewer antibiotic treatments during the past few years, and this approach correlates with improved herd health. “It’s important that we use NSAIDs where we can because pain relief is often overlooked on some units. Cows are ‘prey’ animals and, as such, are good at disguising their pain to avoid attracting attention. So we aim to see through this and treat the animals in pain because we certainly see the beneﬁts,” adds Mr Ball.“I’d recommend that producers use NSAIDs when treating mastitis and lameness because we have seen better cure rates when using them. Sick calves also respond well to NSAIDs that are administered at the ﬁrst sign that they are ‘off colour’. They also help cows start eating again if they have had a metabolic problem, hopefully preventing any LDAs.”NSAIDs are certainly proven to have extensive beneﬁts when it comes to improving herd welfare, health and production. But, as always, it is important to ask for vet advice about how best to incorporate them into herd health plans. |at calving to improve the welfare of both cow and calf during the post-partum period, and productivity gains were also identiﬁed. “These include milking performance, where the 305-day yield of NSAID-treated cows was 664kg higher than those not receiving treatment,” says Ms Whitehurst. NSAIDs, in this instance Ketoprofen, treated cows also conceived 22 days sooner than those not receiving pain-relief treatment and a greater proportion of NSAID-treated cows conceived by 100 days in milk – 65.7% versus 48.6%. Trial work also saw NSAID-treated cows spend more time in a comfortable position, indicating better welfare.Heifer mobilityMs Whitehurst adds that there are also many beneﬁts to using NSAIDs routinely in heifers at ﬁrst and subsequent calvings, and in conjunction with conventional best practice of a therapeutic trim and a hoof block if she is identiﬁed as lame. This protocol has been shown to result in a reduction in lameness of approximately 10%, and a decrease in severe lameness of 3%. And it has also reduced the likelihood of cows being culled, compared with animals treated in accordance with conventional best practice of a therapeutic trim and a hoof block on the sound claw, if deemed necessary, every time they were treated for lameness.“Cows with digital dermatitis are 2.57 times more likely to be lame when suffering from the condition compared to those treated with an intramuscular injection of a NSAID,” she says. “Cows that were lame prior to treatment and did not receive a NSAID were more than 20 times more likely to remain lame a week post-treatment compared to cows that were given pain relief.”She says that there is also a milk-yield beneﬁt. “On average, all treated animals, including those that were not lame, produced almost 3kg of additional milk per day. But the freshly-calved cows, which were lame at diagnosis, produced an additional 10kg of milk per day for a seven-day period.”Producers want an effective and cost-efﬁcient pain relief solution for their herds, and strategic use of NSAIDs yields a substantial return on investment of £1.66 for every £1 spent.“Prescribing NSAIDs is a crucial part of every unit’s herd health plan, because there are multiple opportunities to provide pain relief to cattle to improve welfare and productivity,” explains Ms Whitehurst. “They can be prescribed for many conditions and it is common practice for all cases of mastitis and lameness, as well as routine procedures such as disbudding and castration.“All producers must have NSAIDs in their medicines cabinet. It is important to have access to them at all Hoof treatment: adding pain relief to protocols supports recovery 22 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Adam Ball:“We see beneﬁts of using NSAIDs to treat pain”

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24 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025TEXT PHIL EADESyear. And lameness also accounts for 7% of all culls. So the ﬁnancial incentive to improve mobility is signiﬁcant,” he says.The Stride Survey highlighted that a wide range of people were often seen to be responsible for the management of foot health, which can be inefﬁcient. Quite often responsibility was allocated to an external contractor who may not be best placed to assess all the factors impacting mobility and ensure early identiﬁcation and treatment of affected animals.Sustained approach“Improving mobility is not an overnight ﬁx and requires a sustained approach to deliver success,” says LKL’s Ian Lindsay. “This begins with adopting a structured approach. Everyone in the team, both on-farm and external advisers and specialists, will have responsibilities. But one person, preferably in the farm team and responsible for day-to-day management, must ultimately be responsible for driving improvement.“Better allocation of responsibilities can bring some big beneﬁts,” he adds. “It can make the member of the on-farm team given overall responsibility feel empowered and trusted. There could be someone One major ﬁnding of 2024’s Stride national mobility survey was that there was considerable scope to improve planning around hoof-health management. And this starts with the allocation of responsibilities within the wider farm team, including external advisers, to help drive improvements. “Improving mobility is a complex challenge involving nutrition, genetics, housing, diagnostics and actions to treat problems,” says Kinghay’s Richard Simpson, adding that clear allocation of responsibilities and having a relevant plan are the foundations of sustained improvements in mobility.“The 2024 Kingshay Dairy Costings Report puts the average cost of a case of lameness at £284. Herds with an average 37 cases of lameness per 100 cows per year are looking at costs of up to £10,508 per 100 cows per Drawing on the results of 2024’s Stride survey, we take a closer look at how producers can take vital steps to tackle herd mobility issues, starting with allocating responsibility.Clear delegation will accelerate mobility gainsHERD HEALTH STRIDE INSIGHTS24Ian Lindsay:“One person must be responsible for driving improvement”

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References: 1. Diaz-Reval M.I. et al. 2004. Evidence for a central mechanism of action of S-(+)-ketoprofen. European J. Pharmacology. 483: 241-248. • 2. Netter P et al. 1985. Di u-sion of intramuscular ketoprofen into the cerebrospinal  uid. European J. Clinical Pharmacology. 26: 319-321. • 3. Whay H.R., Webster A.J.F., Waterman-Patterson A.E. 2005. Role of ketoprofen in the modulation of hyperalgesia associated with lameness in dairy cattle. Vet. Record. 157: 729-733. • 4. Kasiora K, Anagnostopoulos A, Bedford C,Menka T, Barden M, Gri ths BE, et al. Evaluation of the use of ketoprofen for the treatment of digital dermatitis in dairy cattle: A randomised, positive controlled, clinical trial. Vet Rec. 2021;e977. https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.977Ketofen® 10% solution for injection for horses, cattle and pigs contains 100 mg ketoprofen per ml. Legal Category: UK POM-VFurther information is available from the product SPC, data sheet or pack insert.Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone. Use medicines responsibly (www.noah.co.uk/responsible)Ceva Animal Health Ltd, Explorer House, Mercury Park, Wycombe Lane, Wooburn Green, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP10 0HH01628 334 056 www.ceva.co.ukKetofen®Break the painNSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inﬂammatory drugs) such as Ketofen containing the active ketoprofen have a zero milk withhold and are licensed to treat the pain associated with lameness. NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inﬂammatory drugs) such as Ketofen containing the active ketoprofen have a zero milk withhold and are licensed to treat the pain associated with lameness. NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inﬂammatory drugs) such as Ketofen containing the active ketoprofen have a zero milk withhold and are licensed to treat the pain associated with lameness. A recent study4 concluded that in dairy cows, the addition of Ketofen 10% to protocols for the treatment of pain and lameness associated with digital dermatitis, could be beneﬁ cial for animal welfare and productivity.KET19ADPowerfulNSAID1,2,3Fast ac ngNo milk withdrawalAcute mas  s & udder oedemaPain associated with lamenessPost calving paresisCan be given for 1 to 3 days up to3d1 day (IV) meat withdrawalfrom1dIV

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26cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025HERD HEALTH STRIDE INSIGHTSdeveloping a system for monitoring what is happening on a day-to-day basis to ensure everything is in place to improve mobility, as well as keeping and using records to assess progress.“Have team meetings to review progress and assess the plan. Review data with herd advisers, vets, trimmers and consultants,” says Mr Simpson.External advice“Take external advice. Perhaps a nutritionist can identify issues with the diet, the trimmer can advise on key diagnoses and the vet can provide advice on foot health? “Ensure constructive, positive discussion across the whole team, avoiding apportioning any blame when mobility issues do occur. And always celebrate the little wins. Improving mobility won’t happen overnight. All the small improvements will contribute to better performance, so they need to be recognised.“Taking a more structured approach to managing mobility could be the one single action that will initiate a sustained reduction in foot-health issues, reducing the negative ﬁnancial impact on the business,” he adds.“The start point must be clear allocation of responsibilities and support for the person given the opportunity to improve mobility.” |To download the Stride factsheet and to register to receive other factsheets in the series go to www.stridemobiliuty.co.uk or scan the QR code.who would really like to take on the challenge.“With responsibility must come budget allocation and clear target setting. And, because improving mobility must be a team approach, training can be good for staff personal development and their contribution to business prosperity.“With a team focused on the challenge and clear responsibility allocated, it should be possible to accelerate improvement and move to an emphasis on prevention rather than treatment, which can improve staff morale.”Having decided who will have overall responsibility for hoof health, what is the best way to begin the process of improving mobility?This should be a four-step process, including: planning, agreeing the diagnostics, ensuring all staff are appropriately trained, and monitoring progress (see box). “Once these areas have been addressed, adopting a structured approach of ‘measure, manage and monitor’ can provide the framework to achieve a sustained improvement in mobility and foot health,” says Mr Simpson. Consistent system“Measure means looking at the cost of compromised mobility in your herd and knowing the major causes of poor mobility. Then decide how data will be recorded. Ensure you have a consistent system with everyone recording mobility consistently.“‘Manage’ should be based on the data, and a plan should be developed to address key issues. What are you going to address ﬁrst, what will you do speciﬁcally, and what targets are set?”He adds that protocols should be developed and tasks allocated across the team. “Who will be doing what? Make the focus early identiﬁcation and intervention. And encourage everyone to make suggestions for improvements that can be made to reduce mobility issues. Set up a system so that everyone can report possible problems. This can be something as simple as a whiteboard in the dairy ofﬁce. “And set a budget for investing to improve mobility and track performance to ensure value for money is being achieved.”Monitor means keeping track of progress. Key here is ● Plan. What are the targets you will set out to achieve? What rate of improvement are you looking for and what will be the ﬁnancial beneﬁt of achieving it? How will the plan be communicated to the team to ensure buy-in and commitment? ● Agree the diagnostics. How will you assess current performance, identify the speciﬁc causes of poor mobility and determine the actions to take? What records will be kept and shared? ● Ensure sta are appropriately trained. Train all members of the team so they can all make a contribution to improving mobility.● How will progress be monitored? What are your KPIs (simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) and how will you communicate these? Who else will you share the information with? Foot trimmer, vet, consultant, or other?Four steps to improving mobilityRichard Simpson:“Start point must be clear allocation ofresponsibilities”

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28cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025HERD HEALTH DRYCOW MANAGEMENTBoehringer Ingelheim Animal Health vet adviser Becca Cavill has some timely reminders for producers looking to polish their drying-o protocols.‘Back to basics’ for drying-o successrequires an evidence-based decision-making process, and it is essential to gather the data needed to make informed decisions.Herds with a low somatic cell count (bulk tank SCC), around 120,000 cells/ml or lower, are unlikely to have a signiﬁcant contagious mastitis problem. Infection with a coliform, such as E coli, can produce a range in severity of clinical signs and a high percentage of those with mild mastitis will self-cure. Treatment decisionsThe treatment decision for low cell count (lower than 200,000 cells/ml), low risk (no mastitis during the previous three months) cows can be teat sealant only – such as Ubroseal Blue. Its blue colour makes it easier to see after calving and differentiate from mastitis clots.For higher cell count cows (typically higher than 200,000 cells/ml), using milk recording data to review SCC and clinical mastitis data can provide an indicator as to whether mastitis is likely to be contagious or environmental in origin, and if it stems mainly from the dry period or lactation. After discussing options with the herd vet, treatment for these cows will often be a teat sealant and antibiotic dry-cow tube.Teat sealant: follow hygiene and application guidelines ● Wash arms and hands and wear a fresh pair of disposable gloves. Replace gloves for each cow.● Follow usual pre-milking teat preparation following manufacturer guidelines for disinfectant timing. ● Wipe each teat to be dried o with an individual paper towel, paying particular attention to the teat end. ● Keeping hold of the teat in one hand, wipe the teat end with cotton wool soaked in surgical spirit to ensure it is clean and dry before inserting DCT or sealant. ● Apply a post-milking teat dip or spray after each teat has been treated. ● Remember that while antibiotic tubes need to penetrate the tissue in the udder, sealant is designed to sit in the teat canal only. Pinch the top of the teat to prevent it from entering the mammary gland. Seek vet guidance if unsure.● Check that cows are clearly identiﬁed (ideally in two ways) as treated, and allow to stand in a clean yard for at least 30 minutes before moving to dry-cow accommodation or pasture.● Check udders daily for signs of mastitis.● For further information on best practice for drying-o see the ‘Protocol for drying-o dairy cows’ in AHDB’s online library.Drying o pointersWith many producers either drying-off cows, or preparing to do so, now is a good opportunity to review and ﬁne-tune technique, and spend time checking udder-health records, and planning. Ideally, avoid drying-off cows during milking, or when trimming tails or hooves, because there is a higher risk of teat contamination that could introduce infection into the udder. Cleanliness around all aspects of drying-off is the cornerstone of success.Approximately between 40% and 50% of clinical mastitis infections that are caused by enterobacteria, detected in the ﬁrst 100 days of lactation, occur due to infections picked up during the dry period, resulting in reduced milk production and ﬁnancial losses.Risk factorsExamining the risk factors associated with picking up a mastitis infection during the dry period, including environmental hygiene, drying-off protocols and transition management, can help to reduce incidence. Selective dry cow therapy is increasingly the norm for UK herds and the vast majority ﬁnd it works well. It

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GRASSLAND & FORAGE SPECIALTake time to plan. That’s the key message from Yara’s grassland agronomist Philip Cosgrave, ahead of 2025’s growing season. “Not only because more extreme weather may mean that more forage is needed to support herds through drier or wetter periods, and long winters, but also because above-average rainfall has taken its toll on soils, particularly in terms of leachable nutrients and soil pH.” Soil samples tested by the company have seen a notable drop in potassium (K) levels. “That’s an issue because potassium is particularly important for silage crops. So check soil-test results and aim to maintain an optimum index for both potassium and phosphorus,” says Mr Cosgrave. Soil health has been further impacted by a reduction in the area of grassland being dressed with fertiliser. The latest British Survey of Fertiliser Practice ﬁ gures show that just 22% of grassland received P and 24% received K in 2023, down from 37% and 39%, respectively, in 2021. High fertiliser prices in 2022 undoubtedly played a part, but failing to meet soil-fertility requirements is a false economy, according to Mr Cosgrave. Soil fertility“Reduced soil fertility means lower grass yields or, alternatively, more nitrogen will be required to grow the same amount of grass. As grass is the cheapest feed for dairy herds, it’s worth focusing on maintaining good soil fertility,” says Mr Cosgrave. Maintaining soil fertility begins with assessing recent soil-test results and cross-checking these with the recommended nutrient requirements to form the basis of an effective nutrient management plan. “It can also save time by allowing producers to put together a plan for groups of ﬁ elds with similar requirements, rather than having to plan for each Strategies to support spring grazing and ﬁ rst-cut successPhilip Cosgrave:“Strategic N application is key to maximisingearly grass growth”As increasingly unpredictable weather patterns continuing to have an impact on home-grown forage quality and yields, how can producers maximise their chances of a successful season in 2025?p34 | Fodder beet – your ﬂ exible friend? p43 | Improving silage quality for autumn-block-calving herd p47 | Slurry inoculant trail reveals myriad beneﬁ ts p50 | Crimped maize: growing and harvesting pointersTEXT EMMA WALLER30 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025

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31cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025three, 203kg of N (86% soil applied, 14% as a slow-release foliar N product); four, 203kg of N, 100% soil applied: and ﬁve, 203kg of N, 28% soil applied, 72% as a foliar urea product plus humic acid. The total N application rate for treatments three, four and ﬁve is 40% lower than treatment two. The foliar nitrogen is applied between 10 and 12 days after the previous cut to ensure there’s sufﬁcient leaf surface to absorb the foliar products.In 2024, the total dry matter (DM) yields per hectare for each treatment (one to ﬁve) were 4,490kg, 12,371kg, 10,285kg, 10,536kg and 8,985kg, respectively. The nitrogen response for treatments two and ﬁve were 23kg and 22kg/DM per kg of applied N, while treatment three and four had a N response of 29 and 30 kg/DM per kg of applied N respectively. Trial resultsThe 2023 results demonstrated similar trends in DM yield. The results show that foliar nitrogen, whether in slow-release or solid form, is no more effective than using solid nitrogen at the same rate. Using foliar nitrogen at reduced rates actually reduced dry matter yields by around two tonnes per hectare. Research from Teagasc, in Ireland, supports the use of a sulphur-containing nitrogen fertiliser, with slurry applications. “Many producers believe that there’s enough sulphur for their soil and crops in the slurry they apply, but is not the case,” stresses Mr Cosgrave. “There’s also an environmental beneﬁt to adding sulphur. Trials have shown that when sulphur is included, less nitrogen is leached from the soil.”As well as ensuring that fertiliser and slurry applications are timely – and carried out in optimal conditions, there are practical steps producers can take to maximise silage yield and quality. “Analyse slurry to ﬁne-tune nutrient management. And ensure machines that spread the slurry and fertiliser are calibrated correctly, to spread evenly and at the correct rates,” adds Mr Cosgrave. “One of the most important things is to invest in a quality fertiliser product. Fertiliser is a considerable expense, so producers must be conﬁdent that they’re getting what they pay for.” |individual ﬁeld,” adds Mr Cosgrave. “Soil analysis also provides crucial information on pH, which should be above 6. Soil pH is key to soil fertility, sustainability, and nutrient-use efﬁciency.”Applying nitrogen strategically is key to maximising early grass growth. This means applying it when soil temperatures are between 5°C and 6°C, in good weather, as well as selecting ﬁelds that are likely to respond best. Drier paddocks, where soils are warmer, tend to respond better to nitrogen applications. Applying between 20kg/ha and 30kg/ha of nitrogen is optimal for a ﬁrst application from late January to late February. Producers could also target dirty water on paddocks with low covers in early spring or ﬁelds that been grazed early in the ﬁrst rotation. Second applicationA second nitrogen application should be timed for mid-to late March, at a higher rate of between 30kg/ha and 35kg/ha. This helps optimise grass yields as growth rates begin to increase. “A response of between 13kg and 16kg of grass dry matter from each kilogramme of applied nitrogen can be expected in this early spring period,” says Mr Cosgrave. “And applying nitrogen early and into April won’t impact clover performance,” he adds. “Early nitrogen applications help grass growth and then, into May, nitrogen applications can be reduced as clover gets going.”Including sulphur in this second application is also beneﬁcial for producers who want to get the most out of their nitrogen fertilisers. “From Yara’s own trial work, potential annual yield gains from using sulphur resulted in an extra 1,000kg of dry matter. The cost of applying sulphur is 38p/kg, or £26 per hectare per year. But the additional 1,000kg of dry matter is worth £180. That’s a 7:1 return on investment.”Early slurry applications are also key for producers looking to optimise nutrient applications on ﬁrst-cut silage crops.First-cut applications of no more than 30,000m3 of slurry should be applied in February/early March and these should be topped up with mineral fertiliser in mid-March. “It’s vital to apply required nutrients, not those that aren’t needed, and choose fertilisers accordingly,” stresses Mr Cosgrave. “Optimal nitrogen fertiliser application rates depend on the amount of slurry used, but for ﬁelds where yield potential is average, apply 100kg per hectare of slurry and bought-in fertiliser combined. If there’s a high yield potential for ﬁrst cut, apply a total of 120kg of nitrogen.”Nitrogen is crucial for producing high-quality silage, but does the form of nitrogen and how it’s applied matter? Research says nitrogen applications are more efﬁcient and allow producers to reduce nitrogen application rates with no adverse impact on yield. To learn more about the performance of foliar nitrogen on silage crops, Yara began a replicated plot trial in 2023, which is set to run for three years. The trial has been set up to model a four-cut silage system with the ﬁrst cut taking place in early May, and subsequent cuts following at ﬁve-week intervals. The ﬁve different treatments being monitored are: one, zero nitrogen (N); two, 340kg solid N, 100% soil applied; Timely application: check soil temperatures before spreading fertiliser

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33cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025FORFARMERS FOCUSFertiliser range launchedFeed product supports sustainability and performanceIn the face of rising pressure to produce more with less environmental impact, producers need innovative solutions to balance productivity and sustainability. ForFarmers’ Lintec is a natural feed product, made from a speciﬁc variety of linseed, which combines fertility, health, and production beneﬁts with signiﬁcant methane-reducing properties. “It is a natural, nutritional product in its own right and is a valuable addition to dairy diets,” explains the company’s Alison Ewing. “By providing an ecient and highly digestible source of Omega-3 fatty acids, Lintec helps to balance cows’ hormones, improving heat detection and pregnancy retention. It also supports rumen health by stabilising pH and improves feed eciency, resulting in a milk-yield increase of up to three litres per cow per day.” While the boost to production and health alone makes the product a go-to addition in cow rations for many producers, the environmental beneﬁts of using Lintec are signiﬁcant additional positive factors. “Producers are under pressure to reduce the carbon footprint of their herd and business, and Lintec can help,” says Ms Ewing. “Research shows that feeding Lintec at a rate of 1kg per cow can reduce her methane emissions by 10%. “With pressures to boost productivity and reduce environmental impact, Lintec provides a straightforward way to achieve both. It’s a win-win for sustainable and ecient dairy production.” Optimise data in robotic systemsRobotic milking systems yield vast amounts of data that, if harnessed, can oer signiﬁcant herd-management beneﬁts. That was the message from ForFarmers’ Bas van Santen, speaking earlier this month at Dairy-Tech.“ForFarmers’ OptiRobot programme can turn data into valuable and actionable insights and it is the only system that can collect real-time data from any automated milking system and provide clear and detailed analysis,” he said, during a presentation at the event’s Innovation Hub.OptiRobot can compare numerous datasets and produce daily reports to make it easier for ForFarmers advisers to spot trends and drill down into exactly what is happening on farm.“OptiRobot ties in with the robots’ own data collection, running quietly in the background without interfering with anything else,” explained Mr van Santen. “We can help producers improve the level of attention to detail when feeding and managing their herds, and identify where potential marginal gains can be made.“We have, for example, been in a situation where we have spotted anomalies on a client’s OptiRobot’s refusal charts. “The graph showed three particular cows with high refusal rates, and highlighted that they were all in early lactation, suggesting they were possibly a little short of energy.”In response, the concentrate allocation was adjusted accordingly to build them back up to pre-60-day levels. “Using the data this way provides insights that wouldn’t be accessible through the standard reports that are used by producers on a day-to-day basis,” added Mr van Santen.“OptiRobot has broadened the horizon of what is possible, giving daily access to huge amounts of valuable data on factors such as feed intakes, visits and yields. The programme uses historical and real-time data at both herd and individual-cow level.”For more information visit: www.forfarmers.co.uk/optirobot.Robotic systems: automation oers data-gathering potentialForFarmers has introduced a fertiliser range, called TopFert, which contains polysulphate – a multi-nutrient fertiliser made up of sulphur, potassium, calcium and magnesium.Sourced in the UK, giving it a low carbon footprint, the TopFert range includes blends for all crop requirements including reseeding, grazing and cutting. Polysulphate is a 2mm to 4mm granular product with good binding and spreading characteristics, available in both water-soluble and plant-available forms. With a prolonged release rate of sulphate to match crop uptake and reduce leaching risk, it is low in chloride making it ideal for chloride-sensitive crops. TopFert Reseed is an ammonium nitrate (AN) based product with seven units of sulphur for grass and clover establishment. There are two TopFert grazing blends. TopFert Graze includes OEN – a dual-action nitrogen protector that minimises losses through volatilisation, leaching and nitriﬁcation. It also includes sodium, calcium and sulphur which is supplied from polysulphate. As an alternative, TopFert GrazePluS is AN based and has the addition of phosphate, as well as sodium, calcium and sulphur. The sustained release of sulphur improves nitrogen eciency and plant-protein levels. The ﬁnal blend in the range is TopFert Cutting, which also contains a dual-action nitrogen protector. The addition of sodium increases grass palatability and intake, and improves utilisation, while the calcium improves plant cell-wall strength. Other nutrients can be added to the range as required. For example 90% of soils in the UK are deﬁcient in selenium and this nutrient should be applied little and often. Low levels of magnesium can result in grass staggers and, although often added to compound feed, this macronutrient can also be added to fertiliser. ForFarmers recommends regular soil and slurry analysis before purchasing bagged fertiliser so blends can be adjusted to suit speciﬁc requirements.

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34 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE FLEXIBLE ROTATIONSTEXT KAREN WRIGHTBased on Holstein genetics, Nick has taken the herd down the crossbreeding route and tried a few breeds, including Fleckvieh, Jersey and Montbeliarde and but is now focused on Dairy Shorthorn and British Friesian bloodlines. Grazing herdHe aims to breed cows with good grazing ability and the capacity to produce plenty of milk from forage. Good fertility is also important for the block-calving herd. Cows calve in two blocks – from February to May, and from July to November. Between 60 and 70 straws of sexed semen are used on the top autumn-calving cows to provide approximately 35 replacements. Hereford semen is used on the rest of the herd. Average milk yield is just shy of 7,000kg, at 4.53% fat and 3.34% protein, with 3,500kg produced from home-grown forage. Yield, quality and milk from forage have all increased during the past 12 months, while concentrate use per litre has dropped from 0.28kg to 0.26kg. For the year ending June 2024, milk sales to Arla, on a cheese-making contract, exceeded one million litres. Using top-quality grass-seed mixtures as part of a ﬂexible forage rotation are helping to ensure that clamps are full of home-grown feed on one North Devon-based dairy unit.Nick Zeale runs his family’s 150-cow herd, plus 100 followers, with his father Michael, helped by son Sam and three relief milkers, at Woolacombe on the north Devon coast. The unit comprises 85-hectares, including a 40-hectare grazing platform around the farm buildings and a caravan park. Nick also rents 36 hectares of grassland used mainly for forage production. “We’ve a busy road leading to three beaches separating our grazing and forage land so it all has to work hard and be highly productive – for grazing, cutting or a combination of the two,” he says. Flexibility and a system to ﬁll clamps with plenty of top-quality home-grown forage are a priority for one dairy business as it strives to reduce reliance on bought-in feed.Nick Zeale:“Making each ﬁeld count reduces reliance on bought-in feed”Colossal yields – with consistent quality

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Disease challenges and the ﬂuctuating economics of milk production make Nick even more determined to continue these trends and to ensure the herd is as self-reliant on inputs as possible. But this is against a backdrop of increasingly difﬁcult weather. “Our soil is a stony light loam and we get plenty of rain, but it does dry up – it’s more extreme these days. Ideally, we need a night of rain each week, but we tend to see constant rain for a few days or more, and then it really dries up during the summer. “So better quality forages, particularly grass that makes up between 40% and 50% of the TMR, and being ﬂexible with harvesting and grazing is crucial,” he adds. Mixture selectionNick works closely with agronomist Helen Daniels, from agricultural merchants Pickards, to select the best grass-seed mixture for purpose and in a suitable rotation to provide a grass break and grow other forages to support the dairy ration. “I like to avoid leaving ﬁelds fallow,” says Nick. “Stubble turnips or straight ryegrass have been grown as catch crops after wholecrop. But the crop that’s really given good value for money and continues to be ‘a goer’ is fodder beet.” When it comes to grass-seed mixtures, Limagrain’s Colossal Silage was introduced in 2023, and, following its success, more has been sown in 2024. Limagrain’s pelleted clover has also been added to the mix.This mixture includes the new generation of Italian ryegrass varieties, with improved digestibility and noted for high sugars and high ﬁbres that stimulate rumen activity. The seed is treated to improve establishment.A 10-hectare ﬁeld was sown with the mixture in two stages. Half the ﬁeld was sown in spring 2023, at a rate of 7.2kg per hectare, then in late summer pelleted 35cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025clover was tine seeded in at a rate of 0.4kg per hectare. The seed was mixed with 20kg per hectare of fertiliser. “This grass did well,” says Nick. “I took three cuts of silage from it, starting in May 2024, then grazed it after the third cut at the end of August. Slurry was applied after each cut, with 185kg/ha of nitrogen also applied after ﬁrst cut and 125kg/ha after second cut.” The second part of the ﬁeld was sown in August 2023 and the crop grew to about 25cm in eight weeks and provided grass for the entire grazing period from April until October. “Crops have, indeed, been ‘colossal’, which is exactly what it says on the tin,” adds Nick. “The contractor seems to turn up with bigger trailers each year and we’re ﬁlling them every time.”And it’s not just volume. Forage analysis for the grass silage reﬂects good quality. Looking at recent results for second-cut silage in 2024, which includes the Colossal silage, reveals 35.9% dry matter and 13.1% crude protein, a 63.5% D value and an ME of 10.2MJ/kgDM. Yield and quality are, to some extent, also dependent on the season, which is one good reason to spread the risk by growing other crops. The six hectares of wholecrop and four hectares of fodder beet, which is lifted, chopped and added to the TMR, are important components of the herd’s diet. Fodder beet“Fodder beet has been a real success here,” says Nick. “We’ve grown the crop for 40 years and settled on the variety Robbos for the past few years. This yields well – typically about 104 tonnes per hectare. The exception was 2023 when conditions were particularly cold and wet. Yields were disappointing, but still good enough to provide a high-energy feed,” says Nick.Fodder beet, with a seed treatment applied to protect the crop from wireworm, is sown after grass in May. Farmyard manure and 60kg/ha of 26% nitrogen is applied to the seedbed, followed by a top dressing of 24kg/ha of nitrogen that’s applied at the four-leaf stage. To maintain good leaf growth late into the growing season, post-emergence weed sprays are applied, as well as a fungicide spray. The farm has its own beet lifter, and roots come out clean. This, combined with high yields and medium dry matter content, are characteristic of this fodder beet variety making it suitable for growers looking to lift or graze the crop.These crops also have the advantage of breaking the grassland pest and disease cycles on the farm and improving productivity of subsequent grass leys. “Even though the farm is dry, we still get good yields of grass from a spring reseed following fodder beet,” adds Nick. Improved grass-seed mixtures, the addition of more clover and monitoring grass and silage crops with a plate meter have provided good amounts of grazing during the past few summers. “By September 2024 our two silage clamps were full,” he says. “Yields are increasing year on year and we’re producing more feed from our own forage. I want every ﬁeld to count because this reduces our reliance on bought-in feed and makes the business more resilient going forward.” |Flexible crop: fodder beet can be lifted or grazed

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36 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025FEED & NUTRITION ALTERNATIVE PROTEINSTEXT LAURA BOWYERForFarmers’ Wyn Morris says that food-production systems will struggle to be sustainable without livestock production, due to the latter’s essential role in transforming low-value human inedible feed materials into high-value nutritious food – such as milk, meat and eggs.“Livestock also produce invaluable organic fertilisers to feed the soil and arable crops, making them a key component of sustainable food systems.”Raw materialsUtilising alternative raw materials has long been at the core of ForFarmers’ business. The company has taken a proactive approach to meet this demand for these feed products.Circular food production has an important role in sustainable dairying and the company has its own environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives ahead of 2030. “As well as taking a leading position in circular livestock farming and maximising its use of co-products, responsible and transparent sourcing is also As dairying and all livestock production takes steps towards management to promote a more sustainable future, driven by net zero targets, the volume of so-called ‘circular’ feeds used in livestock production is set to increase. A circular feed is one that’s produced when crops destined for human consumption are processed and the parts that are inedible for humans are used to produce livestock feed.And these feeds have a key role to play in creating more sustainable food-production systems and will protect agriculture’s future social licence to produce livestock and animal products. The feed industry has a key role to play in the future sustainability of dairy systems. We take a closer look at an alternative protein that will support the drive towards lowering emissions. Rapemeal-based feed set to boost sustainabilityWyn Morris:“Alternative protein can be made from UK-grown crops”

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animal can get more of the right amino acids to the right places in its digestive system to support milk production and growth.ThermoPlus Rape offers between 18% and 19% digestible undegradable protein (DUP) and true dietary protein (TDP) levels of up to between 240g and 260g per kilogramme of dry matter.Bypass protein“It contains more bypass protein compared to standard rapemeal, so cows receive a greater supply of methionine and lysine and fewer essential amino acids are lost to protein degradation,” says Mr Morris.“This product can be fed straight or as part of a ruminant blend,” he adds. “Either way, it is a sustainable alternative to other protein sources, particularly soya, and can be made from UK-grown rape if it is available. This means we can use home-grown protein sources, rather than importing them, and produce less waste while offering opportunities to improve nitrogen efﬁciency and utilisation.” |important for the feed business, particularly when it comes to the issue of deforestation,” says Mr Morris.Its ESG objectives also include to reduce its carbon emissions from its own operations by a third by 2030.ForFarmers’ position in manufacturing its own enhanced raw materials is not new.Unitrition, which operated from 1956 to 2014, included the manufacture of well-known products such as Rapetec 1652, while RapePlus was launched in 2009.The extrusion plant at ForFarmers’ Bury St Edmunds-based mill, in Suffolk, has been producing three enhanced and heat-treated raw materials (wheat, soya and oats) since 2000. AmyPlus and SelcoPlus were launched in 2012, manufactured at plants in Portbury, near Bristol and Selby, in North Yorkshire.Latest innovationOne of the company’s latest innovative feeds is ThermoPlus Rape, an expanded pelleted rapemeal product. The aim was to create a bypass rapemeal with a new and unique heating process, to achieve more protein protection and, therefore, more bypass protein compared to the company’s standard treated rapemeal product – RapePlus. This feed’s production method includes expanding, pelleting and heat treatment. While in development, numerous trials and quality tests were carried out to determine the optimal mix of raw materials to increase bypass protein while feeding the rapemeal product. It is formulated using rapemeal, molasses, and other distinct ingredients, which are mixed together and then compressed and heated in a high-temperature short-time process in the expander, which increases rumen undegradable protein (RUP) percentage.The ﬁnal stage of production is pelleting, which combines the mix and adds more heat to increase the rumen bypass of the product, meaning the 37cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Pelleted product: protected-protein feed is made using UK-grown cropsFeed production: the latest tech is being used to develop new products

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38 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025A FEW WORDS FROM ROGER EVANSToday I carefully dip my toe into the controversial subject of the changes to inheritance tax and its impact on farming. You see, I don’t think that the Government meant to aect farmers in this way. It was the very wealthy it was after. The very wealthy are quietly buying up land and using the current inheritance tax laws as a loophole in order to pass their wealth on to the next generation. It was the very wealthy this left-leaning government were after. But it had not thought it through because it was concentrating on the dogma: ‘tax the rich’. You always have to think things through. That’s why I was always very quiet at meetings. I was always trying to identify any unforeseen consequences – and walk a ﬁne line. I didn’t always get it right, but I often did. And the people who are organising the blocking of roads with tractors are also walking a ﬁne line. At the moment they have public support – at the moment there is support for anyone having a go at the Government. But you tell someone who is struggling to pay their mortgage and energy bills that you are about to inherit £10 million, and see how quickly that sympathy evaporates. Do the Government care that farmers and their families will suer as a consequence of changes to inheritance tax? Not a bit. I used to record ‘Politics Live’ to watch at my leisure, but I don’t anymore. Before the General Election, politicians used to fall out and it used to be amusing. Now there is a succession of MPs on the programme that I have never heard of and they just repeat what the whips have told them to say. I stopped recording that programme when they were discussing inheritance tax. Westminster was gridlocked with tractors, and a leading Labour MP said that she was yet to see a ‘poor’ farmer. About 10 years ago I met a farmer who told me that a wealthy man from the city had bought the farm next door to his. We are talking about a 120-hectare farm. Not in any particular order, he had bought the farm because he fancied living in this big farmhouse, there was a nice view, and he could pass it on to his children, tax free, using inheritance tax loopholes. He could send those children to that nice school in the village, and he wanted to be able to take his dogs and his family for nice walks. He didn’t want to be a farmer so he let his neighbour farm it rent free. All he had to do in return, was to keep it tidy. He even let his neighbour claim the single farm payment. Can you imagine being so wealthy that you could forego that sort of money? No, the present government couldn’t care less about farmers and they couldn’t care less about food security. The big prize is to bring inﬂation down and a big factor in that is the cost of food. Just remember that it was a Conservative government that sent Liz Truss to scour the Southern Hemisphere to look for cheap food. As far as I know those deals have never been cancelled, but the food hasn’t started to arrive yet. When it does, the values of most food will crash, and this may have a bigger impact on farming than the changes to inheritance tax laws. Bring in cheap food and you bring inﬂation down. Bring inﬂation down and you bring interest rates down. Interest rates come down so do mortgages. See who cares about farmers then.Shropshire-based producer and award-winning columnist Roger Evans tentatively shares his thoughts on changes to the farm inheritance tax and his concerns about food security.Walking the line“… a leading Labour MP said that she was yet to see a ‘poor’ farmer”

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There are obvious costs when BRD ares up in a herd including weight loss, mortality and the cost of treatments. In addition the welfare impact on the calves, together with the distress to the farm team, should not be overlooked. However, the eects of the disease continue through the animal’s life and can result in reduced daily liveweight gain and impaired reproductive performance over subsequent months and years.A key problem is the damage caused to the lung, or ‘lung consolidation’ that occurs during an outbreak but persists in the following months. This reduces the capacity and eciency of the respiratory tract and therefore the animal’s growth and development. This long-term lung damage can also occur in animals that show no clinical signs during an outbreak, but it can still impact performance in the subsequent months. The numbers of these ‘sub clinical’ calves can be signicantly greater than those showing signs, which means that on many farms the cases detected and treated are the tip of the iceberg of the BRD problem. This emphasises that while successful treatment is important, the real priority has to be eective preventative measures.An important point to remember is that BRD can involve one or more of a variety of dierent infectious pathogens, the signicance of which can vary from farm to farm and from year to year. These include viruses such as Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) & Parainuenza-3 virus (PI3), and bacteria such as Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida. This list is not exhaustive as other pathogens can also play a role in specic cases.The range of possible underlying causes underlines the need for in-depth collaboration with the farm’s vet when investigating an outbreak. It’s important to ensure treatment is eective and control measures appropriate. Understanding which pathogens are signicant is extremely valuable and the vet can take samples such as nasal swabs, respiratory tract ‘washes’ or blood samples to help determine those involved in each case.Swabs and washes can indicate if bacteria are involved which might require treatment with antibiotics. Antibiotic use should only be carried out under veterinary direction to ensure rstly that they are required and if so, the correct one is chosen. Culture of samples not only helps identify any pathogenic bacteria, but also indicates the sensitivity of the strain to available antibiotics. This information not only helps prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics but also avoids choosing an expensive drug that is unlikely to work.Sampling also helps identify specic viruses associated with the outbreak. As several viruses may or may not be present, this information is fundamental in working out a vaccination programme for a particular farm. In some limited circumstances vaccines might be benecial in the face of an outbreak, but their real value is as part of a prevention strategy. Considering the multiple possible viruses and numerous available vaccines, all with varying indications and advantages, a vaccination protocol requires as much information as possible and detailed discussions with your vet to tailor it to the particular situation.Treatment options will vary from animal to animal depending on the severity of the clinical signs. As many of these involve the use of POM-V medicines, veterinary guidance is essential for the best outcomes. Alongside antibiotics, if appropriate, non-steroidal anti-inammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be lifesaving to reduce inammation and congestion in the lungs, and electrolytes might be required if animals become dehydrated. The cost and time taken to treat aected calves together with the likelihood that many will still fail to reach their full potential, again stresses the importance of a farm-specic control programme.As discussed, a farm-specic vaccination protocol is an important element in the control of BRD. However even the most carefully planned vaccination programme should not be relied on to control the problem on its own. There are key management and husbandry practices that are the foundation of successful disease control and are essential, regardless of which pathogens are involved.As with many diseases, colostrum plays a major part in protecting calves in the rst few months of life. Cows are likely to have been exposed to the important BRD pathogens present on their farm. This means their calf receiving sucient high-quality colostrum soon after birth will receive antibodies that provide protection tailored to infections they are likely to encounter.Stress can often be a trigger for a BRD outbreak, and while all steps should be taken to reduce stressful episodes, they can’t always be avoided. Two key times are weaning and housing so every eort should be made to keep animals calm and relaxed at these events. If possible other potential stressors such as vaccination, disbudding and mixing groups should be avoided at these times.Most outbreaks of BRD occur around housing in the autumn so housing design and management play an important part in controlling respiratory disease. Young calves raised indoors are equally dependent on the quality of their accommodation. Housing design has improved signicantly over the years and the importance of air quality and SUITABLE FOR BABY CALVESTHROUGH TO MATURITY DEVELOPMENT OF A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM RESPIRATORY HEALTH AND ROBUST DIGESTIONSUITABLE FOR BABY CALVESTHROUGH TO MATURITY DEVELOPMENT OF A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM RESPIRATORY HEALTH AND ROBUST DIGESTIONSUITABLE FOR BABY CALVESTHROUGH TO MATURITY DEVELOPMENT OF A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM RESPIRATORY HEALTH AND ROBUST DIGESTION

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speed, temperature and moisture levels to respiratory health is well recognised. Regular monitoring of these environmental factors can highlight problems and specialist advice can be valuable to advise on suitable modications.Ensuring the best possible nutrition for growing animals helps them cope with many challenges including BRD. Providing optimal energy and protein at each stage of their development helps produce healthy calves better able to tackle stress or infection. In addition specic nutrients can help support immune function so the animal is in the best condition to ght disease when problems arise.As BRD primarily involves viruses and bacteria, it’s natural to focus on these pathogens when designing a control programme, and vaccines do have a valuable role. But success also requires providing young cattle with an appropriate environment, minimal stress and optimal nutrition so they can combat the challenges.Key features and benets: Contains Celmanax, proven to show consistent benecial eects on daily liveweight gain, feed conversion eciency, ruminal and intestinal development and also support stock through respiratory disease and scouring episodes. Includes Zinpro Availa zinc proven to help optimise immune function and gut integrity during times of stress, as well as improved lifetime performance. Contains natural decongestants from plant extracts and essential oils to help support a healthy respiratory system during periods of stress. Contains Phytotec to support robust digestive health, daily gain and improved feed conversion eciency. Balanced minerals, vitamins and trace elements to complement starter and rearer pellets Manufactured using a unique patented process.Ideal for: All dairy and beef calves and youngstock from 2 weeks of age onwards fed alongside starter/rearer. Calves and youngstock at risk of disease challenges during periods of physical (e.g. weaning) and environmental (e.g. housing) stress.Available pack weights 22.5kg buckets 7.5kg bucketsMAXX Calf Health from Rumenco provides tailored nutrition to support the health, welfare and productivity of calves and youngstock. More than just a menthol lick, MAXX Calf Health contains a number of key nutritional additives, alongside essential trace elements and vitamins to support growth and development, particularly during key stress periods such as weaning and housing. A respiratory pack including plant extracts can help to relieve congested airways and can work alongside eective housing design and management to support the maintenance of a healthy respiratory tract. A unique highly bioavailable source of zinc, Availa® Zinc, proven to support immune function and gut integrity, is also included alongside Celmanax™, a fermented yeast culture demonstrated to benet feed eciency, help reduce the eects of pathogen stress and support development of a healthy digestive tract. Suitable for all calves and youngstock from two weeks of age, oering MAXX Calf Health throughout the housed period can be a valuable ‘tool’ as part of calf management programmes.

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Sam Tincknell:“We are reseeding leys to improve silage yield and quality”can,” he explains. “As soon as we can turn cows out we do. This is typically the beginning of April and we have grazing available through to November.”Two herdsThe average milk yield across the two herds is 6,500 litres of milk, at 4.32% butterfat and 3.40% protein, and breeding is focused on improving longevity, with some cows completing 10 lactations. No AI is used on the herds. Instead the family buys pedigree stock bulls, using Friesians on the heifers with bull calves reared for beef, and Friesian or Hereford bulls on the cows. Multi-cut has been the buzzword for the past few years when it comes to silage making. But for producer Tom Tincknell, and his sons Henry and Sam, who run a 400-cow British Friesian herd near Wedmore, a less intensive traditional approach ﬁts better with their dairy system and lifestyle.The herd originally comprised 200 spring-calving cows, based at the 200-hectare unit at Cross Farm. But eight years ago an opportunity arose to purchase an additional 80 hectares at Lower Manor Farm, near Wells. Originally this was used for youngstock. But the decision was taken to double cow numbers in a manageable way, and three years ago a separate 200-cow autumn-calving herd was established at the unit. “It was a greenﬁeld site,” says Sam. “We started building there in 2021 – installing a 200-cow cubicle shed, a 20:40 herringbone parlour, silage clamps, and a slurry tower.”Spring calving is during March and April, with the autumn block calving in August and September. “We run a low-cost system and graze the herd as much as we Adopting a multi-cut silage system is not for everyone. A less-intensive approach may be better suited to spring- and autumn-calving herds. We spoke to a Somerset-based producer to ﬁnd out more.TEXT CHRIS BURGESSBetter quality silage key to autumn-calving success43cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE SILAGE QUALITY

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using an additive ensures a more efﬁcient fermentation with multi-cut silage – because multi-cut grass is likely to be lower in sugar and potentially more challenged with slurry bacteria. But adds that less-intensively-produced silage can beneﬁt too.“Grass from two- and three-cut systems tends to be more ﬁbrous and, therefore, lower in digestibility,” he says, adding that there is data showing that the additive offers an average digestibility improvement of around three units compared with untreated silage, which is equivalent to nearly half an extra unit of metabolisable energy (ME). Good fermentation“Silage doesn’t have to be the highest ME for spring calvers, but a quality fermentation is still needed to minimise dry-matter losses and wastage and to ensure the silage doesn’t turn butyric.”The Tincknells typically produce silage with an ME of 11MJ/kgDM, and forage analysed at 11.6ME in 2023. But considering the ‘washout’ spring and delayed cutting, Sam says he was happy with the 10.4ME and 11.9% protein silage made from 2024’s ﬁrst-cut, which is fed to the autumn calvers. The 2024 ﬁrst-cut for spring calvers analysed at 9.6ME and 10.5% protein, but that was cut in June.All the milk is sold into the liquid market, although the business is paid for milk solids. “Because we’re not producing high yields, solids can be quite high,” explains Sam. “Butterfat is typically above 5% in early lactation and proteins sit between 4.4% and 4.5%.”Looking forward, the family plans to stick with its current herd management and silage-making approaches. “Having separate spring- and autumn-calving herds spreads our workload, and having two dry-cow periods each year allows us to take a break and better suits our lifestyles,” adds Sam. |Spring calvers reach peak lactation in May/June. In 2024 they were rehoused in mid-October and dried off in February. During the winter they’re managed on a self-feeding silage system, with square feeders in the yard also containing grass silage, and cows are fed an 18% protein concentrate through the milking parlour at a rate of around 6kg per day.This group produces milk predominantly from grazed grass, but the autumn calvers’ performance depends on good silage. Sam felt that silage quality, particularly energy and protein levels, could be better and has been working hard to improve it. He says it’s been a steep learning curve, but a simple, low-intensity silage system is still used for both herds.“We still make good silage for the spring calvers, but it’s not as important as it is for the autumn calvers. Management has to be good and silage has to be the best. We’re trying to pay more attention to detail,” Sam adds. Reseeding investment“We’d never carried out any reseeding before, but setting up the autumn-calving block has changed our mindset about forage quality. So, in 2024 we overseeded 12 hectares and reseeded 12 hectares, and we’ll reseed another 12 hectares in 2025, with a view to maximising yields and silage ME and protein levels.”Autumn calvers are fed a TMR comprising grass silage, a 40% protein blend and caustic-treated wheat, plus an 18% protein concentrate through the milking parlour. Cows reach peak lactation around early November and are dried off in mid-July.As well as the owned land, between 60 and 80 additional hectares are rented for silaging. Silage is made separately for each calving block, taking two cuts a year. First-cut, typically taken around mid-May, goes into clamps, while second-cut, taken in late June or early July, is baled. The silage-making process is a split operation on both units, with the family doing their own mowing, tedding, raking and baling, and a contractor doing the harvesting. A forage wagon is used for picking up silage for the spring-calving herd for a longer chop length, which Sam says helps with butterfat. Clamping operations are carried out jointly.To improve quality, in 2024 the aim was to increase from two to three cuts for the autumn-calving herd. But the extremely wet spring meant ﬁrst-cut was not possible until May 18, so only two cuts were made.Three cuts are ﬁrmly planned for 2025 for the autumn calvers, says Sam, starting in late April or early May then cutting at six-to-eight week intervals thereafter.To preserve quality, cuts are taken before grass goes to head and while it is still green in the base, and all cuts for both herds are treated with an additive.“We’ve been using an additive for six years to make better silage,” says Sam. “We initially used Ecosyl, tried a different additive, but came back to Ecosyl. We don’t get any waste. “I thought this year was going to be a disaster in terms of silage quality, because it was wet, but the cows love it. We also use side sheets and an oxygen barrier ﬁlm under the top sheet in the clamps,” he adds.Volac’s Ken Stroud, who works with the Tincknells, says 45cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE SILAGE QUALITYSilage-based ration: forage quality is key to the success of both herds

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Geo Hooper:“Slurry inoculation mirrors what happens when cows dung onto grassland”explains Mr Hooper. “This liqueﬁes slurry, making it easier to handle, and also means that when treated slurry is applied to grassland, the nutrients are available in a more bio-available form for the existing soil biome.”Like other soil microbes, the fungi and bacteria in the slurry conditioner are also proven to mobilise nutrients within soils and develop symbiotic relationships with plants, exchanging nutrients and water for carbon-rich ﬂuids that the plants excrete from their roots.Slurry trialIn the trial, carried out in mid-December 2023, a full dose of the product was applied to one of two 5,000m3 tower silos that stored the liquid fraction of the dairy herd’s separated slurry. This was followed with a half dose 12 weeks later. The resulting slurry, with a dry matter A recent trial comparing fresh grass yields from leys following applications of treated and untreated slurry revealed a difference of 31.25%. And dry matter yields were also 26% higher, in a separated-slurry trial, carried out by researchers at Harper Adams University.The University’s unit has two separate slurry stores, fed from the University’s housed dairy herd, which allowed the researchers to compare the performance of slurry treated with Sylgen Animal Health’s SlurryForSoil versus untreated slurry in a split-ﬁeld trial. And results showed that every £1 spent on the slurry conditioning treatment yielded £18 worth of additional forage.“We’re really pleased with this result, but it’s not unusual for ‘whole’ slurry,” says Sylgen Animal Health’s Geoff Hooper. “What was surprising was that we saw these gains from the liquid fraction alone.” The combination of the 18 different plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and fungi in the slurry conditioning product increase grassland productivity in several ways.“These microbes use slurry as a food source and multiply, breaking down the complex organic compounds in the slurry into simpler ones and absorbing many of the essential nutrients into their bodies,” Slurry-conditioner investment oers myriad returns, including higher silage yields. We share the results of a recent trial.TEXT NATALIE REEDTreated slurry oers soil biome and grass-yield boost47cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE SLURRY CONDITIONER

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XXXXX XXXXX48 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE SLURRY CONDITIONERcomponents to soil – its physical structure, chemical make-up, and biology. The latter is particularly important as it impacts the other two. “Soil microbes are largely responsible for the aggregation of soils,” he explains. “Both fungi and bacteria release sticky substances that hold soil particles together, but fungi also produce a network of hyphae, or ‘feathery’ ﬁlaments, that act as a ‘net’ holding smaller aggregates together. It’s the spaces between these aggregates that allow water and air to ﬂow through soil.“Finally, in their role as nutrient recyclers, the microbes also inﬂuence the soil’s chemistry.”Facultative anaerobesSlurryForSoil’s microbes are ‘facultative anaerobes’, meaning that while they naturally live in aerobic conditions of soil, they can survive in anaerobic conditions like those found in stored slurry. “Without inoculation, slurry decomposes anaerobically,” says Mr Hooper. “Effectively it rots and becomes a ‘tricky’ material for the soil’s natural biome to utilise. With inoculation we mirror what happens when a cow drops a pat onto grassland when grazing – aerobic decomposition with soil-borne microbes.” It’s the combined effects of microbes capturing nutrients, supplying them in a form that is readily accessible to the soil’s biome, and the longer-term plant-growth promoting beneﬁts that led to the returns seen in this trial from this slurry-conditioning product.“Microbes are an incredibly under-utilised resource that drive so many of the natural processes we harness as producers. And we’re only just beginning to realise their potential and ‘engage’ them to perform agricultural functions.” |content of approximately 2.5%, was applied on one of two halves of a ﬁeld that was later cut for silage. The untreated slurry was applied to the other half of the ﬁeld.“Treating the slurry store was quick and easy,” says Harper Adams University’s Chris Rufﬂey. “We mixed the product with warm water, left it in the IBC and then added it to the slurry store.”Both the treated and untreated slurries were applied to the grassland at a rate of 50 tonnes per hectare. Grass samples were taken ahead of two of the three silage cuts taken that season, and analysed by Sciantec labs. Increased yield“Visually, there wasn’t much difference between the two halves of the ﬁeld,” says Mr Rufﬂey. “The main difference was the yield, which was signiﬁcant. I use that word carefully – a 20% increase in dry matter yield is huge.”He adds that he was sceptical when he ﬁrst heard about the slurry conditioner. “Even when there’s a lot of impressive data, you’ve no idea what conditions the trials were done under and if the results will replicate on your own unit.“We worked hard during the trial to keep as much as we could the same to get a direct comparison. And while there’s a small chance that slurry going into the two tanks were different in quality, it seems highly unlikely – the cows are all in the same herd, housed indoors, and fed the same rations. The ﬁeld was fairly consistent too.”Using forage prices at the time of harvest, Sylgen Animal Health calculated that the product offered a return on investment of £323.03/ha, or £18.02 for every £1 spend on the product.“The result is less surprising when you consider the underlying science,” says Mr Hooper. “There are three Grass analysis: samples were taken ahead of each silage cut

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50cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Tom Turner:“‘Threshability’ is essential when it comes to separating the grain”crimped maize is produced by threshing the grain from the cob, leaving the stover and stubble behind on the soil surface. “There is no drying requirement for crimped maize, which has an average dry matter of between 65% and 70%. Instead, the grain is crimped on farm to break open the grains and expose the endosperm, improving its digestibility,” says Mr Turner.In terms of nutritional value, an average crop of crimped grain will have a starch content typically greater than 70%, with an ME of approximately 14.5MJ/kgDM. “And it contains between 25% and 30% by-pass starch and this puts it above other feedstuffs like maize silage and wholecrop cereals. Rocket fuel“Maize silage is often referred to as ‘rocket fuel,’ but crimped maize offers an even greater level of nutritional value,” adds Mr Turner. “There is also a much lower risk of acidosis compared with feeding barley and wheat starch, which are digested more rapidly. Crimped maize’s high by-pass starch content means that it can be digested in the small and large intestines, reducing rumen load and helping to balance rumen pH.”Crimped maize has the potential to be a valuable addition to dairy rations and it also offers a high level of ﬂexibility. So says KWS’ Tom Turner, explaining that this is because decisions can be taken in late season about whether to produce silage or grain from the standing crop. “Key to producing good-quality crimped maize is access to light land in a location with the potential for an early harvest, because crimped grain is taken a few weeks after the standard timing for cutting a forage crop,” he explains. “Providing that a suitable site is available, crimped maize is an extremely nutritious ingredient in dairy rations.” Yielding between nine and 12 tonnes of fresh grain per hectare and containing high starch levels, Crimped maize is growing in popularity. We outline the feed’s potential beneﬁts, including adding ﬂexibility to forage plans, and oer some agronomy pointers.TEXT WENDY SHORTWeigh up maize- harvesting options50 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025GRASSLAND & FORAGE CRIMPED MAIZE

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51cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025has been cut, because a lot will depend on the individual site, the chosen variety and, of course, the weather. “I would advise the use of an additive before storage, to improve fermentation and to promote aerobic stability.”Land beneﬁtsCrimped maize also offers land beneﬁts post-harvest. “When harvesting crimped maize, the chopped stover is returned to the ﬁeld and enhances the soil organic matter content. This layer on the soil surface helps to minimise erosion and ease ground travel,” explains Mr Turner. “But it will take longer to break down compared with a cereal stubble and it can lead to nutrient immobilisation. “So consult an agronomist or crop nutrition specialist for advice on the appropriate nitrogen rate, to optimise organic matter breakdown. This will have to be factored into the rotation on mixed units.“KWS has a range of multi-purpose hybrid maize varieties that are categorised as early and are suitable for both silage and crimped maize. “They have been through a rigorous testing programme to ensure that they not only produce high-quality forage and crimped maize, but they also have favourable scores for grain yield, standing power and brackling. “They will also have good ‘threshability’, which is essential when it comes to separating off the grain,” adds Mr Turner.He highlights the dual-purpose KWS Reo and KWS Papageno as examples of varieties that can be used to produce forage or crimped maize. Crimped maize has a lot to offer in the right situation. “Some units have beneﬁted from late-season decisions to set aside some of their crop for crimped maize production.“While it may not suit all farms, producers can ﬁnd it useful for boosting ration starch content, particularly in a challenging year,” he adds. |Crimped maize is widely grown in countries including the Netherlands, France and Denmark, and it is also produced on a number of UK dairy units. Producers who would like the option of setting aside a proportion of a standing maize crop to produce crimped grain should select an early maize variety.“Early varieties offer an advantage as they can bring forward harvest dates,” says Mr Turner. “They produce plants that will reach maturity with fewer heat units than a mainstream variety.”Early varietiesSome modern earlies have the ability to mature in as few as 130 days, while mainstream varieties can take up to 160 days to reach point of harvest. Varietal selection for crimped maize should also take lodging and brackling scores into account.“The slightly later harvest date requires that varieties have a good rating for standing power and they should also be low risk for brackling, which occurs when the plants break below the cob as they mature,” adds Mr Turner. “Drilling at a seed rate of 90,000 seeds per hectare is ideal, as the resulting crop will be appropriate for harvesting as either forage maize or crimped grain. As a rule, a low seed rate will maximise cob growth and encourage rapid maturity.”Contractors will need to be geared up for crimped maize production, stresses Mr Turner.“It requires a specialist header to be ﬁtted to a standard combine harvester. In response to demand in the appropriate areas for producing crimped maize, many contractors have added it to their range of kit. “But it is a good idea to check that the local contactor has the necessary equipment and that the crop row spacing matches the contractor’s harvest machinery settings.”He says that it is not easy to set a precise ﬁgure for the delay in the crimped maize harvest after the forage crop Grain harvest: crimped maize is growing in popularity

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FEED & NUTRITION FOCUSTracking and managing cows according to body condition score has had a signiﬁcant impact on achieving a tight eight-week autumn-calving block for one 330-cow Holstein cross British Friesian herd. Oliver Grant’s objective is to maximise milk production from home-grown forage in a sustainable farming system on his West Sussex-based unit. The herd, which is currently averaging 6,535 litres of milk, at 4.50% butterfat and 3.41% protein, and 65% average is produced from forage.The team, headed up by unit manager Matt Penny, has been making incremental changes to improve cow health and welfare in line with productivity. “And herd fertility has been one area that has improved signiﬁcantly during the past seven years. Conception to ﬁrst service rate has increased from 35% to 65%, and the calving block has been tightened to fewer than eight weeks,” he says.Investing in HerdVision’s automatic camera technology, to replace managing body condition score (BCS) by eye has offered signiﬁcant payback. And trialling HerdNutrition, a function that provides real-time group-level BCS data, has allowed the team to ﬁne-tune the herd’s ration.Prior to installation, random selection of animals was chosen and body condition scored by the herd’s vet, Nick Pile, and herd manager Matt Watkins. “The process was time-consuming, the results were subjective and there was no indication whether one lactation cohort was performing any better or worse than others,” says Matt Penny. “And each cow could only be scored to the nearest 0.25 BCS unit.“Introducing the technology has provided consistency and objectivity. Each cow can be identiﬁed and scored daily, picking up changes as low as 0.01 BCS, while group averages can be tracked based on lactation number,” adds Nick. “During the early-lactation period avoiding signiﬁcant amounts of condition loss is crucial to pregnancy rates. We noticed that the HerdNutrition data showed the Individual-cow data supports proactive diet managementGathering real-time group-level body condition score data helps to ﬁne-tune herd rations, and optimises milk yields and fertility.p57 | Rehydration advice for cows and calves p62 | Feed updateMatt Penny: “Heifers respond more quickly to corrective diet management”TEXT LIZ SNAITH52 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025

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Speak to our friendly team today to nd out more!Call +44 20 3966 90 63 or visit www.feedlync.comGet the Feedlync Feeling! Transform how you feed your herd with Feedlync’s innovative weigh system and feeding appQuicker ration changesBetter stock controlAccurate daily costingsImproved feeding accuracyRemote monitoring from anywhereThe average number of days it takes Feedlync to pay for itself on farm!9430 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEEFEED & NUTRITION PRECISION FEEDINGmilking herd was losing BCS faster than anticipated,” he says. “For example, the group of 90 ﬁrst-lactation cows’ BCS fell from a targeted 3.1 to 2.9, and the highest-yielding animals, comprising 50 cows in their sixth lactation or more, fell from 2.8 to 2.6. There was up to a 0.2 BCS drop in the other lactation groups. Quick response“That 0.2 BCS loss occurred during a three-week period and was invisible to the human eye. But it was picked up by the automatic camera system. Despite being small, it impacts milk yield and, potentially, fertility. We were able to respond quickly by making real-time changes to the herd’s ration,” adds Matt. “We increased parlour concentrate protein content from 23% to 27%, as well as corresponding energy levels. Parlour concentrate is the only element of the diet that we can control,” he explains, adding that the herd is fed grass and maize silage on a self-feed system. Within two weeks, a daily two-litre per cow response of additional milk yield was achieved across the herd along with a return to the targeted BCS. That yield persisted and followed the expected lactation curve. The real win was that the recovery occurred before the start of the breeding programme, which ensured the herd was cycling in mid-November.“The ability to identify changes in the heifers’ BCS as small as 0.2 and adjust the diet accordingly was particularly important because a negative nutrient balance causes physiological changes resulting in compromised immunity, as well as a potential negative impact on fertility,” stresses Nick. “First-lactation heifers joining the milking herd are the most ‘challenged’, particularly in a self-feed system. They may suffer greater BCS losses due to their inability to compete for feed and, consequently, they spend less time lying down and have less rumination time. They also may require increased energy to continue to grow. “Whatever the reason for the BCS loss, these heifers’ lower lactation yields and active ‘young’ metabolism, allows them to respond more quickly to corrective diet management,” he adds.The HerdNutrition data also allows Matt to identify ‘at -risk’ cows – those with a sub-optimal BCS that may have fertility problems. These are seen by the vet for pre-breeding checks and include all cattle with a BCS below 2.85. Two pre-breeding routine vet visits have been introduced – one to examine cows with low BCS and the other to examine those not cycling before the planned start of mating. Metabolic and dietary-related problems are also rare in the herd and careful dietary management resulted in zero clinical cases of ketosis, fatty liver or displaced abomasa during the 2024 season.Based on the information provided by HerdNutrition, the unit is now focusing on overall feeding regime to minimise early-lactation BCS loss in future years. |Limagrain Field SeedsFOER BTInvested in UK fodder beet trials for over 25 years to bring you the market-leading varietiesSCAN QR CODEto view latest UK Fodder Beet Trials Data and Technical GuideCONFIDENCEINSPIRING

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01270295025 info@rumensupplies.com www.rumensupplies.comChecklist for a quality milk replacer: 100% dairy protein to ensure op mal u lisa on, as young calves struggle to digest vegetable protein sources. How the skim milk powder is processed is important, as not all skim milk powders are the same. High heat-treatment can denature dairy proteins, making them less diges ble and reducing what the calf can u lise. Energy component of the replacer; the oil/fat level should be high and from quality sources. Avoid replacers with long chain fa y acid proﬁ le oils (rape & soya oil) as young calves struggle to digest these. How is the product formulated? It is important that the product has been formulated with osmolality in mind, this helps to promote op mal daily liveweight gains and support gut integrity. RS Energy Advance is a high oil, 100% dairy protein replacer, containing skim and whole milk. Many ‘Bri sh’ skim milk replacers on the market use imported skimmed milk which is then manufactured into calf milk replacer in the UK. RS Energy Advance is not only manufactured in Britain, but uses milk collected from UK farms, ensuring high quality BRITISH skim. Formulated to be as close to whole milk as possible, RS Energy Advance enables high feed rates helping to support op mal health and performance.RS Energy Advance has also been trialled and tested on mul ple farms across the country, demonstra ng to be suitable for all systems. Whether you are gearing up for block calving or evalua ng current youngstock rearing strategies, feeding a quality milk replacer is key to se ng the founda ons of a healthy and produc ve cow!Don’t just take our word for it! Follow the QR code for customer feedback✔ Minerals, bucketsand blocks✔ Fats & supplements✔ Dry cow and DCAB products✔ Yeasts✔ Mycotoxin binders✔ MetaSmart & RumenSmart✔ Rumen buers✔ Milk powders✔ Molasses✔ Formalin✔ Hoofguard✔ Fertiliser✔ Silage additives✔ Grain treatments✔ Cubicle limeDo you use any of these products?If you do, gives us a call;you never know, we might beable to save you some money!

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“Calves lose ﬂuids more easily than older animals because a higher proportion of their body’s ﬂuids are outside body cells, which means they are lost more quickly.”Figure 1 demonstrates the increased risk of dehydration in calves, from birth to three weeks old, and the importance of spotting the signs early and intervening with an effective rehydration formula. Early identiﬁcation can prevent signiﬁcant ﬂuid losses and not only save time treating but also maximise growth rates in early life. Early signs“Pay close attention to calf behaviour for early signs of sickness,” says Mr Jarvis. “Reduced milk intakes, slower drinking speeds or not drinking at all are early indicators of a problem. Other signs will include droopy ears, sunken eyes and a reduction in activity.“Any change in behaviour indicates a problem and Paying close attention to hydrating cows and calves is vital because dehydration impacts the performance, health and welfare of milking and calving cows, and calves.So says Trouw Nutrition GB’s Tom Jarvis, adding that water is essential for all aspects of metabolism. “A dehydrated animal will be reluctant to eat, which reduces dry matter and milk replacer intakes, before becoming listless and lethargic. This will have a direct impact on milk production and growth rates. Dehydration can also lead to an increase in inﬂammation, leaving the animal at greater risk of infections,” he explains.Producers have made signiﬁcant improvements to reduce the risk of hydration issues, based on Cow Signals and Calf Signals, when designing housing and facilities. But the limiting factor for adequate hydration during pressure periods still remains the ability and desire of the animal to drink. He urges producers to consider using rehydration supplements to help reduce the impact of dehydration, particularly in pre-weaned calves and calving cows.“Enteric infection from scours or dehydration in calves is the single biggest cause of calf losses in the ﬁrst three weeks of life,” he says. “Calves are particularly vulnerable to dehydration due to their body size and composition, and high metabolic rate.All cattle – milkers, fresh calvers and calves – can beneﬁt from hydration support, and strategic use of products to replace lost ﬂuids and electrolytes can oer myriad beneﬁts.TEXT PHIL EADESRehydration key to prevent production and health issues57cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025FEED & NUTRITION HYDRATION SUPPORTTom Jarvis: “Palatability is the key to eective rehydration”

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adult cowbody composition (%BW)neonatal calf(birth to three weeks old)XXXXX XXXXX58 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025FEED & NUTRITION HYDRATION SUPPORTand water intakes in the hours leading up to calving making post-calving dehydration extremely likely.“The sooner she is able to drink after calving, the sooner the balance is restored. Rehydrated cows are more vigorous and will eat sooner, which can help reduce problems with milk fever and metabolic diseases.”Feed intake is also signiﬁcant because cows extract a lot of liquid from their diet. A 30% dry matter silage is, after all, 70% water.“Palatability is the key to effective rehydration in the two hours immediately post calving, ensuring cows replace lost ﬂuids and electrolytes,” says Mr Jarvis. “If a fresh-calved cow will not drink the supplement when they are dehydrated it will be because it is not palatable enough.”Electrolyte levels Water only has very low levels of electrolytes so won’t rehydrate cows as well as a product that supplies the necessary salts. The latest research also shows that oral supplementation with calcium helps restore calcium homeostasis more effectively. Farm-O-San Reviva is a proven highly palatable post-calving drink providing a balance of glucose, electrolytes, vitamins and trace elements to support the immune function and rehydrate cows effectively. It consistently achieves high voluntary intakes. Studies have shown that cows are more enthusiastic to drink this product compared to water.Simply mixed with warm water, it should be offered within 30 minutes of calving. As well as rehydrating the cow, a big drink helps ﬁll the ‘void’ inside the cow immediately after calving, which in turns helps reduce the risk of metabolic disorders. “Effective rehydration also encourages increased dry matter intakes immediately post-calving, which are vital to help minimise negative energy balance. Trials with Reviva have shown a 1kg per day increase in dry matter intakes,” adds Mr Jarvis.Being ready to rehydrate cows and calves at the ﬁrst signs of dehydration or at events when dehydration is a risk can help to reduce its impact on performance. “Ensuring appropriate supplements are available, and that staff are trained to mix and feed them, can help limit the consequences of dehydration for all cattle.” |will typically be seen four or ﬁve days before obvious physical symptoms, like changes in faecal consistency, are seen. As soon as any of these signs are seen, it is time to intervene with the priority being rapid and effective rehydration.”Trouw Nutrition OsmoFit is an oral rehydration solution designed for use alongside continued feeding of milk or milk replacer. A hypotonic solution containing carefully formulated levels of sodium and glucose, it helps stabilise the water and electrolyte balance. “It is important that sick calves continue to be fed milk because rehydration and electrolyte products will not have sufﬁcient feed values or energy intake to replace milk feeds,” stresses Mr Jarvis. Between feeds“The product should be provided between milk feeds, typically for between one and two days, and when the calf returns to taking its full allocation of milk. You cannot over hydrate a calf.”The formulation and research behind quality oral calf rehydration solutions means they should be fed as a separate feed mixed with water and should not be mixed into milk. “Mixing an oral rehydration supplement in milk will create a solution that is hypertonic and that will reduce the effectiveness of the rehydration, potentially leading to more scour and more persistent dehydration,” he adds. “It is also important to remember that any stressful event such as group changes, weaning, dehorning or medicine administration can all predispose calves to dehydration. The use of a hydration product before and after these events can signiﬁcantly help to prevent the onset of dehydration and scour.”When it comes to cows, he says that all are dehydrated to some extent at calving. In cases of severe dehydration, cows will not want to stand after calving and will certainly refuse feed. The greater the calving stress, the greater the extent of dehydration and the more reluctant the cow will be to start eating, delaying the restoration of dry matter intakes and prolonging the impact of post-calving negative energy balance.“Post-calving dehydration is due to a combination of two factors. The ﬁrst is that cows will lose about 60 litres of ﬂuids and salts when they calve, made up of blood and intra-uterine ﬂuids. At the same time, cows reduce food Figure 1: Calves have a higher proportion of bodily ﬂuids outside cells (extracellular), which makes them more prone to dehydration than mature cowsintracellular ﬂuids• all fluids inside cellsextracellular ﬂuidsbones, tissuesall fluids outside cell including:• plasma • interstitial fluids

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The race is on to reduce methane emissions from ruminants. Lots of research from developing a seaweed-based feed product through to buildings that could collect any methane produced, is going on.And there’s one product, called Bovaer, which claims to reduce methane emissions in cows by 30%, that’s been in commercial use for more than two years and is licensed in 68 countries, including the UK. It works by suppressing enzymes in the cow’s stomach that create methane. If the manufacturer’s recommendations are followed, it breaks down in the cow’s digestive system and, because it has been fully metabolised by the cow, it is not present in milk or meat.So far, so good or at least until Arla, one of the world’s largest dairy processors, announced a trial with 30 of its UK producers to reduce methane emissions. When the Daily Mail published details, a storm erupted on social media. Consumers avoided Arla products, like Cravendale and Lurpack, with an impact on sales in Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi. Mentions of Bovaer on X went from zero on November 25 to 70,000 a few days later and, to date, Tik-Tok has registered more than 1.8 million views.Media uproar seems to surround the composition of the product, which includes a compound known as 3-NOP. A recent report by the Food Standards Agency warned that this is potentially harmful to the eyes and irritating to the skin. But it was happy to approve its use in cattle feed to reduce methane, as 3-NOP is broken down in the cows’ stomach and there is no consumer exposure.On the face of it, adverse messaging on social media is totally unfounded on fact, and the manufacturer was quick to issue a strong response in defence of its product. But the tweets were out there. Local dairies were inundated with enquiries from customers seeking reassurance that their milk had not been produced using Bovaer, and some major dairy companies issued statements to say that their suppliers were not using it.Such reactions make the ﬁght against climate change even harder. Bovaer is the only licensed product currently on the market guaranteed to reduce methane emissions. Another, possibly rival, product made by an Australian start-up company, Rumin 8, has US backing from Bill Gates’ company, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Rumin 8 is working on a methane-reducing supplement that uses red seaweed. It would be interesting to know. how many tweets ‘rubbishing’ Bovaer came via the US.Edinburgh University has now entered the arena with a methane-reducing calf, called Hilda. A selective breeding programme focusing on cattle that produce less methane will lead to a gradual reduction in emissions. Whether this breeding for reduced emissions will make cows less ecient, resulting in more cows being needed to produce the same amount of milk, remains to be seen. But this would negate the industry’s valiant eorts.Although agriculture contributes 10% of the UK’s total GHG emissions, with methane a substantial part, it’s not a simple matter to make reductions. A United Nations’ report says the fossil fuel industry has the greatest potential to make low-cost methane-emission reductions. But it’s likely to be government policy that, in the future, producers will have to feed a methane-reducing product to their herds. If so, we have to hope that the media furore will have died down and milk sales are not aected.60 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025A FEW WORDS FROM RO COLLINGBORNWiltshire-based producer and dairy columnist Ro Collingborn shares her take on a recent social-media storm and its impact on milk sales.Methane mitigation creates media furore“...how many ‘rubbishing’ tweets came via the US?”

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62 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025FEED & NUTRITION UPDATESeaweed oers a sustainable approach to reducing methane emissions from herds and lowering the environmental footprint of dairying across the UK. Research has conﬁrmed its ability to reduce methane emissions safely.In light of consumer concerns about methane-reducing feed supplements developed for dairy rations, Shropshire-based Edwards’ Seaweed Fertiliser UK is shining a light on seaweed research. This includes two decades of scientiﬁc data gathered from across the world, which conﬁrms the positive role that sustainable UK seaweed can play as an alternative to helping to reduce methane emissions.Seaweed harvested from the Scottish North Sea can mitigate methane emissions from ruminants when ingested directly and/or indirectly, according to the company. “Studies conducted in 2024 show that brown seaweed, Ascophyllum nodosum, contains phlorotannins that, when added to cow rations, can reduce enteric methane emissions.“And producers who use seaweed-based fertiliser produce a high dry matter, nutrient-rich, broad-leaved sward that is less stemmy,” says the company’s Dave Edwards. “Research shows that ruminants fed fresh, young grass with an absence of stemmy material chew less, which reduces enteric methane production.“Work focusing on the use of seaweed in agriculture has been ongoing during the past 20 years, although seaweed has been in use since the Neolithic era to feed both livestock and crops,” he adds. “Seaweed is also a carbon-negative crop, so this approach can also help the UK to achieve net zero by 2050.”The company produces its own UK-sourced seaweed animal feed supplement. Edwards’ Sea Juice is a liquid supplement that can increase nutrient absorption and digestibility, and improves feed conversion ratio and milk yield.Independent research shows that the antioxidants in seaweed increase livestock’s resistance to environmental stress factors, reducing the risk of immune response inﬂammation. It also demonstrates a reduction in disease and mortality, as well as improved fertility and coat condition.Using an additive when making grass, maize or wholecrop silage oers many beneﬁts, including helping to produce better-quality forage and improved herd performance.But additives are not a one-size-ﬁts-all solution, according to Wynnstay’s Simon Pope. “There are a range of dierent types for dierent crops and requirements, but typically they help to improve fermentation, reduce dry-matter losses, inhibit protein breakdown, and produce more palatable silage with a higher feed value,” he says.The cost of growing and ensiling forage is signiﬁcant and the use of an appropriate additive not only helps to protect this investment, but also ensures good returns. “An additive should be expected to pay for itself many times over,” adds Dr Pope.Using products like Volac’s Ecosyl and Ecocool at harvest can support a fast and ecient fermentation, which reduces losses and produces a high feed-value silage. Ecosyl improves fermentation eciency by delivering one million lactic-acid-producing bacteria per gramme of forage treated. Ecocool is slightly dierent in that it contains the same MTD/1 strain of lactic-acid bacteria, found in Ecosyl, which dominates the fermentation, but it also contains a second species that improves aerobic stability of higher-dry-matter forages. In 15 independent trials, cows fed a range of silages treated with Ecosyl yielded an average of an additional 1.2 litres of milk per cow per day compared with untreated silage. Seaweed answer to methane emissionsSilage additives oer milk-yield beneﬁtsMaking silage: using an additive protects crop investmentSeaweed option: UK resource can be used to make methane-reducing supplement

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64 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025TEXT LIZZIE WALKERMilk is sold to Crediton Dairies on a liquid contract so Paul aims to get cows and heifers to peak yield and hold them there. Herd average yield is currently 11,000 litres of milk, at 4.3% butterfat and 3.4% protein. This is produced, predominantly, from home-grown forage to keep feed costs to a minimum. Until August 2024, the herd was milked by just two robots but Paul and the team noticed that the heifers were not integrating well into the milking herd. Some heifers refused to approach the robots to be milked if a cow was already there, and a disproportionate amount of time was being spent by staff fetching heifers from the group to be milked.Additional support“Heifer yields had dropped back to what they had been when we were milking through the parlour,” says Paul. The heifers needed additional support. “And we had room in a shed to create a separate heifer group, so that’s what we did. The shed has a straw pen on one side, with cubicles down the other. There’s plenty of room and, so far, this set-up is working well.”A third robot was then installed in August 2024, in the new heifer shed, to further support this group and, in September, to help reduce stress in this group of young milkers, Paul decided to try FerAppease. This is a natural, synthetic analogue of maternal bovine appeasing substance (mBAS) – an important pheromone secreted from a cow’s udder skin when its calf suckles. It is applied as a spot-on above the heifers’ noses and on the back of their necks, working to help keep them calm in stressful situations. One application will continue to work for at least 14 days.“Immediately, we noticed heifers were taking just a day or two to be trained to go through the robot and, interestingly, we also noted that they reached peak Moving from three times a day milking through a conventional 11:22 parlour to a three-robot system in just two years has been integral to Devon-based producer Paul Symons’ plans to improve his 228-cow herd’s milk yield and efﬁciency. And a cattle-calming pheromone product has helped to ease the transition to a new system and set up, particularly for heifers.Total stock on the unit at Higher Henceford Farm, near Crediton, can number 550 head of cattle, once replacements and Wagyu-cross beef calves are included, as the business aims to generate additional proﬁt from an income stream that focuses on selling high-value replacement heifers and cows.“We genomic test all our heifers and put the best of them, and our best cows, to sexed semen to breed replacements,” explains Paul. “We then keep most of these and sell surplus dairy replacements locally. As a result, we usually have a lot of heifers and ﬁrst-lactation cows in our herd.”With only two members of staff to run the herd and business, the robots have helped with managing workloads. The conventional parlour is still fully functioning and used, as and when needed, which is typically in the summer. This is when milking numbers reach their peak and up to 60 cows are milked twice a day through it.Milking a herd with a high proportion of heifers can be stressful for cattle – and sta. But a new natural bovine pheromone product is helping to keep things quieter.Calming heifers supports yields and eciencyHERD HEALTH REDUCING STRESSPaul Symons:“I’d describe its action as ‘taking the edge o’”

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65cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025yields more quickly – an average of 11 days earlier than previously. And they appear to be holding that higher peak for longer. With our liquid contract and some issues with staff shortages, these are huge positives for us,” he adds. “Less time was needed gathering heifers to train, and all were happy to go through the robot in two or three days. We’re not having to use oxytocin to aid milk letdown, and heifer colostrum production has also increased.” He says that they saw a ‘blip’ in this calmer and much improved performance when they stopped using the product in early October. “But when we began using it again we quickly saw an improvement in heifer behaviour.” Calmer heifersHe now applies it once a week to all heifers in the close-up group or calving pen. “We just pop them in a locking yolk and dose them. If one hasn’t calved by the following week, she receives a second dose.”“I’d describe it as ‘taking the edge off’. Calving and the start of lactation is a stressful time for cattle – particularly heifers. It makes training heifers stress free, they are calm and chilled out and, when they are mixed with the main milking herd, they also ﬁnd it easier to settle in. We don’t see the usual jostling or anxious behaviour that would be expected,” adds Paul.Calmer heifers also frees up more time to manage the herd. The farm’s variable soil type, coupled with unpredictable weather conditions, helped Paul make the decision to house most of the herd all year round. Some replacements and stale cows go out to graze, depending on the time of year and weather conditions.“We wanted to be able to monitor and manage cow performance and, with the robots, we have access to huge amounts of data to help with this,” he says. “Ultimately, we are looking for a cow that can do the job and cause as few issues as possible, as we like them to stay productive in the herd for several lactations. The pheromone product has a key role to play in that.” |● Reduces stress during routine on-farm tasks including: weaning, calving vaccination, drying-o, dehorning, castration, bTB testing, transportation, and moving and mixing● Topical application to the skin above the muzzle, and back of the neck, where it is then inhaled to deliver the same comfort to the animal they would have had with their dam, mitigating stress● Response seen within 30 minutes of application and persists for at least 14 days● Available from vets without a prescription, it is a non-medicinal product How does the mBAS product work?

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ADVERTThis information was provided by Ceva Animal Health Ltd, makers of Coxevac®. COXEVAC® suspension for injection for cattle and goats contains inactivated Coxiella burnetti, strain Nine Mile ≥72 QF Unit*/ml. *Q-fever Unit: relative potency of phase I antigen measured by ELISA in comparison with a reference item. LEGAL CATEGORY: UK POM-V . Further information is available from the SPC or on the datasheet at www.noahcompendium.co.uk or upon request. Prescription decisions are for the person issuing the prescription alone.Use medicines responsibly (www.noah.co.uk/responsible). Do you recognise these signs?59%73%73%79%79%8%0,2%71%67%67%65%61%38%70%The values per country indicate the percentage of herds that tested positive to Q fever. Herd prevalence was determined by ELISA or PCR on bulk tank milk3. C. burnetii is able to travel up to 11mcarried by the wind and infect otherherds in the process5DID YOU KNOW ?Via inhalationFaecesMilkVia blood (ticks)Via ingestionBirth and abortion productsC. burnetii is highlyresistant in theenvironment6Dust4 monthsSoil5 monthsMilk ambient T°6 monthsFaeces 11 to 18 daysTick faeces 586 daysMeat at 4°C > 1 monthA potential threat to your farms.................................. Coxiella burnetii: Born to create troubleCattle are mainly infected by breathing in air particles contaminated with the bacteria.Infected cows, even if asympto-matic, shed C. burnetii mainly through birth or abortion products, but also in vaginal mucus, faeces and milk4.With more than one out of two herds testing positive for Q Fever (in some areas of the UK), farmers can no longer afford to ignore this disease1,21/2Ceva Animal Health Ltd, Explorer House, Mercury Park, Wooburn Green, Buckinghamshire, HP10 0HH. Tel 01628 334056 Web ruminants.ceva.co.uk Email rubu-uk@ceva.com COX33ADIs Q fever on your list of possible causes?Weak newbornsInfertilityAbortionMetritisRetained placentaPremature calvingStillbirthsCeva’s Q fever surveillance scheme is building a nationwide map of the disease within the national herd. 700 herds have now been tested, of which over 47% have been positive*.Diagnostic support is available from Ceva, via your vet practice including the Q Test. Q Fever has the potential to have signicant impact on livestock health and production.www.qfever.co.uk DID YOU KNOW?• Q Fever is endemic in GB dairy herds1• It causes reproduction and fertility issues to cattle, sheep and goats2• It is also a zoonosis, risking the health of those working with livestock• It is caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetti• Animals shed bacteria at calving in vaginal mucous, also in milk and faeces, with infection caused through inhalation of the bacteria.• Coxiella b. can be carried on the wind up to 11 miles 3,4,5• Coxiella b. is persistent, surviving up to 5 months in soil6*Q Test PCR Diagnostic results, Ceva Animal Health; 2024 References 1. Velasova M. et al. 2017. Herd-level prevalence of selected endemic infectious diseases of dairy cows in Great Britain. J. Dairy Sci. 100:9215–9233 2. López-Gatius F., Almeria S., Garcia-Ispierto I. (2012) Serological screening for Coxiella burnetii infection and related reproductive performance in high producing cows. Research in Veterinary Science Aug. 93 (1) 67-73. 3. Hawker JI. et al. 1998. A large outbreak of Q fever in the West Midlands: windborne spread into a metropolitan area? Commun Dis Public Health. 1998; 1:180–7. 2. Tissot-Dupont H, Amadei MA, Nezri M, Raoult D. Wind in November, Q fever in December. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Jul;10(7):1264-9. doi: 10.3201/eid1007.030724. PMID: 15324547; PMCID: PMC3323349. 4. Nusinovici S. et al. 2015. Q Fever infection in dairy cattle herds: increased risk with high wind speed and low precipitation. Epidemiology & Infection 143.15 (2015): 3316-3326.5. Clark et al, 2018. Airborne geographical dispersal of Q fever from livestock holdings to human communities: a systematic review and critical appraisal of evidence. 6. Welsh et al., 1959. Q fever studies. XXI. The recovery ofCoxiella burnetiifrom the soil and surface water of premises harboring infected sheep. Am. J. Hyg.70: 14–20.

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BREEDING & FERTILITY FOCUSEven with advancements in genomic-testing technology, which reveals the exact genetic make-up and potential of an animal, there’s still an element of luck when it comes to breeding. “So producers should still breed the best from the best, but there’s no guarantee that the resulting calf will be the best,” says Teagasc’s dairy geneticist, Donagh Berry, who shared some of his myth-busting facts with delegates at 2024’s TotalDairy Conference. “Luck still has a signiﬁcant role to play. Sure, genomic-testing or even selecting your best cows by eye or by lactation records will improve your odds of breeding a top-notch replacement. But it’s still a gamble. The genetic material passed to the calf from its sire and dam is ‘random’ – so there will always be an element of luck.”He explains that ‘breeding the best with the best’ increases the chance of producing a good animal – but it’s not a foregone conclusion. “Breeding is as much about luck as it is about science and lineages. Science and tracing of pedigree lines merely serve to reduce the reliance on luck.” There is no way to accurately predict the performance of a progeny from a mating. “That’s a fact. Genetic evaluations use ancestry information to achieve an initial estimate with an associated level of conﬁdence, reﬂected by the published reliability value. Proof changesAs the animal accumulates information on itself, either through DNA or performance recording, then the reliability increases and sometimes the proof of the animal will also change. This will affect the proof of the animal’s parents and, in turn, the proof of the animal will change even though it itself accumulated no new data,” says Dr Berry.That said, breeding at a population level is different and the goals of breeding programmes are not to Place your bets, please…Donagh Berry:“Like betting on a horse, you can shorten the odds”67cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Mother Nature still decides when it comes to the genetic merit of replacement heifers – even when matching high-index sires and dams. A renowned dairy geneticist explains why.p70 Customised index simpliﬁes genomic-test data p73 Inbreeding – is it an issue?TEXT RACHAEL PORTER

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68 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025BREEDING & FERTILITY GENETIC POTENTIALThere is, obviously, no way of knowing which semen straw has ‘good’ sperm and which has ‘bad’ sperm. “When it comes down to it, it’s all luck – every semen straw contains ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’. The good news is that using a higher-index bull does increase the chance of producing higher-index calves. But it certainly does not guarantee every calf will be high index – that is at the discretion of Mother Nature.”Dr Berry is often asked ‘how can I have non-identical twin calves and how can one be a ‘dud’ and the other a potential AI bull?’.“The answer to this question is based on the theory of inheritance just described. Although everyone gets half their genes from their father and half from their mother, each half is actually a relatively random half; in fact two full siblings could be completely genetically unrelated,” he explains.“Non-identical twins are the result of multiple ovulation in the dam and so are essentially two calves from the same sire–dam born in consecutive years. Sharing a common uterine and post-natal environment, as would be the case in twins, does however impact performance positively and/or negatively.”Another common question, which was also asked during a TotalDairy Conference workshop was: ‘how does genomics improve the chance of breeding better stock?’Improved odds“The short answer is that it improves the odds, because you know you’re starting with the best genetics in your herd. But it’s not a cast-iron guarantee. It’s like horse racing. You can pick a horse that has the best pedigree breeding and has had exceptional form all season, and is being ridden by the best jockey. The odds of winning may be high, but that horse can still have a bad race – there are so many variables. It’s called gambling for a reason, but you can shorten your odds by taking all the factors into account.”Back to dairy breeding, all that’s known about a newborn calf is its sire and dam. The PLI value of that calf is simply half the sire plus half the dam. “But we know, however, from the previous examples described, that animals, although each inheriting half their DNA from their sire and half from their dam, the actual DNA inherited is relatively random and this contributes to the large variability in the progeny. DNA inﬂuences performance, and the DNA of an animal is the same throughout its life – it’s ﬁxed. “So if we can measure the DNA of a calf at birth, it should provide us with additional information to predict the expected performance of, not only the animal itself, but also its descendants, although the latter is achieved with less accuracy because it is unknown which DNA segments the sire will transmit to its progeny. “This is the fundamental underpinning genomic selection in cattle. Because each individual has three billion pieces of information in the form of DNA it is currently not possible to know the effect of each piece of DNA on each performance trait and, therefore, 100% accuracy is not achievable,” he adds. “But as the number of animals with DNA information and performance information increases, the accuracy of genomic evaluations will improve.” |generate an excellent animal, but instead to improve the overall genetic potential of an entire population of animals. “While some individual animals will be genetically poorer than expected, others will be superior. So, at a population level, they will cancel each other out,” he explains.So, how can a sire have a low reliability when his sire (and dam) are well-proven, excellent performers? “The reliability of an animal, based solely on pedigree information, is one quarter the reliability of the sire plus one quarter the reliability of the dam,” says Dr Berry. “So if the sire is 99% reliable, and the dam 30% reliable, the reliability of their newborn calf is only 32%.”Genetic variabilityThis is the same worldwide and across all species. “The reason is that sires only contribute a quarter of the genetic variability to their progeny, dams contributes another quarter, and the remaining half of the variability is attributable to the sampling of genes from both the sire and dam,” he explains.“There is a large amount of variability in progeny from the same sire–dam mating and this cannot be predicted at the time of conception. The reliability of the estimated genetic merit of that newborn calf is low simply because it is impossible to know at birth what DNA is inherited from each parent.” Based on the population characteristics of the Proﬁtable Lifetime index (PLI) in the UK, 66% of sperm in a high-reliability bull’s semen will have a PLI merit within ±£200 of the PLI of the bull. “This means that half the remaining 33% of the sperm in the semen, if it eventually fertilised an egg, will contribute a PLI value to the calf of more than £200 superior to the bull itself,” explains Dr Berry. “Of course half the remaining 33% of the sperm in the semen, if it eventually fertilised an egg, will contribute a PLI value to the calf of more than £200 inferior to the bull itself. This phenomenon is true whether the sire is high reliability or a young unproven stock bull. Sire selection: using top bulls on the best females increases the chances of breeding good-quality heifers

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70cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025by the dairy sector, it is understandable that producers are ﬁnding it difﬁcult to think longer term. “But in times of volatility it is important to focus on the things can be controlled. Breeding is a core decision that will underpin the business for at least ﬁve years and it is the best chance of building resilience and greater efﬁciency into the dairy system.“Genomics testing is key to a successful herd breeding programme in the long term, providing a lifetime of critical information from a single test for a relatively small cost or investment.”A genomic test translates an animal’s DNA into practical information that producers can use. It identiﬁes key strengths and weaknesses that can inform management decisions. Performance dataA recent UK study revealed that up to 50% of a cow’s ability to produce high milk solids is due to genetics. “As both parents contribute equally to the calf’s genetics, having comprehensive performance data on the female is just as essential as the sire for making informed breeding choices,” says Mr Horn.Some producers still believe that the genomic-testing The uptake of female genomic testing is increasing at a steady rate, and many producers are today seeing the real beneﬁts in their herds. One supplier has now introduced a simple customised index to help ensure that all producers can access the full beneﬁts of female genomic testing, so are some still hesitant to test? AHDB recently reported that 20% of milk-recorded cows and heifers are now genomically tested. “Which is excellent,” says Neogen’s Rob Horn. “But a recent survey has also indicated that while 34% of producers have tried genomic evaluations to a lesser or greater extent, many lack the conﬁdence to exploit the full beneﬁts of the technology.”He says that with all the uncertainty currently faced Genomic testing is just the start. Accessing and understanding the data is key to the successful use and application of this technology. So what’s on oer and how does it work?TEXT PHIL EADESSimpliﬁed genomics with customised indexRob Horn: “Customised index allows simple interpretation of genomic data”BREEDING & FERTILITY GENOMIC TESTING

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HERD MONITORING TECH71cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025By providing class-leading levels of heat detection accuracy and clear guidance on when individual animals should be inseminated, the SenseHub® Dairy herd monitoring system from MSD Animal Health helps herd managers to eliminate the guesswork from their AI protocols and improve the herd’s reproduction statistics.SenseHub Dairy uses electronic neck collars and/or ear tags to constantly monitor the subtle behavioural and activity patterns associated with the various stages of the fertility cycle of maiden heifers and adult cows. In doing so, it accurately and reliably detects more than 95% of heats including silent and weak heats. And, whenever a heat event or potential problem with the resulting pregnancy is detected, the SenseHub app automatically sends an alert to key members of sta so that an informed decision or medical intervention can be made as quickly as possible.The SenseHub app also highlights the optimum time for insemination, with separate guidance provided to maximise SenseHub is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease in cattle. For the diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease, producers should consult their vet. The accuracy of the data collected and presented through this product is not intended to match that of medical or scientiﬁc measurement devices.To ﬁnd out how more about how SenseHub could improve heat detection and fertility rates in your herd, please call the SenseHub team on 01207 265840 or email us at sensehubGB@msd.com. Alternatively visit https://uk.sensehub.global.Find out moreconception rates from sexed or conventional semen. It also highlights any irregular heats, anoestrus and cystic cows, and suspected abortions, and, by eliminating the need for sta to visually observe heats and other fertility related issues, it reduces the farm’s reliance on skilled labour.SenseHub’s clear and simple to understand charts and graphs can be shared easily and quickly with third-party consultants – such as the herd’s vet or nutritionist – allowing problems to be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. This not only reduces unforeseen fertility costs, but also helps to fast-track the herd’s genetic improvements by shortening the calving interval and reducing the number of open days.SenseHub can also be used to monitor the health of cows and youngstock of all ages, including calves from birth, with the wider SenseHub® Dairy Ecosystem also providing additional herd management beneﬁts by combining in-parlour identiﬁcation, real-time milk-quality analysis and automatic segregation gate operation in one easy-to-use package.Automated monitoring system supports managers looking to improve herd reproductive performance and fertility statistics.Eliminating the guesswork from heat detection

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XXXXX XXXXX72 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025BREEDING & FERTILITY GENOMIC TESTINGsomatic cell count, locomotion and condition score, plus a full set of type traits.“This level of detail offers producers real insights into the genomic make-up of their herd but, initially, this can be overwhelming. How do producers use the data to make better decisions?”He says that data is only valuable if it drives decision-making. If not then there is no return on investment. “So we offer custom indices tailored to individual farms to simplify breeding decisions.” The principle behind the custom index is that the traits of particular importance to an individual herd are combined into a simple index. The weighting of the traits in the index can be adjusted to make sure it is identifying the animals that meet individual herd and business objectives.“Females are then ranked on this single index, providing a simple and tailored way to determine those that are most suited to the particular system.”Dierent emphasisMr Horn says that different systems will place the emphasis on different traits. “For example, producers supplying on a cheese contract will add greater weighting to protein percentages. And producers looking to put greater emphasis on grazing will possibly look at management traits, such as fertility and mastitis resistance, while also paying close attention to feet and legs and looking for smaller stature. For robotically milked herds, milking speed, teat placement and teat length can be higher priority traits.”He adds that the customised index can be reﬁned at any time to reﬂect changing herd circumstances or objectives, either altering the traits selected or their relative weighting. “It allows simple interpretation of genomic data to guide better identiﬁcation of the most suitable animals to breed from.“Since the data is fully independent it is possible to then review the females against the entire range of available sires to ensure producers maximise their chance of identifying and selecting the most suitable sire.” |process is complicated, but this is far from the case. “The test only requires a simple tissue sample, which can be taken at the same time as calves are ear-tagged, so there is minimal extra work and no new skills are required to collect the sample. Animals only need to be tested once in their lifetime as their genetic potential does not change,” he stresses.The tissue sample is then sent to a laboratory in Scotland for analysis and results from the test are back on farm in a matter of weeks. Neogen’s Igenity results are provided in an easy-to-use dashboard, that allows producers to compare and rank the performance of heifers, and access data whenever it is required.Follow-up visit“And, when the results are available, there is a follow-up visit with an adviser to go through them with the producer and their team, to explain what the ﬁgures mean and how the data can be used,” says Mr Horn.The survey suggested the other principal reasons that producers were not engaging fully with genomics were cost and the difﬁculty of interpreting the data provided. “If it is not possible to easily understand what the data is saying, many producers decide the approach is not for them.”Another key concern expressed was that many genomic-testing schemes are operated by semen suppliers, linked to exclusive semen supply contracts that can reduce the choice of potential sires.Mr Horn explains that Neogen, an independent genomics supplier, is focused on solving these challenges so producers can beneﬁt fully from genomic testing.“We aim to help producers rank cows and heifers according to speciﬁc farm objectives, ensuring genomic data delivers maximum value for every herd,” he says.The company’s genomics platform offers insights into approximately 50 traits, including production factors such as milk yield, milk component yield and percentage, and £PLI, as well as management traits including fertility index, temperament, ease of milking, Genomics platform: report oers insights into approximately 50 traits

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TEXT ANN HARDYand avoiding excessive inbreeding. “But the historically important ﬁgure of 6.25% now has little relevance today.“Of course, producers should keep an eye on inbreeding within their herds but if they strive to maintain their average at 6.25% or below, they could seriously compromise their genetic gain and, therefore, their herd’s future efﬁciency,” he said. Inbreeding thresholdAn AHDB study revealed that if the 6.25% inbreeding threshold is enforced, in most cases – even using the best matings – the Proﬁtable Lifetime Index (£PLI) of the offspring would be lower than that of the dam. In other words, genetic improvement would go backwards.For many decades, producers have been advised not to exceed an inbreeding coefﬁcient of 6.25%, as this risked too much ‘inbreeding depression’ – the phenomenon resulting in a performance decline, particularly in traits such as health and fertility, inevitably affecting milk yield too.Recessive defects may also start to emerge, such as those known as HH1-6 or those more typically seen years ago including ‘mule foot’ or brachyspina. The long-term consequences of inbreeding could also be the narrowing of a population’s gene pool and a reduction in genetic diversity.“But, today, many herds may have already exceeded the 6.25% threshold, and some producers are uncertain about the direction breeding should take,” said AHDB’s geneticist Marco Winters, speaking at January’s British Cattle Breeders Conference. “They’re aware of the need to avoid close familial matings, which can take inbreeding coefﬁcients way beyond this accepted limit. But, equally, they are struggling to ﬁnd outcross bloodlines to bring inbreeding levels down,” he added. There is a ﬁne line to tread between making genetic gain Inbreeding presents producers with a greater conundrum than it has previously, so advice on how to avoid it has been updated. A leading geneticist explained why at the recent British Cattle Breeders Conference.Changes to inbreeding advice introducedMarco Winters:“The gene pool is just as diverse as it was 30 years ago”BREEDING & FERTILITY AVOIDING INBREEDING73cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025 73

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XXXXX XXXXX74 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025BREEDING & FERTILITY AVOIDING INBREEDINGOnly matings of the very lowest £PLI dams – these typically being in herds that have not engaged with genetic improvement – could result in genetic gains in the next generation while keeping within the threshold.“In fact, our analysis shows that the offspring would be genetically inferior to their dam for most dams with a PLI of more than £400, and for all dams that exceeded a PLI of £600,” he said. “In reality, keeping within the 6.25% threshold would mean many producers would be unable to breed from their best genetics.”Today, across the national dairy herd, fewer than 10% of pure Holstein herds have less than 6.25% inbreeding in their youngstock and this is also beginning to become the norm for some of the other dairy breeds. Genetic improvement“However, despite this, the performance of today’s dairy cows is far better than in the past across a wide range of traits, including those for health and welfare,” said Mr Winters. “Much of this is attributed to genetic improvement brought about by producers’ use of genetic tools and their proven ability to make desirable genetic selections.“In a small, wild population where breeding is uncontrolled, inbreeding will creep up to 6.25% and inbreeding depression will occur. But commercial dairy herds selecting to improve traits such as fertility, lameness and somatic cell counts are actively countering the effects of inbreeding depression.“On average, UK producers have driven an increase in PLI of £52 per head per year, which far outweighs the accompanying inbreeding losses in terms of performance and proﬁtability,” he added.There’s also another issue at play, that results from historical inbreeding. “Studies show that historical inbreeding could be conferring positive beneﬁts,” said Mr Winters.He referred to ‘line breeding’, considered to be inbreeding that has had the beneﬁcial effect of both concentrating positive traits and producing consistency across a family or closely bred line.“Inbreeding can be positive as well as negative, and our research has shown that historical inbreeding can actually lead to favourable outcomes,” he said. “Repeated selection for positive traits many generations ago has helped purge undesirable traits from cattle lines, leaving the positive characteristics we are tapping into today.”He cites Oman, a bull renowned for transmitting positive traits to his progeny, whose good fertility and health have been further concentrated down the following generations.“There would be many similar examples further back in pedigrees, most of which have bulls such as Elevation and Astronaut in common,” says Mr Winters. But despite these positive outcomes from historical inbreeding, he warns against allowing it to ‘run away’, as inbreeding depression will always exist.“Inbreeding should deﬁnitely be a consideration by today’s breeders whose focus should be on reducing its rate of increase in their own herds.” Every 1% of inbreeding today will ‘pull down’ the Producers who would like to check the inbreeding level of any proposed mating can do so by using the AHDB Inbreeding Checker. First, they need to register for the Herd Genetic Report and then follow the link ahdb.org.uk/inbreeding-checker.AHDB Inbreeding Checkerpositive effects of £PLI by the equivalent of roughly 10 points, he added, so inbreeding should always be monitored and efforts made to slow its increase. “This means using a team of bulls to give the lowest inbreeding outcomes, avoiding matings between close family members, and using breeding programmes, and AHDB’s Inbreeding Checker, to ﬂag the best and worst matings.”As for genetic diversity, he told delegates that this is less of a concern than has been proposed. “Genetic variance is important because without it genetic improvement is impossible,” he said. “Equally, there is concern that a narrowing gene pool may increase the susceptibility of a population exposed to an unforeseen challenge.“But evidence indicates that the gene pool is just as diverse as it was 30 years ago and there is no sign of genetic improvement reaching a plateau. Yes, there may be more homozygous animals – those which have inherited two copies of the same gene from each parent – but this is due to historical selection against those undesirable genes.“The range between the best and worst bulls on £PLI, for example, has not changed since the 1990s but the average has increased,” he added. Random natureThere are forces that will always create variation, ranging from the random nature of inheritance, the occurrence of mutations and the phenomenon of crossover, whereby nature randomly picks from different sides of the chromosome. “Equally, the uptake of genomic testing not only provides more accurate and biologically meaningful inbreeding coefﬁcients than in the past, it also identiﬁes animals carrying undesirable recessive genes, allowing these to be excluded from breeding programmes.”While Mr Winters acknowledges there may be a place for gene banks to preserve diversity, including for today’s commercially important breeds, he says this is more of an insurance for an unforeseen future than something to tap into today.“Just because something may happen at some point in the future does not mean we should allow fears about inbreeding to compromise genetic improvement,” he stressed. “Producers run dairy businesses – not zoos. We need to make sure they are sustainable. “This means ensuring that the next generation is better than the previous one. It may or may not be able to withstand some unforeseen risk at some point in the future, but a business that stands still – genetically or otherwise – will not be around to ﬁnd out.” |

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• Premium Halo LED High-bay with 20W Red Night Light• Provides 200Lux simulated daylight for indoor dairy lighting• Durable, designed for harsh environments• IP66 rated for dust and humidity• Resistant to dust, water, and corrosion• Handles temperatures from -40°C to 55°CHalo Dairy200W LED withintegrated red night lightFor a no obligation quote or more information please contact:Scotland/N.England07591 833853Wales/Midlands/S.England07762 800149N.Ireland/R.O.I07803 124235info@cowcaresystems.comwww.cowcaresystems.com07732 34822576 cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025NEW PRODUCTA teat disinfectant for automated spray systems that combines the convenience of a spray application with ﬁlm-forming protection, has been launched by DeLaval. Titan is one of the ﬁrst of its kind on the market and its ﬁlm-forming technology provides a barrier for teats, helping to protect udders against environmental pathogens, including S uberis and E coli, that are the prevalent causes of mastitis. Gloucestershire-based producer Tim Jeynes has seen a 50% reduction in Bactoscans since trialling the product. He milks a 120-cow herd, near Tewkesbury, and says he’s seen very few cases of mastitis cases since making the switch. “Our Bactoscans have halved from an average of 20 to 10,” he says, adding that he’s keen to keep using the product now it’s commercially available.Delivered in an easy-to-use spray format, the advanced barrier product oers longer-lasting physical protection compared to most other sprays, helping to maintain optimal udder health and reduce the risk of contamination.Enhanced udder health not only improves milk production and quality but also supports better welfare, which ultimately boosts herd performance and farm proﬁtability.“This product has been developed to meet the demands of modern dairy operations,” says the company’s Nathalie Albrecht. “The spray can be applied quickly and ensures even distribution across the teat surface, which maximises its eectiveness.”Until now, most teat sprays used in robots have been short-acting contact sprays that do not provide a long-lasting physical barrier. “It is this combination of barrier and spray functionality that sets this product apart,” she adds. Teat disinfectant for automated spray systemsEven distribution: spray oers a long-lasting physical barrier

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DisclaimerCowManagement does not necessarily share the views expressed by contributors. No responsibility is accepted for the claims made by advertisers. No responsibility can be accepted by Davies Porter Media Ltd for the opinions expressed by contributors. While every eort is made to obtain reliable and accurate information, liability cannot be accepted for errors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher.Printer: The Lavenham Press Ltd.Phone: 01787 247436ADVERTISERS’ INDEXSHOWS AND EVENTSCowManagement is published 10 times per year by Davies Porter Media LtdEditorial teamEditor Rachael PorterPhone: 01394 270587E-mail: rachael@cowmanagement.co.ukDesign and production David Tokeley & The Lavenham Press LtdContributing writers Gill Ainge, Sarah Alderton, Chris Burgess, Laura Bowyer, Ro Collingborn, Phil Eades, Roger Evans, Charlotte Grime, Ann Hardy, Paul Jennings, Allison Matthews, Natalie Reed, Wendy Short, Liz Snaith, Emma Waller, Karen WrightPublishers Jason Davies and Rachael PorterCONTACTSAdvertising salesSales Director Jason Davies Phone: 07813 603179E-mail: jason@cowmanagement.co.ukCowManagement onlineFacebook: www.facebook.com/CowManagementUK/Twitter: @cowmanagementWebsite: www.cowmanagement.co.ukCirculationCowManagement is published 10 times a year. Copies are sent out free to owners and managers of dairy farms in mainland UK and Northern Ireland. If you think you are eligible, or if you no longer wish to receive CowManagement, please email jason@cowmanagement.co.uk.Boehringer Ingelheim IFC, Ceva , Cosy Calf Cowcare , Dairy Spares DP Agri , Farmplus FerAppease Foragetech ForFarmers Galebreaker Intellync Kingshay Lallemand Lely LG MSD Allﬂex , Neogen , Nettex NFU Progiene Rumen Supplies Rumenco -Semex OBCTB Agri Thompsons Trouw Nutrition , , , World Wide Sires Zoetis cowmanagementFEBRUARY 2025WWW.COWMANAGEMENT.CO.UKFeed & nutrition: pointers to optimise herd performanceBreeding & fertility: tips to maximise genetic potentialGrassland & forage: timely focus on home-grown feedSCAN & WINMarch 14 – our ﬁrst spring issue has technical features on youngstock and calf rearing, grazing and turnout, and sustainability.MARCH 2025 YOUNGSTOCKCOMING UP77cowmanagement FEBRUARY 2025Dear Reader,For data protection purposes it is important we have the correct mailing address for all our readers.To continue receiving your free copy of CowManagement magazine, please enter the link bit.ly/cm-subshttp://subs into your browser and complete the short form.It will only take 30 seconds to complete and means you will continue to receive the UK’s progressive milk producers’ magazine for free.Thanks for your support.April  to  British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) Conference, Galway Bay Hotel, Galway, IrelandJune  British Mastitis Conference, Sixways Stadium, WorcesterJuly  National Youngstock Conference, International Conference Centre, BirminghamSeptember  UK Dairy Day, The International Centre, Telford, ShropshireOctober  The Dairy Show, Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, SomersetNovember  AgriScot, Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh