The health of the herd is front of mind for dairy farmers, especially with the calving season underway. Issues like lameness can be costly and disruptive for a herd, so how do farmers keep ahead of the problem in the first place?

We talk to those who know animal health best, including vets and researchers, to discuss what proactive solutions are out there to either minimise or prevent lameness in the first place. 

We also catch up with our own Sarah Perriam-Lampp, to get her insights whilst in Europe including a visit to Nestle and their thoughts on gene editing.

Guests include:

1. Winston Mason, Epidemiologist & Director, EpiVets
2. Austin Heffernan, Commercial Sales Manager, New Zealand SenseHub
3. Pauline Calvert, Livestock Business Unit Director, MSD Animal Health New Zealand
4. Krispin Kannan, Integrated Solutions Veterinarian, Vet Ent

Hosts:

1. Sheryl Haitana, Editor, Dairy Exporter
2. Anne Lee, Deputy Editor, Dairy Exporter
3. Sarah Perriam-Lampp, Managing Director, CountryWide Media

Epidemiologist and director of EpiVets Winston Mason has been part of a research project into lameness in cows, and the impacts of it on fertility and longevity. In a project that wrapped up recently, he looked at cases of lameness regionally, country-wide, and internationally to see if there were any trends. He says it isn’t a matter of reducing lameness across the country, it’s about identifying problem farms and providing assistance to them to fix the problem. 

He says cows that have previously had lameness are more likely to have permanent damage in their hooves, and therefore are likely to get it again – he’d like to see treatment used as a preventative tool, so the problem doesn’t start in the first place.

Find out more about DairyNZ’s lameness tools

MSD Animal Health uses the power of leading-edge science to offer farmers and veterinarians alike an innovative range of veterinary products, such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions. Commercial Sales Manager Austin Heffernan and Livestock Business Unit Lead Pauline Calvert discuss these technologies, and how farmers can utilise them on their farm system.

They say that making tools easy to use has been front of mind, so farmers can easily apply them in their busy farm systems. These include options such as wearable devices, to monitor the health, wellbeing and performance of animals. 

Find out more from MSD Animal Health:

• For SenseHub Dairy Monitoring visit www.sensehub.co.nz 
• Allflex Identification Solutions visit www.allflex.co.nz 
• Animal Health solutions visit https://www.msd-animal-health.co.nz/ 

Veterinarian Krispin Kannan discusses how wearable devices on cows help provide data to vets that build a picture of the cow’s health and life. It can help pick up on factors like change in diet, temperature, and fertility to help vets diagnose what is wrong with a cow when they treat them. 

With all the new technology in mind, he says it still requires a human to interpret all of this data to know what it means practically, and how to treat problems that arise, such as lameness. 

Follow Krispin on Instagram here

Read more from the Dairy Exporter: Detecting lameness

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