With the abolition of quotas for milk production after 1 April 2015, some farmers are switching from suckling and going into dairying for the first time.

This is a huge change that needs top-class disease prevention, as well as a huge financial investment. In order to progress the changeover from a disease prevention point of view, I recommend the following.

Many of these people will be buying in dairy stock, be they cows or heifers.

They should be bought in as large a group as possible from known sources, rather than being bought in ones or twos at marts.

On bringing them home, each bunch should be isolated from all contact with other livestock to allow them to become acclimatised and should only be mixed with other similar animals when all of them are at the same stage post-vaccination.

The most common diseases to try to avoid are salmonella, leptospirosis and neospora, as these are major causes of abortion.

The other possible problem is IBR, which can cause huge respiratory disease problems and, if accompanied by a very high temperature, can also cause abortions.

When buying cows/heifers, it would be ideal if they were already vaccinated for salmonella and leptospirosis.

If this is not possible, then they should be vaccinated on arrival to your farm, and again three to four weeks later, and not mixed with others until two weeks after the second shot. With regards to IBR, animals can be vaccinated with the live vaccine either by the intranasal route, after which they will have an immunity after four days, or by intramuscular route, after which they will have developed immunity in 14 days.

In both cases, immunity will last for six months. Animals may be carrying IBR and not show symptoms until stressed, so it is important to vaccinate before mixing.

With regards to neospora, there is no vaccination available, so one must protect one’s herd by insisting on a blood test for this before moving them home.

The danger with this disease is it can cause abortions in the same animal more than once and also the daughters of infected cows are born carrying the bug, so the name of the game is to keep it out.

With regards to BVD, one would hope that at this stage it would not be bought in. However, one must still be on guard, as there are still too many PI animals hanging around, maybe on neighbouring farms.

Vaccination is very helpful in preventing infection but is of no use being administered to a PI animal. Discuss this with your own vet.

Last, but by no means least, make sure the animals are recently TB and brucellosis tested, don’t forget about dosing for worms and fluke and be aware that only certain anthelmintics may be used in dairy cattle.

*Fintan Graham is principal in a three-vet practice in Mountmellick, Co Laois.