This week marks the beginning of a new pilot programme on preventing health issues, in collaboration with the Irish Farmers Journal and XLVets Ireland. The programme is being trialed on several beef, sheep and dairy farms.

The aim of this pilot programme is to examine the effects of close veterinary involvement and proactive management on animal health and antibiotic usage.

Waterford company Virtual Vet will help XLVets track antibiotic usage on test farms and create an alert system. The vets involved have looked at the antibiotic usage on each of the farms and are now attempting to zone in on these risk areas.

Vet Ger Cusack from Comeragh Vets said he has already been “surprised” at the areas in which the farms can make improvements. The use of penicillin to treat every case of lameness on a particular programme farm, is one such area, he added.

Ger said most lameness is, in fact, mechanical and is not caused by infection. Therefore, an anti-inflammatory or shoes can often be the best treatment choices. He has also helped his client by providing training around best practice in hoof trimming care.

An important component of this programme will be asking why cows and calves are getting sick or lame.

All the vets in the programme are also putting a big emphasis on calf health for spring 2020. With more calves being born in a shorter period, they are looking at how their clients can prepare for this in advance.

There will also be a number of health visits during the year, where we will document the participants progress in the Irish Farmers Journal and online. The drive behind this new programme is to get farmers to engage in animal health, disease prevention, and potentially reduce antibiotic usage.