It seems like all we talk about these days is stress and how to avoid it. Stress is a real thing for animals too and it has strong physiological reactions which can lead to more disease because it lowers immunity.

I think of disease control on farm as an ongoing battle between immunity and infection pressure (amount of the disease).

So here are seven ways before housing to reduce this stress on young stock.

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When buying in young stock for the winter, to give yourself the best chance of avoiding problems, direct purchase greatly reduces the risk of disease. Anyone buying animals should be able to have as much information about the cattle as possible, the less you know the more the risk.

  • 1 Dose cattle before housing to ensure they aren’t entering with any parasites like lungworm. If you have weanlings coughing it is better to clean them out before housing. Doing it at the same time is a double stressor where you will only lead to more problems.
  • 2 It takes two weeks for the rumen to adjust to a new diet, so watch animals carefully and supplement them with concentrates before housing for three to four weeks to allow them to adjust when housed. This works well for first-grazers as their rumens are the most sensitive and also under the most social stress at housing.
  • 3 Have any vaccines given well in advance of housing, ideally with dosing if possible. Some farmers will use a long-acting wormer with persistency a month from housing and vaccinate at the same time.
  • 4 Provide plenty of fresh clean water. This is something time and time again that is overlooked at housing time.
  • 5 Watch numbers at housing. Less is more. When we pack cattle into sheds we dramatically increase the risk of disease. They are closer together, they are more stressed, and have to battle for feed space and lying space.

    Sometimes reducing numbers in pens by one animal can be more profitable than squeezing one in. When transporting animals, this rule applies too – less is more.

    Shorter distances and well-bedded trailers may seem excessive but diseases aren’t going away so maybe our attitude to animal comfort has to change. We often forget weanlings are growing over the winter, so give them space to grow.

  • 6 The weather doesn’t directly cause pneumonia but changes in it can cause stress and a lowered immunity, which can lead to animals picking up viruses. A lot of these viruses are pneumonia viruses that are in our herds and just love an opportunity to multiply.

    Add this into a new environment at housing time. If you have cattle housed, spend some time there yourself and ask the fresh air question. As you walk into to the shed, does the air quality deteriorate (ammonia smell)? If it does, look at how you can increase fresh air in your shed by looking at ventilation.

  • 7 Hygiene is not very exciting but when the environment in which animals are housed is cleaner, the risk of disease is lower. This is really important with young animals.

    Hygiene is down to routine and ability to keep sheds clean. Run the scraper three times daily instead of twice. Have good gradients on floors to prevent water build-up, fix leaks and offer plenty of fresh, dry bedding.

    They all may seem like basic things to get right, but too often we get the basics wrong.