The level of surplus cashflow available on farms in 2026 will be tight, due to rising input costs and lower output prices – with milk and beef sales particularly affected. It is not surprising that many farmers are reviewing all costs with a view to tightening their spending.
Spending on animal health is an area where costs have crept up in recent years, with new demands on investments, such as bluetongue vaccination.
In an ideal world farmers would be in a position to adopt every vaccination or preventative treatment going, but this is not the case and hard decisions need to be made.
It is worth farmers reviewing their health plan each year, taking into account any health issues seen the previous year and areas where there was a clean bill of health due to vaccination strategies.
Where something has to give in terms of spending, then a good exercise is to rank the different vaccinations or animal health protocols in order of priority.
This should take into account the risk of not implementing the different elements of the health programme, the potential benefit or loss in animal performance, labour savings and human health risks.
It is only in this manner that an objective assessment can be made. The review should ideally also have input from your veterinary practitioner.
This week’s animal health focus concentrates on a number of relatively new animal health challenges and initiatives.
On pages 44 and 45, Dr Michelle McGrath, Animal Health Ireland, discusses summer calf scour syndrome, which is a management/nutritional ailment rather than a health issue.
Bluetongue vaccination is touched upon on page 50, while Haemonchus contortus, another relatively new disease to sheep farmers in Ireland, is discussed on page 49.
Details of the new TB on-farm biosecurity scheme are carried on page 48, while the timely topic of summer mastitis is detailed on pages 46 and 47.
The level of surplus cashflow available on farms in 2026 will be tight, due to rising input costs and lower output prices – with milk and beef sales particularly affected. It is not surprising that many farmers are reviewing all costs with a view to tightening their spending.
Spending on animal health is an area where costs have crept up in recent years, with new demands on investments, such as bluetongue vaccination.
In an ideal world farmers would be in a position to adopt every vaccination or preventative treatment going, but this is not the case and hard decisions need to be made.
It is worth farmers reviewing their health plan each year, taking into account any health issues seen the previous year and areas where there was a clean bill of health due to vaccination strategies.
Where something has to give in terms of spending, then a good exercise is to rank the different vaccinations or animal health protocols in order of priority.
This should take into account the risk of not implementing the different elements of the health programme, the potential benefit or loss in animal performance, labour savings and human health risks.
It is only in this manner that an objective assessment can be made. The review should ideally also have input from your veterinary practitioner.
This week’s animal health focus concentrates on a number of relatively new animal health challenges and initiatives.
On pages 44 and 45, Dr Michelle McGrath, Animal Health Ireland, discusses summer calf scour syndrome, which is a management/nutritional ailment rather than a health issue.
Bluetongue vaccination is touched upon on page 50, while Haemonchus contortus, another relatively new disease to sheep farmers in Ireland, is discussed on page 49.
Details of the new TB on-farm biosecurity scheme are carried on page 48, while the timely topic of summer mastitis is detailed on pages 46 and 47.
SHARING OPTIONS