Herd health is a huge issue on most farms around the country. As part of the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm programme, there has been a major focus on herd health on participating farms.

Frank and Des Beirne have focused hard on herd health over the past few years in the programme. Increasing cow numbers from less than 60 to 88 in a short period can put significant additional pressure on animals, particularly during the winter period when animals are housed in close proximity to each other.

Programme for calves

The Beirnes started to expand cow and cattle numbers on the farm about a year before joining the BETTER farm programme.

When increasing livestock numbers, pneumonia was a particular issue on the farm, not just with young calves but with older weanlings too.

Des said that better management of stock, combined with a proper vaccination programme, has helped control pneumonia on the farm.

Their health programme is built around keeping weanlings healthy on the farm. Both spring- and autumn-born calves get the same treatment as a calf at about nine days old when the programme starts. At this stage they are given intranasal Rispoval which is effective against RSV, Pi3 and Pasteurella.

The second step takes place at about 15 days of age when they are given an IBR marker vaccination, again intranasally. At the same time as the second vaccination, the calves are disbudded to save on labour and handling. A blackleg vaccine is also given to all spring-born calves at this stage.

Weanling vaccinations

The spring herd calves in February and March, with 60% to 70% of calves born in March. Pre-weaning, these calves are vaccinated again with an IBR marker vaccine and against RSV, Pi3 and Pasteurella.

However, this time the vaccinations are given by injection. For some of the later-born spring calves, these are given at or slightly before housing in November.

The autumn weanlings are born in July and August. They get the same vaccinations as spring-born calves at birth. They are not given any vaccinations going into the shed for the first winter.

They are currently getting concentrates and are starting to creep graze for a few hours during the day. These bulls will be housed at about 13 to 14 months of age next September.

Prior to this, they will receive vaccinations against IBR, Pi3,Rsv and Pasteurella, all given as injections.

Des said that they now have very few pneumonia issues on the farm. Only two or three animals are treated in a year. Previously, up to half of the veterinary call-outs on the farm were to treat calves and weanlings with pneumonia.

He said that along with implementing a vaccination programme, they have changed the housing of stock. Cows are held in one part of the sheds and weanling and fattening stock in another area.

Des said that because the cows are constantly shedding, keeping them away from younger stock has had a positive impact on animal health.

Bought-in bulls are vaccinated against Pi3, RSV, Pasteurella and IBR prior to housing for finishing. Although no booster shots are given, Des feels that the system is working at the moment and does not want to change it.

Cow vaccinations

There is a vaccination programme in place for the cows also, but not as complex as the weanling programme.

The cows are not vaccinated for IBR as Des believes this would serve little purpose.

The spring-calving cows are vaccinated with Rotavec Corona prior to calving to help reduce the incidence of scour in calves.

The autumn herd is not vaccinated with Rotavec Corona as it is calving at grass and there are no scour issues with this herd.

The only other vaccination given to the cows is a Lepto vaccine pre-breeding. With consultation from the vet, they decided not to vaccinate the cows for BVD, as there are no signs of it in the herd and all bought-in bulls were tested at birth.

Mineral deficiency

This year, Frank and Des were a little disappointed with the liveweight gain of cattle during the main growing months.

Des moved bulls and heifers every day at grass and kept a close eye on pre-grazing covers to try to optimise grass quality and weight gain.

But despite better grassland management and growing more grass, there was little increase in average daily gain on the farm.

After much research and consulting with a local dairy farmer, more investigation into minerals was done and grass samples were anlaysed in the autumn.

Because the farm is in a high molybdenum area and the soil is high in iron, and due to fast growth of grass during the peak months, it was shown that the diet of the cattle was severely deficient in copper and some of the copper in the diet was unavailable to the cattle.

A special mineral mix of chelated and non-chelated minerals was sourced and fed to the cattle in the sheds. In the first 65 days on the finishing diet, the bulls have had an average daily gain of 2.2kg/day and the heifers have averaged 1.7kg/day.

Although daily gains are expected to fall off in the last 30 to 45 days on the finishing diet, Des is extremely happy with these weight gains. The finishing diet is a total mixed ration that is 13.2% CP, 12.1 ME and 39% starch.

The plan for next year when the cattle are at grass is to place effervescent tablets into the drinkers to supply minerals to the cattle at pasture. Des is hoping that this will help to increase liveweight gains at grass next year while continuing dairy-style grassland management.