Clarifide is a new UK veterinary led genomics package that aligns genomic testing with breeding objectives and herd health goals on your farm.

Tony is a Clarifide vet and will work with you and your breeding advisor to develop a ranking tool that is bespoke to your farm. This will focus on those traits where an improvement through breeding will likely lead to an improvement in on-farm performance for your herd.

Genetic evaluation is changing.  Genomic testing is revolutionising the way dairy producers make management, selection and breeding decisions on the farm.  Up until now the major focus on genomic testing has been the benefit in identifying high quality young bulls early.  We can now use exactly the same power of prediction for female youngstock, as a cost-effective management tool available to dairy farmers.

More research than ever is going into calf nutrition and how differences during the first weeks of life can have a significant impact on the productivity of these animals over their lifetime. The effect of the environment and external factors on the expression of genes has long been studied in human medicine. Termed metabolic profiling, the scope to affect gene expression is mostly limited to early life. An example of this is seen when an increase of 100g average daily weight gain is achieved during the first 8 weeks of life, when feed conversion efficiency is at its highest.

English beef and dairy farmers can have their Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) test results uploaded to the national BVDFree database without charge until the end of March*.

The offer is open to all farmers who are registered with the BVDFree England scheme and is available for all results uploaded by the following labs: APHA, Biobest, CIS and NML. Farmers can register with the scheme at bvdfree.org.uk. The aim is to grow the number of searchable BVD statuses on the existing 65,000 strong database.

Through February, March and April St Boniface Farm Vets are running a series of meetings addressing cattle fertility and healthy calf production. The series begins with calf rearing and the promotion of rapid growth to produce an efficient and healthy heifer.

This year we are providing a set of three Winter meetings, with each one being held twice in different locations.

The first in this series focuses on fertility, the effects of transition cow management and treatments for problem cows.  This evening meeting is coming to a pub near you in January and will be held by Ruth and Ingrid.

Copper Deficiency

Pure deficiency is very rare, as a ewe’s requirement is only 1mgCu/kg DM. However, there are several elements that can antagonise copper and these change the picture significantly.  Iron and sulphur will bind with copper in the rumen, this copper can’t be absorbed and passes out in dung, it is rare to get clinical signs of copper deficiency due to high iron levels but it can worsen the effect of molybdenum.