Feed Budgets
Feed Budgets Do you know how much grass your animals need? Do you know how much grass you can grow? Winter can be a challenging time for small block holders and farmers alike. As grass growth slows due to low temperatures and fewer sunlight hours, your animals are likely to require supplementary feeding. Although it […]
Winter blues
Winter blues Like humans, alpacas and llamas (two species in the camelid family) make vitamin D for themselves in their skin when exposed to UV light. During the New Zealand winter when UV levels are lower, camelids can’t make enough of their own vitamin D. Pregnant, growing, long fleeced, or darkly coloured camelids are most […]
Facial Eczema Risk Bulletin
Facial Eczema Risk Bulletin Welcome to our Facial Eczema Spore Count Bulletin for 2025 – this article will be updated each week, so please revisit to see what the spore count is in your area. Facial Eczema Spore counts 2 May 2025 Shannon Ihakara Foxton Moutoa Waitarere Levin Ohau Manakau Otaki Te Horo 55,000 5,000 […]
Clostridial protection in your cattle, Covexin® 10
Clostridial protection in your cattle, Covexin® 10 In recent times we have been called to postmortem predominantly younger cattle that have died suddenly, and the findings are similar, a rapidly decomposing carcass, lots of gas and a terrible smell when the carcass is opened. These are classical signs of clostridial infection. The risk of clostridial […]
Lepto 4-Way®: Survey Update
Lepto 4-Way®: Survey Update During the last winter we started using the new Lepto 4-Way® vaccine in dairy herds to provide protection for you, your staff and ourselves against the recently recognised Lepto strain, Pacifica. Traditionally we have vaccinated for L Pomona and L Hardjobovis but we know this is not the full complement of […]
Sheep Flock Productivity
Sheep Flock Productivity Trace element supplementation in cattle at critical times is now common practice, particularly in dairy herds, even when blood or liver levels are within the normal range. The most researched product in this field, is Virbac’s Multimin®. Trace element supplementation in cattle at critical times is now common practice, particularly in dairy […]
Thiamine deficiency in calves
Thiamine deficiency in calves Thiamine deficiency in young stock. What it is, why does it happen, signs to look for and options for treatment and prevention. The disease is known by many names, but alas are all the same. You may have heard of – thiamine deficiency, Vitamin B1 deficiency, Polio, PEM (polioencephalomalacia), or CNN […]
Vaccinating horses in New Zealand
Vaccinating horses in New Zealand There are multiple diseases that horses can catch in New Zealand, that we have vaccinations for. What vaccines your horse requires depends on what activities the horse is involved in and its level of social interaction with other horses: Low interaction – Individual horses, or horses in a small, closed […]
Pig husbandry
Pig husbandry Pigs are omnivores which means they are happy to eat a wide range of foods (plant and animal products). Despite this, pigs also have specific nutritional needs that are unlikely to be met by only feeding household scraps. In a commercial setting pig diets are finely tuned to maximise growth at different life […]
Looking after dairy weaners
Looking after dairy weaners Getting calves through to weaning is a major milestone and now we need to protect that initial investment. The percentage of dairy farms on which coccidia is resident has steadily increased and it would be safe to assume that coccidia is on all farms. While the calves are on milk and […]