DAIRY FERTILITY

Cows and heifers

We encourage all clients to have routine fertility sessions booked with their designated named vets, ensuring that fertility issues can be monitored on a regular basis. The ongoing client-vet relationship is key to us providing the best support to individual client's needs. These sessions can be weekly, fortnightly or four weekly depending on your requirements. We pride ourselves on data analysis to allow trends in fertility performance to be tracked and appropriate management changes made. We have access to Interherd, Interherd +, TotalVet, Uniform Agri and Dairy Comp at the practice.

AI

We provide support for your on-farm AI team in the form of training courses for beginners and refresher courses for trained staff. We also have trained staff to analyse semen straws viability.

Bulls

Natural service can be used alone or alongside AI to improve the fertility of your herd. At the George Farm Vets we have the expertise to check your bulls are up to the task. Bulls can be electro ejaculated on farm and a semen sample obtained. This is then looked at under a microscope and, alongside a clinical exam is used to issue a full report on the bull's soundness for breeding.

We can also use our knowledge on genetics and EBVs to help you select the correct bull for your herd, whether it be for heifers or cows.

Repeat breeders

We offer an embryo implantation service for repeat breeder cows. This can help improve conception rates by up to 20%!

MASTITIS, SCC AND MILK QUALITY

Mastitis can be one of the most costly diseases on farm, affecting yields, cow health and profitability. The George Farm Vets are well equipped to fully investigate and diagnose mastitis problems:

• Decades of experience investigating mastitis on farm
• Multiple trained AHDB Mastitis control plan providers
• Access to Interherd, Interherd +, TotalVet, Dairy comp and Unifrom agri data analysis programs
• In-house lab for culture and ID of mastitis pathogens
• Bespoke monthly cell count reports automatically created
• Individual treatment protocols tailored to the farm
• Medicine handling and drying off training
• Parlour visits and milking parlour assessments
• Teat scoring

LAMENESS

Prevention is better than cure is behind everything we do at The George Farm Vets and this is especially important when it comes to lameness. We offer a full suite of lameness services:

• Mobility scoring through our ROMs-trained scorers
• We run regular two day practical foot trimming courses
• Multiple AHDB mobility mentors within the vet team
• Links with local NAFCT level 1 trimmers with bespoke crushes
• On farm lameness risk assessment
• Trained and experienced vets with a record of successful treatment of chronic score 3 cows

HERD HEALTH PLANNING

The practice is heavily involved in herd health planning for all types and sizes of farms. Our health plans are regularly updated to conform to the requirements outlined by the British Red Tractor Standards Scheme. They are designed to help carry out a meaningful assessment and analysis of the farm data, to put in place practical management and husbandry measures that benefits both the welfare of the stock and the productivity of the farm. An automatic reminder system enables us to help you stay in date with your plan and avoid those last-minute panics to get it updated! 

The purchase of stock can be a significant risk factor for introducing disease to a naive herd. To help prevent this we suggest pre-purchase health status reports are obtained from the herd of origin. We arrange this by contacting the vendor's vets with a health status request; we are then best placed to advise you whether the stock will match your herd, or if any other tests should be performed prior to purchase.

NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION

What and how cows are fed is the key to healthy and productive cows. The George Farm Vets  can support you at all levels of feeding the cow:

• Ration formulation with the help of DietCheck
• Silage and grass analysis
• Penn state separator analysis of TMRs
• Body condition scoring (BCS)
• Full rumen health visits including faecal sieving and rumenocentesis
• Data analysis of milk constituents to help identify how the cows are responding to a ration
• Metabolic profiling via blood samples in our in-house lab or external labs

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Prevention and control of infectious disease is the cornerstone of a healthy herd. The George Farm Vets is actively engaged with national control plans, including the National Johnes management plan and BVDfree. Through on-farm risk assessments, vaccination and thorough testing regimes we have a proven track record of reducing and eradicating disease on our farms:

• All vets are trained BCVA TB, Johnes and BVD advisors
• Competitive vaccine pricing combined with comprehensive vaccination plans
• Access to My healthy herd software to centralise disease control plans
• Testing schemes through NML for automatic bulk milk sampling for BVD, IBR, Leptospirosis and Liver fluke
• National Johnes management control plan compliant health plans and testing protocols through milk recording organisations
• TBAS accredited TB advisors

DAIRY YOUNGSTOCK

As the future of your herd, home bred replacements are a valuable resource; keeping them healthy will save you money and produce the best quality heifers for the future. 

We are fully equipped to investigate and control disease in youngstock and work proactively to ensure your calves are healthy and growing well:

• CalfTracker service to monitor growth rates and management pinch points
• Blood sampling for total proteins to monitor colostrum effectiveness
• Colstrum quality and cleanliness assessment
• Calf environment appraisal including, temperature, wind speed and noxious gas analysis
• Blood sampling and lung swabs to identify causative pneumonia pathogens
• In-house scour sample testing that can produce results within 30 minutes
• Calf milk replacer calculations to ensure optimum growth rates

Please visit our dedicated youngstock page

GENETIC ANALYSIS AND GENOMICS

At the George Farm Vets, we provide a complete genetic analysis and testing service through Clarifide and Clarifide plus. This allows our dairy clients to fully understand the genetic strengths and weaknesses of their herd; then, using genomic testing of maiden heifers, animals can be selected to improve key areas of production.

The AHDB herd genetic analysis is the starting point in which, data from breeding records and production data of your herd, shows where your herd is in relation to yield, milk quality, cell count, fertility performance and much more. From this we can tailor heifer and bull selection to improve the genetic potential of the herd. Prediction of performance of maiden heifers can be difficult with predictions based on parent average only being ~30% reliable. With a simple tissue sample from the ear the genetic code of a heifer can be examined, and reliability of the data received is >70%. This allows you to make better breeding decisions and improve the genetic progress of your herd. A tailored genetic index can be set using your specific goals and we can use this to select the best heifers to breed from. If you would like to discuss genetic analysis or start genomic testing of your herd, please contact us at the practice.

SUSTAINABILITY IN FARMING

The George Farm Vets believe that farming has a vital role to play in the future care of our environment. We are committed to helping our clients equip themselves for the new sustainable targets of the future:

• We have set up a Sustainable farming group with up to 50 active members
• Regular meetings and talks from external speakers
• Use of the carbon calculator
• Expertise in the use and advantages of herbal lays
• A 10% reduction in antibiotic use year on year across our clients
• Close links with the Soil Association to promote soil health
• AHDB grazing mentors within the practice
• Working alongside Vet Sustain to make sure the veterinary profession is also doing its bit

ORGANIC PRODUCTION

We are aware of the different challenges facing our organic clients and are experienced at working within the organic regulations. Our focus on preventative medicine ties in closely with the organic principles, and it is an approach we encourage on all farms, both organic and conventional. To this end, our clients have consistently reduced their antibiotic use 10% year on year! We have close links with both the Soil Association and Organic farmers and growers. Many of our farms are producing milk without antibiotics (PWAB) and are fully committed to supporting our clients and achieving this status in the right way.

Our Organic Discussion Group brings organic farmers together, on a regular basis, to share knowledge and experience on all aspects of cattle health and production. A lot of the group's time is spent on farm trying to find practical ways to implement this knowledge to maximise profitability and improve animal health.

IN-HOUSE PRACTICE LABORATORY

Clients benefit from a fully equipped laboratory, set up for a wide variety of diagnostic techniques. Milk samples are tested for clinical or subclinical mastitis bacteria, with preliminary results available within 24 hours. Results are interpreted by our experienced cattle vets to give advice on the best treatment protocols for individual animals. We also have a somatic cell count machine that allows rapid turnaround for bulk tank results or individual cow/quarter samples. Blood tests (including full biochemistry profiles), faecal samples for worm egg and coccidial counts, and milk progesterone pregnancy tests are just some of the many other tests we can carry out in-house.

TB TESTING AND APHA DUTIES

We understand the stress and strain that TB testing and restrictions can put on a business. All farm vets and approved TB testers are registered APHA official veterinarians, licensed to perform TB testing, statutory brucellosis (abortion) enquiries and anthrax examination. We also have authorisation to issue licenses for export of stock and products.

In an attempt to reduce the financial implications of pre-movement TB testing, all pre-movement tests are booked as discounted visits with our hourly rates reduced by 20%.