November 6, 2025 • 8 mins
Andrew Cochrane looks at animal health matters during a hectic start to November.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Musters Animal Health segment brought to you by NSFTS adding
value through practical advice and service, no gimmicks, no patience,
total vet cares.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And Drew Cochrane out of any events in Riversdale joins
us this afternoon. Andrew, good afternoon. Look, it's been a
hectic couple of weeks. We spoke to see Steve Henderson
earlier in the year. We've teamed up with Self and
Real Support Trust many thanks to Community Trust South as well.
We're talking about the mindset after an event like this,
but you guys, being involved in the veterinary game, you'll
(00:37):
have a different viewpoint regarding animal husbandry with an event
like this has been and gone.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, good ethne Andy. I guess most of our concerns
were at the time of the event, and particularly around
an ability to milk the cows and in stockwater. They
were major concerns. And now that we've got power restored
to most or those that are still without power have
certainly got systems in place with generators, most of those
(01:05):
concerns have been alleviated. So what we certainly saw was
a spike and semitic foul counts and an increase in
the cases of mass sitis, a febit of cow discomfort
initially until they could get milk, but all of those
things seem to have come right. We've seen sel camps
drop in most cases. Concerns around water were real and
(01:29):
a lot of people were certainly focused on getting power
to the shed so they could milk the cows, which
was certainly important, but we're finding that that didn't the
water situation. That was a separate pump that needed a
separate generator, and there were some concerns around that, And
what I think needs to be stressed. I guess, particularly
at peak lactation with very cows, is their water demand
(01:52):
is very high, and we can see impacts on their
welfare and health in the short term around the high addration.
But if they've got an extended period without water and
then are given free access to water when that comes
back on, we can actually see deaths as a result
of that, and so basically water intoxication, which is a
(02:15):
result of the impact it has on the salt and
the blood, but we can see cows die as a
result of giving them a whole lot of water after
a period without water, so that can be a real concern.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
If they do go long periods, so in general people
seened with coked not too bad or things considered.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I think so, I mean, it was certainly stressful for
a lot of people, but yeah, a farmers a very
resilient in most cases, and I think now getting around
the traps and talking to farmers, there's been a good
chance to reflect. I think a lot of farmers have.
There's been a good a wake up to some extent
to see how resilient their business is. And I think
(02:52):
we're seeing a lot of generators purchased and ordered to
avoid this happening again, and hopefully we won't need them,
but at least the end they're there if it does happen.
We were a little bit lucky. I think in most
cases that mating hadn't started for most particularly in dairy cows,
and we're certainly seeing that with the color technology, no
tail paint on cows, all of a sudden, without power,
(03:14):
we weren't able to draft or identify those cows on heat.
So we were lucky that we weren't actually in the
sec of mating. I have heard of a couple of
instances where synchrony programs for non cyclists had started and
they weren't able to draft those cows for mating and
they had to start the program all over. So again
I think it's worth considering backup systems for when that
might happen, whether that is just generators and making sure
(03:37):
that we can get Wi Fi as part of that
so that those cows can be identified and drafted. But
could have been a lot worrease if we'd had the
power outage this week. It would have had a huge
disruption with AI programs and synchrony programs. So we're a
little bit lucky there, but certainly yet we're flat out
into the non cycling programs. We're seeing you know, a
lot of farmers take that up. Obviously in a payout
(03:59):
year like we got, the return on investment is pretty significant,
so it's worth doing something for those non cycling cows.
And we are doing a few non synchrony programs AO
programs and beef cows too, so they're underway as well.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Velveting and dere that's happening at the moment. Speaking to
Warren Ross yesterday, he was right in the middle of it.
So just that time of year, it comes around quickly,
right it does.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It always thinks up on us and so yep, we're
seeing a week with the velveting happening through our books
and our vets that are involved in the supervisory visits
are getting booked up for them too. So probably just
reminder of those farmers that haven't booked for supervisory yet
to get that sorted so that you can continue to
do what you do on.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Farm tailings flat out. At the moment, A lot of
lambs aren't tailed normally, a lot of it's up to
date by now, Andrew, is there a temptation there that
leads a tailing just leave to lead the tails on
the animals and go through, maybe give them a scratch
and of B twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
There's certainly been chatted around that, and I think we'll
see more of it, as if we see laws come
into place around pain relief at tailing, I think we'll
see more and more tales left on to avoid that,
particularly those terminal lambs that are going to be going
at weaning. But no, not at the stage, not that
I've heard. But yes, people are a bit behind on tailing.
Is a bit of catch up to happen, but yeah,
(05:17):
I think that it is getting done. We're starting to
see now some questions around lamb drenching and obviously weaning
is the mile away. There was a really good video
on the Wormwise Facebook page around lamb drenching and particularly
those really early drenches and in particular around docking and
tailing time, and generally the advice is not to just
(05:38):
keeping in mind that you know, pre weening drenches came
into vogue and were necessary as a result of weaning
lambs reasonably late. A lot of lambs were weaned post Christmas,
and so the advice was a pre weening drench in December,
it's necessary. Now we're seeing more and more lambs drenched
wean sorry, in early December, even late November, and a
(05:58):
pre weening drench before that sort of now isn't necessary
all the time, and so I would just advise farmers
to think about whether or not that pre winning drench
is necessary use secretly accounts as part of that conversation.
We can see lambs get a little bit dirty now
or even in the last month, but often that is
(06:19):
from a worm that lambs get immunity to very early,
so a worm that's a little bit different to our
normal ones. They can often pick up from their mum's
milk or from their mum's other and they get immunity
by six sort of weeks of age. So even if
they are a little bit dirty in around tailing time,
that often cleans up and drives up on its own
looked out the need for a drench So just talk
(06:39):
to your vet. I think we're still seeing lambs that
are often drenched too early, although in this year, with
pastia covers like they are, it may necessari take some
early drenching because pasta covers are low, milk can take
from mum is going to be low, so the lambs
are going to be eating more pasture.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, Just regarding the feed situation, just what are you saying?
Is it pretty low in a lot of places, Yes,
and across the board.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So we've certainly talking to dairy farmers that are that
are well behind and paddocks that they've shut up for
bailage and silage. Pasture covers are certainly recovering this week,
which is great, but because we need grass to grow,
grass and covers have been low, particularly on our sheep farms,
they're not jumping out of the ground as quick as
we'd like. So yeah, hopefully that will continue to improve
(07:23):
and we'll see some growth. Quality of pasture is going
to be good, but certainly quantity is behind it, and
it may be a good conversation around early weaning again
like we did with last year's use. If pasture covers
are low use, aren't milking well, it might be worthwhile
considering weaning those us and lands a little bit earlier.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Andrew to get in touch with the team at Northern
South on VETZ. What's the best way?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah O three two O two five six three six
here in Riversdale and for the tianl VITZ three two
four nine seven zero three nine. We are sort of
getting a little bit quieter as we head towards Christmas
and come out of these syncrety programs, so there should
be gets around and we're more than happy to have
a question.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yea, Andrew, always appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Awesome thanks Andy, Andrew Cochrane have been.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
His fits animal health advisors to the muster up. Next,
Phil Duncan of weather Watch him before the end of
the hour. Grant McMaster of closer In Station
Musters Animal Health segment brought to you by NSFTS adding
value through practical advice and service, no gimmicks, no patience,
total vet cares.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And Drew Cochrane out of any events in Riversdale joins
us this afternoon. Andrew, good afternoon. Look, it's been a
hectic couple of weeks. We spoke to see Steve Henderson
earlier in the year. We've teamed up with Self and
Real Support Trust many thanks to Community Trust South as well.
We're talking about the mindset after an event like this,
but you guys, being involved in the veterinary game, you'll
(00:37):
have a different viewpoint regarding animal husbandry with an event
like this has been and gone.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, good ethne Andy. I guess most of our concerns
were at the time of the event, and particularly around
an ability to milk the cows and in stockwater. They
were major concerns. And now that we've got power restored
to most or those that are still without power have
certainly got systems in place with generators, most of those
(01:05):
concerns have been alleviated. So what we certainly saw was
a spike and semitic foul counts and an increase in
the cases of mass sitis, a febit of cow discomfort
initially until they could get milk, but all of those
things seem to have come right. We've seen sel camps
drop in most cases. Concerns around water were real and
(01:29):
a lot of people were certainly focused on getting power
to the shed so they could milk the cows, which
was certainly important, but we're finding that that didn't the
water situation. That was a separate pump that needed a
separate generator, and there were some concerns around that, And
what I think needs to be stressed. I guess, particularly
at peak lactation with very cows, is their water demand
(01:52):
is very high, and we can see impacts on their
welfare and health in the short term around the high addration.
But if they've got an extended period without water and
then are given free access to water when that comes
back on, we can actually see deaths as a result
of that, and so basically water intoxication, which is a
(02:15):
result of the impact it has on the salt and
the blood, but we can see cows die as a
result of giving them a whole lot of water after
a period without water, so that can be a real concern.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
If they do go long periods, so in general people
seened with coked not too bad or things considered.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I think so, I mean, it was certainly stressful for
a lot of people, but yeah, a farmers a very
resilient in most cases, and I think now getting around
the traps and talking to farmers, there's been a good
chance to reflect. I think a lot of farmers have.
There's been a good a wake up to some extent
to see how resilient their business is. And I think
(02:52):
we're seeing a lot of generators purchased and ordered to
avoid this happening again, and hopefully we won't need them,
but at least the end they're there if it does happen.
We were a little bit lucky. I think in most
cases that mating hadn't started for most particularly in dairy cows,
and we're certainly seeing that with the color technology, no
tail paint on cows, all of a sudden, without power,
(03:14):
we weren't able to draft or identify those cows on heat.
So we were lucky that we weren't actually in the
sec of mating. I have heard of a couple of
instances where synchrony programs for non cyclists had started and
they weren't able to draft those cows for mating and
they had to start the program all over. So again
I think it's worth considering backup systems for when that
might happen, whether that is just generators and making sure
(03:37):
that we can get Wi Fi as part of that
so that those cows can be identified and drafted. But
could have been a lot worrease if we'd had the
power outage this week. It would have had a huge
disruption with AI programs and synchrony programs. So we're a
little bit lucky there, but certainly yet we're flat out
into the non cycling programs. We're seeing you know, a
lot of farmers take that up. Obviously in a payout
(03:59):
year like we got, the return on investment is pretty significant,
so it's worth doing something for those non cycling cows.
And we are doing a few non synchrony programs AO
programs and beef cows too, so they're underway as well.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Velveting and dere that's happening at the moment. Speaking to
Warren Ross yesterday, he was right in the middle of it.
So just that time of year, it comes around quickly,
right it does.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It always thinks up on us and so yep, we're
seeing a week with the velveting happening through our books
and our vets that are involved in the supervisory visits
are getting booked up for them too. So probably just
reminder of those farmers that haven't booked for supervisory yet
to get that sorted so that you can continue to
do what you do on.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Farm tailings flat out. At the moment, A lot of
lambs aren't tailed normally, a lot of it's up to
date by now, Andrew, is there a temptation there that
leads a tailing just leave to lead the tails on
the animals and go through, maybe give them a scratch
and of B twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
There's certainly been chatted around that, and I think we'll
see more of it, as if we see laws come
into place around pain relief at tailing, I think we'll
see more and more tales left on to avoid that,
particularly those terminal lambs that are going to be going
at weaning. But no, not at the stage, not that
I've heard. But yes, people are a bit behind on tailing.
Is a bit of catch up to happen, but yeah,
(05:17):
I think that it is getting done. We're starting to
see now some questions around lamb drenching and obviously weaning
is the mile away. There was a really good video
on the Wormwise Facebook page around lamb drenching and particularly
those really early drenches and in particular around docking and
tailing time, and generally the advice is not to just
(05:38):
keeping in mind that you know, pre weening drenches came
into vogue and were necessary as a result of weaning
lambs reasonably late. A lot of lambs were weaned post Christmas,
and so the advice was a pre weening drench in December,
it's necessary. Now we're seeing more and more lambs drenched
wean sorry, in early December, even late November, and a
(05:58):
pre weening drench before that sort of now isn't necessary
all the time, and so I would just advise farmers
to think about whether or not that pre winning drench
is necessary use secretly accounts as part of that conversation.
We can see lambs get a little bit dirty now
or even in the last month, but often that is
(06:19):
from a worm that lambs get immunity to very early,
so a worm that's a little bit different to our
normal ones. They can often pick up from their mum's
milk or from their mum's other and they get immunity
by six sort of weeks of age. So even if
they are a little bit dirty in around tailing time,
that often cleans up and drives up on its own
looked out the need for a drench So just talk
(06:39):
to your vet. I think we're still seeing lambs that
are often drenched too early, although in this year, with
pastia covers like they are, it may necessari take some
early drenching because pasta covers are low, milk can take
from mum is going to be low, so the lambs
are going to be eating more pasture.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, Just regarding the feed situation, just what are you saying?
Is it pretty low in a lot of places, Yes,
and across the board.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So we've certainly talking to dairy farmers that are that
are well behind and paddocks that they've shut up for
bailage and silage. Pasture covers are certainly recovering this week,
which is great, but because we need grass to grow,
grass and covers have been low, particularly on our sheep farms,
they're not jumping out of the ground as quick as
we'd like. So yeah, hopefully that will continue to improve
(07:23):
and we'll see some growth. Quality of pasture is going
to be good, but certainly quantity is behind it, and
it may be a good conversation around early weaning again
like we did with last year's use. If pasture covers
are low use, aren't milking well, it might be worthwhile
considering weaning those us and lands a little bit earlier.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Andrew to get in touch with the team at Northern
South on VETZ. What's the best way?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah O three two O two five six three six
here in Riversdale and for the tianl VITZ three two
four nine seven zero three nine. We are sort of
getting a little bit quieter as we head towards Christmas
and come out of these syncrety programs, so there should
be gets around and we're more than happy to have
a question.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yea, Andrew, always appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Awesome thanks Andy, Andrew Cochrane have been.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
His fits animal health advisors to the muster up. Next,
Phil Duncan of weather Watch him before the end of
the hour. Grant McMaster of closer In Station
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