Managing a bad scour outbreak within a 600 cow dairy herd is not a simple, nor pleasant, task.
Someone who has experienced this first-hand, is Lis Stephenson, a dairy farmer based in Cumbria in north-west England.
Lis milks 600 Holstein Friesian cows alongside her husband.
The Stephensons began renting a dairy farm and purchased their first herd of 27 dairy cows in 2015.
The Stephensons now operate the total mixed ration (TMR)-based production system. They rent 1000ac of grassland to accommodate their herd’s forage requirements throughout lactation.
The herd has been in expansion and there have been infrastructure improvements on the farm, including the replacement of the farm’s original herringbone parlour with a Waikato rotary parlour.
“Initially, there was a little parlour, so we’ve done away with that and we’ve put in a Waikato Rotary, so that’s made an amazing difference to our lives. It has enabled us to jump from 300 cows to 600 cows,” Lis said.
All-year round calving
The Stephensons operate an all-year-round calving system which keeps the family busy.
As their herd is still in expansion, there has been increased pressure on their housing facilities to accommodate additional animal numbers.
“Last April, when we were calving, we were still in the process of building sheds and finishing the parlour. Obviously, we needed all the extra sheds, cubicle space and silage space for upping the numbers. We were in the middle of revamping everything.
“We didn’t really have the facilities that we needed to have, and then when we started calving last April, we had quite a glut of calves,” said Lis.
Unfortunately for the Stephensons, while they had good calf management and hygiene protocols in place, they experienced a major scour outbreak among the calves.
Discussing the issue, Lis said: “All of a sudden one weekend, we found that we were having calves that just scoured out. We had to get the vet out to put drips in two calves.
“Then the following day, we needed to drip another two calves, so it was an explosion of a problem that we hadn’t had before.”
Scour outbreak
This scour outbreak came as a surprise for the Stephensons, as they always followed the necessary protocols to minimise the incidences of scour.
Unfortunately, some of the calves passed soon after contracting the infection.
“Typically, we vaccinate the cows against rotavirus and coronavirus, and we vaccinate them against pneumonia in the dry period in order to hopefully give us everything we need to protect the calves, and then we suddenly had this horrendous outbreak of scour.
“I think we lost four calves really quickly, probably in the space of 48 hours.”
When the scour outbreak worsened, and calves who were receiving IV treatment were being lost, the Stephensons turned to their vet for advice.
“The vet recommended that we use Locatim on all calves that were born from then on, while we tried to figure out what was going on.
“The vet had an inkling it was E.coli. K99, so we sent one or two calves off for a post-mortem exam as soon as we could to see what on earth we were dealing with.
“Until we could change calving sheds, we used Locatim on every newborn calf for the next 10-14 days. It gave us that fire-break solution, and actually, as quick as the scour came, it disappeared.
“We did get a confirmation from the post-mortems that it was E.Coli K99 that was causing us horrendous scour,” Lis said.
Locatim
Locatim is a highly concentrated sterile solution of specific calf scour antibodies proven to protect newborn calves against scour.
Locatim is the only prescription medicine providing guaranteed levels of oral antibodies against calf scour.
A single 60ml dose is given to calves in the first four hours of life, prior to the consumption of colostrum.
Lis told the Forte Healthcare team about her experience using Locatim. She said: “There were a few things we did, but I think that Locatim gave us an extra aid to help us through the scour while we identified what was going on, and what we could do to alleviate it.”
Improved calf management
Since the scour outbreak, the Stephensons have tightened up their calf management protocols to minimize incidences of future outbreaks.
Commenting on this, Lis said: “We’ve joined a calf club, so that kind of helps us to keep track of what we’re doing.
“We continue to vaccinate everything and make sure that we vaccinate our cows during the dry cow period.
“When calves are born, we try and get 4L of colostrum into everything within reason as soon as they’re born.
“The following week, we then blood test the calves to see what their protein levels are and to see how well we’ve done in that way.”
While the Stephensons have improved their calf management protocols, incidences of calf scour can be complex and unpredictable. As a result, Lis is pleased to know that a product like Locatim is available to purchase through her vet to support her calves if scour returns.
“We’ve tightened up our protocols and all of that, and we’ve found that the cases of scour have dropped.
“We always use Locatim now if we’ve a case of scour, or if we’ve got a heifer that’s not calved down so great, or if she’s a bit stressed – then we’ll use it on that calf, ” Lis said.
When animals become ill, there is increased pressure on the farmer and vet to return the animal to good health.
Knowing that there are new, innovative solutions available for farmers and vets to use offers assurance when faced with stressful situations.
“Locatim helped us get through the outbreak. I’m glad the vet came up with it, because otherwise we were just dripping calves and using rehydration supplements with colostrum, and I just don’t think that would have done it alone.
“I’d definitely recommend Locatim to farmers having issues with calf scour,” Lis stressed.
Locatim contains bovine-concentrated lactoserum-containing specific immunoglobulin G antibodies against E coli F5 (K99) adhesion =2.8* log/ml. Advice on the use of this medicine must be sought from your veterinary surgeon.
Further information is available from the package leaflet, SPC or from Forte Healthcare Ltd. Date of preparation: July 2023.
