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The Muster- Morgan Greene: NS Vets · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Musters Animal Health Segment with NS Vets. Adding value
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: through practical advice and service. No gimmicks, no potions, total
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: vet care.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Morgan Green of NS Vets, based in Riversdale, joins us. Morgan,
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  Speaker 2: good afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: My humps.
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  Speaker 2: If you see humps on your animals, better go and
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  Speaker 2: see the team at NS Vets.
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  Speaker 1: How's that?
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  Speaker 3: It sounds good. Well, actually, to be fair, we have
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  Speaker 3: seen some humps on animals recently. So we've had a
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  Speaker 3: few cases of some subcutaneous emphysema. So the air basically
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  Speaker 3: underneath the skin of the cow. So a couple of
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  Speaker 3: reasons for that. You can get it as a result
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  Speaker 3: of some form of lung damage. And typically what we've
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  Speaker 3: had just now at the moment is... It's normally something
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  Speaker 3: we see in autumn, a thing called fog fever. So
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  Speaker 3: it's not actually to do with fog. It's to do
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  Speaker 3: with a term that comes from the UK called foggage.
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  Speaker 3: So foggage is after growth from when they've cut silage
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  Speaker 3: or done something like that. But essentially, it's really lush pasture.
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  Speaker 3: So you get a change in the type of pasture
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  Speaker 3: that's there. And effectively, you get an allergic reaction going
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  Speaker 3: on in the lungs. The lungs swell up and you
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  Speaker 3: can get little tears, I guess, in the lungs and
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  Speaker 3: air leaks out of the lungs and goes underneath the
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  Speaker 3: skin of the cows. So in severe cases, it's euthanasia.
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  Speaker 3: Sometimes they will spontaneously recover as well if it's not
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  Speaker 3: too bad. But the cow will feel like bubble wrap.
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  Speaker 3: And in severe cases, they'll actually look like the Michelin Man.
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  Speaker 3: So we've had a few cases of that just recently.
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  Speaker 3: And that all follows on from that good weather that
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  Speaker 3: we had last week. And then the bit of rain
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  Speaker 3: again and things have just, yeah, grass obviously has just
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  Speaker 3: changed phenomenally. So it's a thing called acute bovine pulmonary
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  Speaker 3: emphysema and edema. So really long term. But as I say, essentially,
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  Speaker 3: it's air underneath the skin of the cows. So in
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  Speaker 3: some situations, Andy, they do look like they've got humps.
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  Speaker 2: That's a hell of a correlation to start, but, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it sounds as though it's emphysema in cows, like if
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  Speaker 2: you're smoking 20 darts a day.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the case?
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  Speaker 3: Look, a little bit along those lines, but, like, if
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  Speaker 3: you do a post-mortem, these lungs are just completely swollen
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  Speaker 3: and they get damaged, yeah. So, you know, as I say,
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  Speaker 3: it's effectively almost like an allergic reaction to the grass
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  Speaker 3: is effectively what it is. So... Yeah, it's not a
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  Speaker 3: particularly pleasant condition. And we've seen a few cases of
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  Speaker 3: it just in the last few days.
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  Speaker 2: A bit of bloat around at the moment. What are
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  Speaker 2: the side effects of having grass?
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  Speaker 3: 100%, yeah. So that's happened as well with all of
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  Speaker 3: the lush grass that we have just at the moment. And,
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  Speaker 3: of course, when we've had rain over the last couple
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  Speaker 3: of days, it discourages cows from drinking from troughs. And so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we're much more likely to end up with
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  Speaker 3: bloat as a result. So, yeah, unfortunately, I had an
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  Speaker 3: early call this morning and, yeah, there was a couple
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  Speaker 3: of dead cows from bloat, unfortunately. And look, it is
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  Speaker 3: just one of those things. And it is a bit
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  Speaker 3: of a reminder that, you know, people possibly may not
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: be putting bloat oil in. But if they are, you know,
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  Speaker 3: cows may not be drinking once we get that rain in.
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  Speaker 3: And probably a more effective way of prevention for bloat
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  Speaker 3: at this time of year is going to be something
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  Speaker 3: like Ruminox, which is a monensin product. So that's an ionophore,
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  Speaker 3: and what it does is effectively it changes the type
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  Speaker 3: of microbes that's.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: In the rumen.
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  Speaker 3: So it changes them from being.
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  Speaker 3: Less of the gas producers, I guess. So you go
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  Speaker 3: to the bacteria that are producing propionate rather than acetate
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  Speaker 3: and butyrate. And so there's less of those gas producing bacteria.
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  Speaker 3: So the other good advantage that you have with something
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  Speaker 3: like ruminox is it does improve the quality of feed
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  Speaker 3: conversion efficiency. So effectively, it's almost like animals are able
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  Speaker 3: to eat a kilogram more or they're more effective at,
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  Speaker 3: you know, If they're eating 20 kilos, it's like they're
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  Speaker 3: eating 21 when monox is in the mix. And as
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  Speaker 3: I said, the other thing is it prevents bloat because
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  Speaker 3: it changes the microbes. And if cows don't drink for
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  Speaker 3: a day or two, it doesn't matter because the rumen
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  Speaker 3: microbes don't change back that quickly. So it is a
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  Speaker 3: very good product around bloat prevention at this time of year.
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  Speaker 2: Are you seeing any issues of animals finishing up winter crop?
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  Speaker 3: No, we haven't. But yes, that certainly can happen. So
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  Speaker 3: once you get the winter crop flowering, there is certainly
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  Speaker 3: issues around that. More so, though, to be fair, if
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  Speaker 3: animals have not been on the crop or they've been
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  Speaker 3: on a different paddock and then they go on to
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  Speaker 3: a crop that has flowered, then you can have issues there.
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  Speaker 3: But I would say if when animals are on that
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  Speaker 3: crop all the time, they don't tend to have problems.
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  Speaker 3: So SMCO is one of the issues that you get
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  Speaker 3: which leads to red water so effectively you get blood
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  Speaker 3: vessels being or blood cells being damaged and the cows
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  Speaker 3: or the animals can effectively have blood loss as a
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  Speaker 3: result of that but we haven't seen anything at the
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  Speaker 3: moment and you know it's not something that we see
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  Speaker 3: all that often but it is something that we do
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  Speaker 3: see some years but as I said this year at
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  Speaker 3: the moment no we haven't seen anything along those lines fortunately.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Mating's just around the corner as well so while there
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: may be a few concerns when grass perks up the
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  Speaker 2: way it does it also means that you can get
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  Speaker 2: a bit of feed into the girls right?
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  Speaker 3: Oh look 100% and you know I guess the amount
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  Speaker 3: of baleage and silage that's left you know for supplementary
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  Speaker 3: feed is it's pretty thin on the ground at the
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  Speaker 3: moment so And, you know, it does help that we
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  Speaker 3: are able to get more grass into the cows at
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  Speaker 3: the moment. And it certainly makes a big difference. And obviously,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: you know, the few warm days, I know in some
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  Speaker 3: cases we were probably complaining it was a little bit
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  Speaker 3: too warm. But, you know, those warm days just make
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  Speaker 3: such a difference. Just a demeanour of people and animal,
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  Speaker 3: you know, so much happier than being stuck in the
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  Speaker 3: deluge that we were for so long.
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  Speaker 1: Tayling, how's it been going from your guys' perspective? Nothing
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  Speaker 1: out of the ordinary?
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  Speaker 3: No, nothing out of the ordinary. Things have been ticking
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  Speaker 3: along well. Obviously, there's been a huge number of lambs
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  Speaker 3: tailed over the last sort of 10 days or so,
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  Speaker 3: ever since the weather changed. People were having to do
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: all sorts of things to try and get tailing done
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  Speaker 3: before then, just because things were getting so muddy. I
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: think we spoke about that a couple of weeks ago,
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  Speaker 3: putting carpet down and rubber matting and all sorts of things,
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  Speaker 3: bringing them to the yards in smaller mobs. So it
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  Speaker 3: was a heck of a lot of extra work compared
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  Speaker 3: to normal. And then we've had a couple of good weeks,
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  Speaker 3: which have made a huge difference. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think things are well on track. Nothing out of the
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  Speaker 3: ordinary again. And on the cow side, I guess the
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  Speaker 3: one issue that we have had actually last Friday on
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  Speaker 3: our BVD bulk milk test, we actually had five farms
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  Speaker 3: come up as positive for BVD, which.
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  Speaker 3: We've gone for a long time. Well, actually, the last
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  Speaker 3: couple of years, we might have had one or two cases.
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  Speaker 3: And prior to that, we actually went for a number
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  Speaker 3: of years where we didn't have any.
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  Speaker 2: So, look, it's just a.
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  Speaker 3: Reminder to be vigilant around BVD and making sure the
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  Speaker 3: bulls that you're sourcing, they are BVD vaccinated and tested. Really,
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  Speaker 3: really important. And if you're not testing things in milk,
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  Speaker 3: really good idea to do that. And for the beef guys,
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  Speaker 3: really good idea. You can get it done through the
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  Speaker 3: MBOVA scheme. where they'll test animals for M. bovis and
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  Speaker 3: you can get some BVD testing done at the same time. So, look,
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  Speaker 3: it's a disease that's still hanging around. You know, it's
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  Speaker 3: still causing problems. And, yeah, it's just a reminder to everybody,
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  Speaker 3: just make sure you get that testing done.
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  Speaker 1: NSVets, how do people get in touch, Morgan?
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  Speaker 3: Look, best way to do it is just pick up
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  Speaker 3: the phone, give us a call on 2025636 here at
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  Speaker 3: Riversdale or 2497039 at our TNL branch.
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  Speaker 1: Good on you, Morgie. Enjoy the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Will do, Andy. You have a good one.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Morgan Green of NSVET.
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  Speaker 2: So I've never seen a correlation of a Black Eyed
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  Speaker 2: Peas song through to issues of cattle.
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  Speaker 1: But there you go. Lumps, humps, they're all the same,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I suppose. Robert Greer's up next. This is the muster.