How are your ruminants digesting their food?

If you have cattle, sheep or goats on your lifestyle block then you have some ruminant animals on your hands.

Health checks for sheep and cattle

If any of your sheep or cattle seem to be unwell, it can be useful to give your vet a description of the problem by doing a basic health check before you contact them.

Conformation - Focus on feet

Ruminant animals must be able to get around comfortably on their feet so they can eat.

Old pets and livestock: Part Two: Euthanasia

We all have special animals on the farm. They might be dogs or cats, ponies or horses, cattle or pigs. When we’ve shared their lives and enjoyed their company for years, we get very fond of them

Old pets and livestock: Part One: Keeping them happy

Stiff joints, teeth problems, loss of strength and energy. To those of you who are getting on a bit, this may sound familiar.

Doing a basic health check - horses and dogs

If one of your horses or dogs seems to be unwell, it can be useful to examine it carefully

Mycoplasma bovis

These are words to strike fear into the heart of many farmers. However, as lifestyle farmers, there are far fewer risks for you and your cattle than there are for many commercial dairy farmers.

Conformation - a Guide

The way an animal is constructed is known as its conformation.

Being Ready for Foot & Mouth Disease

Being ready for a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak is just as important for lifestyle farms as it is for large-scale farms

An outbreak of FMD in New Zealand would seriously impact our economy and cause major disruption for anyone involved in primary industries, including lifestyle farmers, regardless of how few stock they have.

Shearing sheep and goats – how to minimise stress

When you shear a sheep or a goat, you remove its weather-proofing. After all, fleece is warm when it's cold, it prevents sunburn on clear sunny days and it's windproof and water-proof.

Internal parasites in cattle, sheep and goats – an update

In recent years, a lot of progress has been made in understanding how to control worm burdens in livestock.

Watch out for nitrate poisoning!

Livestock farmers should be careful when allowing their animals to graze any regrowth in pastures that are recovering from drought.

Refugia, what it is and why it's important

The word 'refugia' seemed to appear out of the blue a few years ago and was used by veterinarians and parasitologists when talking to farmers about worms (internal parasites) in sheep and in cattle.

More farm animal zoonoses (diseases we can catch from farm animals)

In the third article in Marjorie Orr's series on zoonoses, we look at diseases including salmonellosis, yersiniosis, ringworm, leptospirosis and scabby mouth.

Farm animal zoonoses (diseases we can catch from farm animals)

  We should be aware that there are a few diseases of livestock that can spread to humans.  These are called zoonoses, and many of them are particularly common in spring.

Leptospirosis

Thirty years ago leptospirosis was one of the most common zoonoses in NZ with over 400 human cases a year.

Livestock 101

In this article Clive Dalton looks at the pros and cons of keeping different types of livestock. If you're thinking of getting livestock for the first time, this article is a great place to start!

Acetonaemia (ketosis)

Acetonaemia is known as ketosis in cows and sleepy sickness (or pregnancy toxaemia or twin lamb disease) in ewes.  Acetonaemia in cows is fairly common, especially in high-producing cows in early lactation. The best cows are most at risk.

Livestock units

How many stock should you carry on your block? This is not an easy question to answer.

Disbudding - make it humane

"Disbudding" of calves and kids means removing the very early developing horn base to prevent horn growth.

Rhododendron poisoning

Let's hope you never have to deal with rhododendron poisoning.  The signs in sheep and goats include spectacular vomiting and intense pain.  A few hours after eating rhododendron, the animal is in agony, rumen heaving, and it's plastering the shed walls with green vomit.

Nitrate poisoning an autumn risk

Watch out for nitrate poisoning when the autumn rains come.

Livestock appreciate shelter from bad weather

Livestock can usually cope fairly well with either rain or wind or cold temperatures.

Grazing the long acre in winter

The "long acre" often comes to the rescue of many stock during winter as bonus feed that has all been eaten out on the block. 

Winter cold and rain cause animal stress

When pet owners are sitting by their heaters in winter, they should not forget their tethered pets outside or animals in kennels and runs.

Winter feeding - pasture

Good quality pasture is generally the best feed for stock, and surplus autumn pasture can be rationed for feeding into winter.

Supplementary feeding in winter

When there is insufficient pasture for livestock, alternative feeds must be provided. The most common of these is hay. Other common supplements include concentrate pellets and grain.

What do you do with your livestock when pasture runs out?

What can you do when you're running out of pasture for sheep and cattle and there’s not a lot of supplementary feed around?

Fireworks and animals

The fireworks displays around 5th November will be noisy, colourful and dramatic. Most people will love them.

The fireworks displays around 5th November will be noisy, colourful and dramatic. Most people will love them. But for countless animals, they will be terrifying, and there will be accidents and injuries and even deaths as a result.

A bit of forward planning and preparation could make sure your family pets and livestock are kept safe. And we can all help ensure that the animals in our community don’t suffer fireworks-related accidents.

Firework displays have always been a feature of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere but they don’t translate well in the South.

Here in New Zealand, it’s springtime in November. It’s the breeding season - farm animals and horses have their young at foot and many birds are nesting.

It’s just the wrong time of year for lots of sudden and unusual sights and sounds in the dark!

Fireworks frighten animals

• The loud screeches and explosions and the bright flashing lights of fireworks are very frightening for animals.
• Terrified cats and dogs will try to run away or hide, and they may get lost or injured or killed on the roads.
• Frightened livestock will also try to run away, and unless they are in a safe and secure place there is a very real risk they will get caught in fences, or break through fences or gates onto the roads
• Older animals and nervous animals can even suffer panic attacks or heart attacks!

What can you do to protect your family pets?

• On the night of the fireworks display, it might be possible to “farm out” your dogs and cats with someone they know.
• If this isn’t possible, they can be left indoors as long as they cannot see or hear the fireworks.
• The sights and sounds can be muffled by keeping interior doors and curtains closed, and by leaving a radio or the TV on fairly loud to provide distracting noise.
• If you have a nervous dog or cat, a very old pet or a pet with a heart problem, talk to your veterinarian before the next display. He or she might be able to supply a light sedative for the animal during high-risk periods.

Make sure your pets have collars on

• Your dog’s registration disc should be attached to its collar.
• Cat collars should be labelled with a contact phone number and they should of course have an elastic insert to prevent strangling if they get hooked up.
• Then if your pet should go astray you can be contacted promptly.

What about livestock?

• All livestock are liable to be frightened by fireworks.
• The animals probably most at risk are horses and ponies (particularly foals and horses with a flighty nature), and deer.
• They can be panicked by the screeches, explosions and flashes of fireworks, and there is a real risk of serious injury if they blunder into fences or through gates, over bluffs or into ditches.
• The consequences are likely to be particularly serious if they escape onto the road, where they can be injured or killed, or cause accidents involving pedestrians and motorists.
• Anyone who has livestock close to a fireworks display should move their animals to a safe place beforehand.
• This means a secure well-fenced paddock well away from the display.
• Alternatively, horses could be stabled for the night, or an old sensible horse could be borrowed as a paddock companion for a few days before and during the event.
• It is very important that if livestock cannot be moved away from the sight or sound of the fireworks someone stays with them throughout the event to make sure they come to no harm.

What about birds?

• Wild birds can be frightened off their nests and so too can domestic birds, so their eggs get cold and the chicks die.
• Roosting birds can be frightened off their perches, and migrating birds can be frightened off course. In poor light, they are then very vulnerable to accidents.

Suggestions for firework display organisers

• It can be very helpful if the organisers of firework displays give the neighbours advance warning.
• Leaflets in letter boxes can be effective.
• For bigger displays, a notice can be placed in a local shop window or in the public notices column of the local newspaper.
• When the organisers know there are a lot of vulnerable animals such as mares and foals in the neighbourhood, they could perhaps select fireworks that explode close to the ground and cut out those that make the loudest bangs and screeches.

Then … enjoy the fireworks!
 

When you have done all you can to make sure your animals are safe during any fireworks display, you can relax and have fun without worrying that the sights and sounds are terrifying animals.

Then you deserve to enjoy the show!

Johne's disease - Overview

You might well have heard of Johne’s disease because it’s a common problem in ruminants.  But even if you’ve heard of it, you may not know much about it.