Dairy Cattle

• At W&M we offer bull fertility testing by experienced BCVA-trained vets giving you peace of mind before the mating season starts. We also test a significant number of bulls prior to sale as this offers buyers the security that the bull has been assessed by a vet.
• A BBSE involves a clinical examination of the bull for any hereditary conditions, injuries which may impact breeding and general suitability for mating a bunch of cows. We then perform semen analysis using the latest equipment allowing us to examine the sperm down to the individual level.
• You might think that if a bull worked well the previous year, he will work again. However our experience would warn against making this assumption. We see a number of bulls each year who for various reasons will fail despite passing well the previous year.
• We advise testing bulls at least 8-10 weeks prior to mating starting, as this allows enough time for some issues to resolve should a bull fail for one of these reasons.  It also gives you plenty of time to make an educated purchase should the worst happen and the bull terminally fail.
• All bulls tested will be issued with a BCVA BBSE Certificate for your records or for future purchasers if testing pre-sale.
• We also offer a semen analysis service and AI.

• Mastitis treatment and control is a significant factor in dairy cow welfare, in addition to being one of the largest costs to the UK dairy industry. At Wright and Morten we believe that prevention is better than cure. Using a combination of methods such as bacteriology on milk samples and software (Total Vet), we can understand when cows are becoming infected and the source of the problem. This enables the development a farm specific approach to reduce further cases of mastitis occurring.
• Quarter Pro is an initiative to continually improve mastitis control and udder health on your farm, thereby improving cow welfare, producing milk of a higher quality (and more saleable milk) and less antibiotic use.
• Through our links with Nottingham University we are able to deliver the Mastitis Control plan. The Mastitis Control Plan is a nationally and internationally recognised approach to mastitis prevention and control in dairy herds. The plan creates an achievable set of action points to tackle clinical mastitis and high somatic cell counts, which are relevant to your farm.

Calves are the future of your herd and rearing costs account for one of the highest costs on dairy farms. Wright and Morten Vets are keen to work with your herd to optimise calf health, growth rates and productivity. We can help you to achieve full potential with your calves through a range of services whether you run a dairy farm, beef suckler herd or calf rearing unit. 

The services we offer include:

• Health planning services: We can create tailored calf health plans which contain more detail than the usual Red Tractor health plans. These will focus on timings of preventative measures and optimising the health of your animals.
• Colostrum management and Passive transfer assessments: With a simple blood sample we can check in house whether your calves have received enough immunity from their colostrum. If there are any issues we can work with you to ascertain whether it is colostrum quality, quantity or timing that is leading to the failure of passive transfer and then help you to overcome some of the hurdles.
• Housing assessments and advice: Whether you are having issues with pneumonia or scours or simply wanting to make modifications to sheds (or build an entirely new one) we can offer advice on important areas to consider and can help with the calculations required to ensure all your calves' needs are met. We have a wind speed meter and laser measurer to assist us with these assessments.
• Pneumonia outbreak diagnostics: We offer a variety of options for investigating pneumonia on top of the housing assessments. These include bronchoalveolar lavage (BALs), nasopharyngeal swabs, post mortems and lung scanning. The first three are important to identify which pathogens are causing disease and allow us to tailor vaccination plans. Lung scanning can be used to assess severity, prognosis and identify early cases in the midst of an outbreak. 
• Scour diagnostics: For younger calves we have access to snap tests which provide results within 10 minutes as to the cause of the neonatal scour - these help to identify crypto, coronavirus, rotavirus and E. coli. For older calves we can do in house cocci, worm and fluke counts. We are happy to provide advice on when and how often to sample as well as treatment options where needed.
• Disbudding (including knock down disbuds): In addition to regular disbudding, we offer a ‘knock down disbudding service, which involves sedating the calves for a short period of time, so they fall asleep and therefore not aware of the disbudding procedure. This procedure is stress-free for the calves.
• Farm specific vaccination protocols and a vaccination service
• Castrations
• Growth rate monitoring

• With anthelmintic and flukicide resistance on the rise, it is more important than ever to know when it is the right time to treat and with what product. We are focussed on the future of your herd and the environment that you farm in – our approach to parasite control seeks to ensure maximum productivity, health and welfare for your herd, whilst keeping the threat of anthelmintic resistance at bay
• Your results along with tailored parasite control advice will be ready within 24 hours of us receiving your sample.
• At Wright and Morten we use a FECPAK machine, which involves a digital microscope. Using this system has allowed us to increase the accuracy, standardise the procedure and, as it is cloud based and records information, we can review your testing from earlier in the year or the previous year, allowing us to monitor worm burdens over a longer timeframe.

• Mobility scoring allows the early detection of mobility issues, and enables mobility trends to be monitored. Early detection, when combined with prompt effective treatment will reduce the severity of lesions, maximise treatment success and reduce the development of chronic changes within the foot. In addition to lameness presenting as one of the largest welfare issues affecting the UK dairy industry, it is also one of the biggest issues affecting productivity; therefore early detection and prompt treatment are paramount.
• We have a team of ROMS accredited mobility scorers and can arrange mobility scoring to suit your times of milking.

• Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is a practical method of assessing the body reserves of individual cows, using the areas of the loin and the tail head. It is measured using a score 1 to 5, with 1 being extremely thin and 5 being overfat. We are more than happy to assist you in performing this if you would like to get it implemented on your holding. It is important to always have the same person scoring to allow for direct comparisons to be made between scores.
• Dairy cows mobilise fat during early lactation to meet the substantial demands of milk production. Body condition scoring can be used to assess the impact of negative energy balance in early lactation. By keeping the cows in the correct body condition, health and welfare problems can be reduced and good productivity achieved. Body condition scoring can be combined with other tasks on the farm e.g. during fertility visits, mobility scoring and TB testing.
• Individual quarterly body condition scoring is a great way to monitor your herd. By following changes throughout the year, adjustments can be made based on upcoming production stage or lifestyle. Critically we do not want any animals that are outliers nor do we want large swings in scores.

• Investigating the cause(s) of pneumonia is paramount in tailoring a treatment and vaccination protocol for your herd. We are able to identify the cause(s) of pneumonia using a variety of sampling techniques including BALs (Broncheoalveolar lavage), Nasal Swabs, Paired Serology and Post Mortem Investigation. Other factors such as colostrum management and housing are also taken into account when creating your treatment and management plan. We are able to measure temperature, humidity and wind speed in addition to using smoke bombs to aid measurement of ventilation.
• We are now able to offer a calf lung scanning service. Scanning a small proportion of calves’ lungs can help to identify whether you are suffering from subclinical pneumonia already. The procedure only takes a couple of minutes per calf and can help greatly in stopping widespread outbreaks and allowing treatment at the earliest possible stage. If you have a surplus of heifer calves and are thinking about breeding decisions, using lung scanning can add to your decision making process. Calves with damaged lungs will not grow as quickly and will be more prone to pneumonia as older animals, so may not make the best breeding stock. Give us a call at the practice if you want to discuss monitoring your calves in this way.