BVD.

No, sadly not as I have found to my expense in the last 2 years despite being a closed herd. Everything eligible now vaccinated and all calves tag and tested. I would strongly advise anyone who doesn’t vaccinate to at least do an occasional bulk tank sample or to tag and test calves so that you nip a problem in the bud if it arises. It’s quite soul destroying having to get rid of what looks like a perfectly healthy calf out of your best cow. In my case it didn’t stop at one either.

Sad to say that our vets are also struggling to convince some local farmers to vaccinate despite finding PI’s within the herd.:banghead:
 

xmilkr

Member
How did it wipe you out out of interest? Fortunately always tested clear and vaccinated for it also here
Eight steers from 4 miles away broke into our farm while we were in milking, told us they had put them in paddock next to dairy unit, said none came into contact with our cattle, had to believe them until some started to abort and die, within four years we lost over 400 head, hard to believe in this day and age.
 

LTH

Member
Livestock Farmer
Eight steers from 4 miles away broke into our farm while we were in milking, told us they had put them in paddock next to dairy unit, said none came into contact with our cattle, had to believe them until some started to abort and die, within four years we lost over 400 head, hard to believe in this day and age.
Did you get any kind of compensation or claim from the farm they came from or no proof to say it was thar
 

Ducati899

Member
Location
north dorset
Eight steers from 4 miles away broke into our farm while we were in milking, told us they had put them in paddock next to dairy unit, said none came into contact with our cattle, had to believe them until some started to abort and die, within four years we lost over 400 head, hard to believe in this day and age.


we had a steer get in with our heifers from neighbours couple years back,thing was no taller than my chest but apparently over 24 months old but had never really done and they didn’t know why,it looked sick is the best way I’d describe it.
Anyway thought nothing of it until heifers started calving and chucking the odd positive calf,all heifers were tag & tested as calves and obviously clear and we had them re-tested once the positive calves were born and they were again coming back negative
 

xmilkr

Member
Did you get any kind of compensation or claim from the farm they came from or no proof to say it was thar
No compensation for loss of cattle, found four years later from a couple that drove them out of their drive and held them until owners arrive and walked them through the feed passage past the noses of our milkers, owners denied everything.
 

LTH

Member
Livestock Farmer
No compensation for loss of cattle, found four years later from a couple that drove them out of their drive and held them until owners arrive and walked them through the feed passage past the noses of our milkers, owners denied everything.
some folk just don’t give a sh!t
 

xmilkr

Member
No compensation for loss of cattle, found four years later from a couple that drove them out of their drive and held them until owners arrive and walked them through the feed passage past the noses of our milkers, owners denied everything.
One of the reasons l came on the dairy site was to find if anybody on here knew of any cattle dying of BVD up to now l have only heard of the odd cow dying, non on the scale we had, yes l will agree it would be more deadly with us being an unvaccinated herd and a closed herd for over 20years but after being told by experts from all over the British isles BVD will not kill your cows, why???
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
BVD should not kill an adult cow, only the new calf which may survive as a PI and infect other cows. We tag and test but you can do batches of calves to see whether they have been exposed to it in the herd. Those calves will usually be healthy and recovered from the infection. Problem is finding what infected them.
 

xmilkr

Member
No matter what your status or how much testing you do ,I beleive everyone should still vaccinate.
Please test and get BVD free.
Untill the country is BVD free, still vaccinate.
We are CHeCS Accredited for BVD but still vaccinate , the risks are just too great.
Entirely agree, the most simple way to eradicate BVD is to ban any animal being sold without a BVD free ticket. We were unvaccinated because for over 30 years we have sold pedigree cattle all over the world, most countries would not accept any animal vaccinated for anything even years ago S19.we were one of the first herds to become brucellosis free in the north of England, we kept our disease free status by keeping our herd closed no animal bought in for over20years.
 

xmilkr

Member
BVD should not kill an adult cow, only the new calf which may survive as a PI and infect other cows. We tag and test but you can do batches of calves to see whether they have been exposed to it in the herd. Those calves will usually be healthy and recovered from the infection. Problem is finding what infected them.
We were told BVD would not kill animals from vets all over the country even rang some of the Scottish lsles. com trying to rid the disease, three of our vets said the steers had caused the death of our cows by BVD. the other side took on the top BVD vet who said the cows were killed by BVD and some other disease,but the steers were not to blame.
 

Fergieman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
We were unvaccinated and nieve to bvd. Entered into SAC trial and found some pi youngstock. Tested everything, killed all pi's and continued to tag and test and started vaccination for bvd. Never knew where it came from, never lost any adult cattle but our calf losses where high with pneumonia. The herd health has been a lot better since then and alot less antibiotics used.
 

NoParticularPattern

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
We were unvaccinated and naive to BVD too. Brought one fresh heifer in from a neighbour as a bit of a favour and it spread through them like you’ve never seen. We tested everything, shot the PIs as soon as we found them- we shot 20 in a day once, strong looking creatures too- and have vaccinated ever since. We lost a few ailing cows because of it but they would likely have been finished off by anything I suspect. Pneumonia losses were eyewatering and led to us also vaccinating for IBR in the end. We were incredibly lucky that we found it early (I say we, I mean I. I’m taking the credit since I did the testing, the paperwork and the standing around watching them shoot PIs one after the other for weeks and weeks on end). We never had a PI make it off this farm into the heifers or back here to the main herd otherwise we would have been in a whole world of bother. We’ve been a completely closed herd ever since (as we always sodding were until that fateful favour!!).
 

xmilkr

Member
We were unvaccinated and nieve to bvd. Entered into SAC trial and found some pi youngstock. Tested everything, killed all pi's and continued to tag and test and started vaccination for bvd. Never knew where it came from, never lost any adult cattle but our calf losses where high with pneumonia. The herd health has been a lot better since then and alot less antibiotics used.
We had monthly milk checks for BVD. we were clear on every test we had, in the first eight weeks after the steers entered our farm we had three cows went sick and died, vet could not find what was wrong with them, two weeks later two of my highest yealders were due to calve, just did not look right they looked sick, that night they both calved very quickly then laid down, one died during the night the other one next day, two 14000 L cows dead in less than 24 hours, after that is was abort and die over the next four years.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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