Aftermath of the heat and drought on the cows

[Princess Pooper]

I'm interested in what health issues people have noticed in their cows that they think can be attributed to the heat and drought earlier in the year in Britain and other parts of Europe where neither we nor the cows are used to it. Our herd does not calve in a tight block but around 40% including the heifers calve in Aug/Sept, another 35% in Oct/Nov and an extended tail through to end of Feb. In our small herd we have noticed three things.
1) lots more New Forest Disease in the summer - mainly in dry cows and in calf hfrs who were down on our dry cow grazing next to the river. Our vet said they had a massive increase in cases this year. Many of our baby calves in Aug/Sept also had crusty eyes, not inflamed or red or even really weepy, just gummy, which he thought was a milder version, all calves recovered fine without treatment by about 6 weeks.
2) Increased absorbed foetuses mainly in cows due to calve Feb/Mar. These came back PD+ in July/Aug after non-returns to service but have since been seen bulling and have been manually PD'd negative (now all culled). One of the cows went right off her milk in the hottest week.
3) Increase in minor calf deformities. In 66 calvings we have had 4 with undershot ('parrot') jaws and several with mild cataracts (blue colouration of eyes, but not noticeably impaired vision), one (no cataract) with a slightly 'boggle eye' on one side. These were in both Simm and HF sired calves, from both cows and heifers, the Simm we have used several years previously with no issues. We have previously had possibly one undershot jaw in the last 10 years. Calves otherwise completely healthy other than one HF calf (fortunately a bull) had both and also was a poor doer and died.

As we are naïve for BVD we have been sufficiently concerned to run some BVD tests under vet guidance all of which have found nothing and our (experienced cattle) vet has no other suggestions. Other than BVD, bluetongue is the only other disease that seems to be associated with cataracts, but there are several papers that show an association with hot weather, late summer calves and possible nutritional deficiencies (possible vit A).
Anyone else noticed similar? The full blown New Forest eye and abortions not really a surprise, but the calf deformities are interesting.

 

[som farmer]

virtually nothing held to natural/ai from mid june through to end july, n forest eye been really bad this year. cows are in good condition, as we fed from early june.
Just having heard silage made over £60 ton in devon this week, I wish we had sold the cows and the silage!!!!!!!!

 

[Clay52]

What sort of heat and drought are you talking.

 

[William Mellor]

Had 6 cows pd+ for early next year suddenly come bullling late August-September time, calve all year round so served them to beef semen and all pd+ for June next year onwards just put it down to heat stress

 

[jondear]

We had the same more than usual returns notice them now riding every 3 weeks .They either held and lost it or never came bulling .Just put it down to heat and drought.
Although we are now investigating bvd having never had it before.Dont know where it's come from closed herd for 20 years.

 

[Beef farmer]

We started calving 2 weeks earlier than planed start date. Put down to heat/tb test.
Positive is we had to feed the cows well, so all calved very cleanly and in great shape. Biggest negative is the drought cost us 400 quid a cow to try and minimize the health issues with them. It worked, but blimey the bank account knows about it.

 

[livestock 1]

All our cattle showed skittering out in the beginning of September after we had rain for a while on and off. We fluked/wormed everything then which cleared this problem up. This was out of character as we usually only fluke/worm in November then again ten weeks after housing. We had worm problems with the sheep and also some showed fluke pokes at the same time so I’m assuming it’s down to the droughted ground greening up increasing fluke and worms. The other issue was a dozey calf that wouldn’t suck for a fortnight could be down to a vitamin deficiency due to drought but that can happen anytime

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Non, I'm bouncing along.
Still got cattle out now. Farm record.

Same again next year please.

 

[Ducati899]

Non, I'm bouncing along.
Still got cattle out now. Farm record.

Same again next year please.

I’d take the same again as long as i can get a nice big early cut of grass,no health issues with cows as of yet

 

[vantage]

I’d take the same again as long as i can get a nice big early cut of grass,no health issues with cows as of yet

I'd agree apart from me not having the big early cut which is going to prove a problem.

 

[More to life]

I’d take the same again as long as i can get a nice big early cut of grass,no health issues with cows as of yet

No health issues you say

 

[More to life]

Fertility was very poor for two months body condition fell,happily there bouncing along now with good milk yields from the extra purchased feed.

 

[Ducati899]

No health issues you say

Apart from the obvious [emoji85]

 

[lazy farmer]

Here we have had ibr rumbling for yrs this yr the 1st calf heifers were hit really hard. We lost one and ended up vaccinating the herd which soon sorted the issue. Though our empty rate on those heifers was hideous.
On the other hand the empty rate on the cows and overall was the lowest we have ever had. We put this down to bringing the cows back onto the yard at lunch times and feeding them well.production levels by then were very similar to last yr.( though the cows peaking lower may also have helped even though they didn’t drop as quickly)
we had a few bad eyes nothing serious. I would rather not have another yr like that soon.
@Clay52 i realise that our droughts/heat are no where near as serious as yours and I have no doubt you have much you could teach us. But these things are relative and it has been a big learning curve for both us and our cows.

 

[sidjon]

We had more health problems and loss of yield due to the snow in the spring, it can be that dry every year, cause it's so much easier to deal with that 3 foot of snow during calving

 

[Devon lad]

We had more health problems and loss of yield due to the snow in the spring, it can be that dry every year, cause it's so much easier to deal with that 3 foot of snow during calving

Same for us, cows held well over breeding, yield is up but not as much as you’d expect from feeding 3x normal concentrate and silage. Protein back due to lack of grass, pastures very burnt and some have never really fully recovered this autumn. Kale a failure so having to out winter r1’s on bales cake and a little bit of August sown Winfred hybrid rape. Hopefully there’s enough energy/protein for them.

 

[Clay52]

Here we have had ibr rumbling for yrs this yr the 1st calf heifers were hit really hard. We lost one and ended up vaccinating the herd which soon sorted the issue. Though our empty rate on those heifers was hideous.
On the other hand the empty rate on the cows and overall was the lowest we have ever had. We put this down to bringing the cows back onto the yard at lunch times and feeding them well.production levels by then were very similar to last yr.( though the cows peaking lower may also have helped even though they didn’t drop as quickly)
we had a few bad eyes nothing serious. I would rather not have another yr like that soon.
@Clay52 i realise that our droughts/heat are no where near as serious as yours and I have no doubt you have much you could teach us. But these things are relative and it has been a big learning curve for both us and our cows.

I didn’t know some of you guys were experiencing drought. I asked the serverity not to compare to what we get here, more for my own interest.

You are right it is relative. Cows do become acclimatized to a point as well.

 

[lazy farmer]

I didn’t know some of you guys were experiencing drought. I asked the serverity not to compare to what we get here, more for my own interest.

You are right it is relative. Cows do become acclimatized to a point as well.

Apologies. Countrywide we had a very dry spell June/July. It then broke in certain areas whilst other ares where dry right into September. Some area will have caught up with Ground water levels others including ours have a looooong way to go. For example yesterday I took our loader tractor out into paddocks to push in wooden stakes where they had rotted of during the season. The tractor barely made a mark and we are on heavy clay. Normally i wouldn’t dream of even taking the quad out in December!

 

[Ducati899]

Apologies. Countrywide we had a very dry spell June/July. It then broke in certain areas whilst other ares where dry right into September. Some area will have caught up with Ground water levels others including ours have a looooong way to go. For example yesterday I took our loader tractor out into paddocks to push in wooden stakes where they had rotted of during the season. The tractor barely made a mark and we are on heavy clay. Normally i wouldn’t dream of even taking the quad out in December!

I’ve been in the fields today with tractor not making a mark,never known it like this in the 23 years of being here

 

[Princess Pooper]

Our annual total for 2018 is now standing at 288mm of rain, less than 12 inches.