Johns!

[Martyn]

We have had a Johns plans in place for a few years now with whole herd testing ruffle three times a year, depending on tb testing, we have served all cows to beef until they are in their four location and we have a clear johns free cow and then breed to dairy. Hopefully also means we only breed from cows with good longjevity. Any cow that has come up at possible johns, or johns positive have been keep in separate calving shed and any thing with plus high SCC, poor feet etc has been culled when possible, think we have three positives on the farm of God top I'm my head. All dairy calves reared on powder, Iv only seen two cows with actual clear signs of johns and this was many years ago.

I will be pleased when one day we have no johns at all but it's a long term project, an I'm aware than cows with it may not show the signs but have lower immunity etc and it's like any disease has a cost to the business.

I now see that our milk buyer has come inline with the whole johns eradication program with the rest of the industry, although we have our own plan feels like enougher paperwork exercise to jump through and keeps many off farm staff in paid jobs.

We have a farm secretary who comes in quarterly and does our VAT, she has 40 plus clients a lot are dairy farmers and she told me recently only ourselves and one other client have johns milk recording, she sees all the invoices, she said she often finds letters from milk buyers wedged in envelopes half read. There are also a lot of people who buy weekly out of market without any johns data, some incalf to dairy again, and there are many industry people advising to breed from dairy heifers to gain fasted genetic potential when you don't know true knowledge of their johns status until 3/4 lactation. Iv spoken to a couple of large dairy guys who just say it's all a farse, some who sell Bulls to big AI ect.

Overall has the industry got its head in the sand over johns?! How many people are testing, have a plan? I'm not into lining vets/consultants pockets ect but do think we are far to behind with disease control within the UK. What's actually happening in the farm yard?

 

[som farmer]

we do quarterly testing as part of our milk contract

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

The industry and the government have their head in the sand. It should be mandatory in my opinion to test and control Johnes, IBR and BVD in the same way as they are trying to control bTB but they need to be more proactive!
Rant over sorry

 

[Princess Pooper]

We have worked to our control plan for about 8 years now but it's not perfect as we have cramped facilities. Closed herd and used to test every cow 3x yearly, now reduced that a little as we have only a low incidence. We did have to buy in at one point due to TB and those cows are treated as higher risk. Dam's colostrum or recorded donor dam, then powder for all dairy replacements. Can't have a separate calving yard for higher risk cows but we run exactly the opposite breeding replacement strategy. We only breed (sexed semen) replacements from the very front of our calving, which are from heifers and mainly younger OR more fertile cows which are remaining at the front of the calving period. Even if these animals are infected then they are less likely to infective ie spreading the disease in faeces as this is more common in 3rd - 5th lactation animals. So it is also less likely that a dairy calf is born into the yard which is being shared by an infective cow, as any older/less fertile cows tend to be later in the calving and put to beef. If we find that we have frozen colostrum from a cow that then gives a medium or high result then we mark it up as not for replacements. We try not to let replacements into fields that cows have grazed until they are yearlings and do not spread fym /slurry on the heifer grazing. Any cow that shows clinical signs is down the road (only ever had one although have had a couple more that had 2 high tests and were earmarked as culls for other reasons anyway). We try and test all culls just before they go. Our dairy is now insisting on at least one whole herd test a year (a bit pointless on its own!) and a control plan in place which is making some of the big herds squeal a bit about the cost but we have been doing it for years. At last, thanks to Dairy UK mainly, some farmers are being forced to wake up to the issue.

 

[vantage]

The industry and the government have their head in the sand. It should be mandatory in my opinion to test and control Johnes, IBR and BVD in the same way as they are trying to control bTB but they need to be more proactive!
Rant over sorry

Well if they accomplish control in the same way as bTB we have a snowbalłs chance in hełl!l

 

[AGN76]

We have worked to our control plan for about 8 years now but it's not perfect as we have cramped facilities. Closed herd and used to test every cow 3x yearly, now reduced that a little as we have only a low incidence. We did have to buy in at one point due to TB and those cows are treated as higher risk. Dam's colostrum or recorded donor dam, then powder for all dairy replacements. Can't have a separate calving yard for higher risk cows but we run exactly the opposite breeding replacement strategy. We only breed (sexed semen) replacements from the very front of our calving, which are from heifers and mainly younger OR more fertile cows which are remaining at the front of the calving period. Even if these animals are infected then they are less likely to infective ie spreading the disease in faeces as this is more common in 3rd - 5th lactation animals. So it is also less likely that a dairy calf is born into the yard which is being shared by an infective cow, as any older/less fertile cows tend to be later in the calving and put to beef. If we find that we have frozen colostrum from a cow that then gives a medium or high result then we mark it up as not for replacements. We try not to let replacements into fields that cows have grazed until they are yearlings and do not spread fym /slurry on the heifer grazing. Any cow that shows clinical signs is down the road (only ever had one although have had a couple more that had 2 high tests and were earmarked as culls for other reasons anyway). We try and test all culls just before they go. Our dairy is now insisting on at least one whole herd test a year (a bit pointless on its own!) and a control plan in place which is making some of the big herds squeal a bit about the cost but we have been doing it for years. At last, thanks to Dairy UK mainly, some farmers are being forced to wake up to the issue.

Impressive

 

[Spudley]

I'm trying to buy some cows at the moment and theres a big herd sale coming up locally so i rang the auctioneer to ask the johnes status (unknown), i expressed my disappointment and was told it wasn't in the seller's interest to test as what would happen if it was found.
Won't be buying those cattle then.

 

[Martyn]

I'm trying to buy some cows at the moment and theres a big herd sale coming up locally so i rang the auctioneer to ask the johnes status (unknown), i expressed my disappointment and was told it wasn't in the seller's interest to test as what would happen if it was found.
Won't be buying those cattle then.

Shocking, we have purchased heifers privatley in the past and done bulk milk samples on herd and bloods on heifers. Only from long standing closed herds, never had a bad result yet, we try and be closed but Tb and moving farm has ment weve had to buy, but havent for 18 months now and will try not to again

 

[Water Wheel]

The industry and the government have their head in the sand. It should be mandatory in my opinion to test and control Johnes, IBR and BVD in the same way as they are trying to control bTB but they need to be more proactive!
Rant over sorry

It's up to US to sort these out.
Very disappointed in the low level of interest in BVDFree England , BVD is easy compared to Johnes.
If we cann't be bothered why should the government?

 

[Princess Pooper]

It's up to US to sort these out.
Very disappointed in the low level of interest in BVDFree England , BVD is easy compared to Johnes.
If we cann't be bothered why should the government?

Agree it is up to the industry - plenty of us have been plodding on on our own but there are too many not bothering, hence might need to become compulsory.

 

[dowcow]

I've been concerned about Johnes for a few years, but my parents always insisted we didn't have it. I was just concerned that we could do some of the 'easy' risk management tasks such as not using milk from dodgy old high SCC cows to feed our replacements, but they told me I was worrying over nothing. I just wanted a test to confirm we had no Johnes. Our milk contract made us test recently anyway, and bingo, we have some Johnes positives, although at a very low level overall. So now we are bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

As for BVD, we have been testing all calves with tags for a few years. We lost a lot of calves one winter which prompted that. The bulk tank tests were always clear, but we had calves test positive with BVD which were removed. Since removing BVD calves, we have not lost a single calf in over a year. The difference has been massive. We can look through the herd register and see the difference. Nothing goes off holding until it goes to market for page after page. We have had small pneumonia incidents this last few years, and usually this has been at times when a BVD test for a calf in the housing comes back positive.

Even though we keep a closed herd, and our cows aren't BVD positive, the occasional case can come back which we put down to coming from over the hedge. So we keep testing calves even though now we rarely get a positive.

We only have a small herd, and it is unrealistic to expect a larger herd to reach a 0% calf attrition rate over a year, but if you don't test then I can certainly say you will be losing a lot of replacements and sales through something that is pee easy to test for and control. BVD control is a no-brainer.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

I used to test for johnes. I guess I fluked a low rate by long term front loading and use of sexed. Exactly as the princess describes above.

Stopped testing during the last milk price drop as I was only getting clear tests by then and spending needed to be questioned.
So my status now would be unknown I guess.

BVD control been in place for over 20 years. Still when sampling I get been in contact results. So would welcome a compulsion. It would need to cover the beef sector as well in my case though.