Thoughts please

[lazy farmer]

Apart from not grazing calving has gone well.
very little mastitis none at all in the heifers. However we have around 8% with a blind quarters. I was unable to test seal the quarters in question before Christmas. Suggesting the problem had occurred earlier In their lives.
thoughts on what might have happened please. I have bought fly eartags this yr to see whether this is the problem.

 

[Wesley]

Apart from not grazing calving has gone well.
very little mastitis none at all in the heifers. However we have around 8% with a blind quarters. I was unable to test seal the quarters in question before Christmas. Suggesting the problem had occurred earlier In their lives.
thoughts on what might have happened please. I have bought fly eartags this yr to see whether this is the problem.

Kept them in different fields to normal? We’ve got ground we try to avoid keeping heifers on at certain times of the year for this very reason.

 

[lazy farmer]

Kept them in different fields to normal? We’ve got ground we try to avoid keeping heifers on at certain times of the year for this very reason.

No. I should say this is an on going issue. Teal sealant has removed the mastitis but it can’t stop what has already happened.

 

[som farmer]

we used to suffer with new forest eye, in the y/s, caused by flies, badly.

3 yrs ago fly tagged the y/s, end of problem, and no problem since, so normal practice now.

we have used liquid collodian, on hfrs, to seal teats, just dip the teats, lot easier than tubing them.

 

[Nathan818]

Apart from not grazing calving has gone well.
very little mastitis none at all in the heifers. However we have around 8% with a blind quarters. I was unable to test seal the quarters in question before Christmas. Suggesting the problem had occurred earlier In their lives.
thoughts on what might have happened please. I have bought fly eartags this yr to see whether this is the problem.

Do you notice much cross suckling in your calves? Could cause them to calve in with a blind quarter but no mastitis.

 

[dairydurham]

Apart from not grazing calving has gone well.
very little mastitis none at all in the heifers. However we have around 8% with a blind quarters. I was unable to test seal the quarters in question before Christmas. Suggesting the problem had occurred earlier In their lives.
thoughts on what might have happened please. I have bought fly eartags this yr to see whether this is the problem.

Mycoplasma ?

 

[More to life]

cross sucking is always my excuse

 

[Keep On]

Flies early on cause a fair bit of damage I reckon

 

[Blue.]

Had the same here,all calves reared till weaning in single hutches (so it definitely wasn’t cross suckling) ,I put it down to youngstock grazing wet land and lots of trees.

My youngstock we’re spoilt with bedding all through their lives,still happened,absolutely soul destroying when you have 25% or more come in with blind quarters,was one of the reasons I went to a flying herd.

 

[lazy farmer]

cross sucking is always my excuse

Ours are on ad-lib milk so cross sucking is not something we see a lot of or not at all.

 

[Devon lad]

I’ve fly sprayed and ivomeced my 12 month old heifers already to try to stop this problem but ours is also associated with a bad wart problem. But I think flies are the underlying issue. Since we don’t rear them close to a big river things have improved a slight bit. I’m not sure if out wintering on kale help as it’s meant to lock up iodine which might compromise immunity?

 

[Ducati899]

Ours are on ad-lib milk so cross sucking is not something we see a lot of or not at all.

What about once they’ve been weaned?

 

[Dave79]

Years ago I shut off a bit of rough grazing that our in calf heifers had access to, I felt we were getting a lots of warts and a few bling quarters and I felt it might be the rushes causing tiny cuts like paper cuts and then allowing infection in. Noticed a big difference the next year. Not sure if it’s applicable to your situation re grazing, but it made a difference to us.

 

[Martyn]

I would think we loose 8-10% most years and presumed it’s normal, had a group come this year at point of calving and they have a few blind quarters to.

 

[crashbox]

Flies early on cause a fair bit of damage I reckon

Do you mean in first year or second year?

 

[TheRanger]

I would think we loose 8-10% most years and presumed it’s normal, had a group come this year at point of calving and they have a few blind quarters to.

10% here this year. 8% completely bind and no obvious reason, 2% summer mastitis as in calf heifers.

Has been worse in the past, these had spot on every 6 weeks while on their second summer at grass but nothing in their first summer. I think that helped a bit.

 

[som farmer]

summer mastitis used to be a big problem, grazed hfrs on our higher ground, to try and avoid it.

along came decent fly spray, problem reduced, used to dip hfr teats in collodium, to seal them, but don't do that now.

and yet, no visible signs, we have a few hfrs 3/4 every year, this year one 2/4 !

And every year, we seem to 'see' a sucker, late on, usually a jer, or jerx. And with single pen rearing, xsuckling in calves, is not a problem, don't see it in year one, but once they start uddering up, that's when it starts, and often very hard to catch the culprit, which is usually the fattest one.

son used to help a dairy dealer, who said a quarter of all hfrs, were faulted, to a greater, or lesser degree, he would have been selling 20/30 a week. To be honest, l think he's right, whether through hard calvings, slow, light, 3/4, low milk, or just plain nasty, and the % that never got in calf, as he said, 'would you pay top money for one', no, 'but if homebred, you would keep it'.

 

[lazy farmer]

What about once they’ve been weaned?

Good question. Calves are away after weaning. so don’t get seen more than once a day but none of us remember seeing it.

 

[Cowski]

Interesting thread. We’ve struggled a bit with blind quarters in heifers in the past, crossed our minds to put nose spikes in the whole lot to avoid cross sucking but not keen on this. We catch quite a few when we serve as we part out bullers as they get served and they spend the night shouting for their friend if they suck. Last year we used garlic licks for flies to try to cut back on insecticide, definitely lost fewer quarters but not sure if we can put it down to that, we would hardly see any summer mastitis in heifers.

 

[Stinker]

We had 9 one year, all from the same bull. Could be genetic.