veterinary spend

[Jdunn55]

With moving vets and comparing costs between practices it has been a bit of an eye opener in terms of how much money is easily spent without batting an eyelid.

Would anyone mind comparing and maybe offering some pointers on how to perhaps save money on vets or perhaps I am already at the bottom end of spending (although I very much doubt it!)

Milking 90-100 cows and 20ish dry cows/close-up heifers aiming to be calving 10 per month every month

Youngstock would be
23 incalf heifers
25 bulling heifers
10 maiden heifers
35 heifer calves
10 bulls of various ages

Going forwards the aim is to have 5 heifers born per month and 5 limos but I'm a bit rubbish at using limo straws
Then the aim is to be selling 2-3 heifers fresh per month so rearing 60, keeping 30 for myself and selling 30.

Vaccinations:

• Bovilis BVD - £2.50/dose
  • February all heifers over 3 months given first dose
  • March all heifers given second dose and cows given booster
• Leptavoid h = £2/dose
  • heifers over 3 months given first dose in February
  • heifers given second dose and cows given booster in march
• Bovilis IBR = £2.60/dose
  • cows and heifers given booster in september
  • calves given first dose at 3 months old
  • calves given second dose at 6-9 months old then have a dose in september with rest of cows and heifers
• Bovigen scour/rotavec/fencovis = £8/cow
  • all cows and incalf heifers given a dose at dry off
• Bovalto respi 3 = £5.60/dose
  • 3 doses in total given to calves
    • 1 at 2 weeks old
    • 1 at 5 weeks old
    • 1 at 6 months old

Total spend on vaccinations (assuming 60 heifers/year)
BVD £700
Lepto £600
IBR £800
Bovigen scour £1,200
Pneumonia £1,000
Which makes a total of £4,300

Then routine wise
Drying off 8/month at £1/tube for sealant = £32/month or £400/year
Antibiotic tube would be about 25% of cows at absolute most so a box of ubrostar red would last me 12 months at £300
Metacam would be about 1 bottle every other month so about £250/year
Alamycin would be roughly 2 bottles per year so £50
Then the odd bit of misc antibiotics would be maybe £100 at most per year
Mastitis tubes would be 2 boxes a year so maybe £150ish
Anaesthetic would be £50 maybe
Spray about £100
Sync on non-cycling cows would be about £1,000/year at most
And routine visits tend to be about an hour per month which is mostly just pd'ing and the very occasional metricure and generally 1-2 cidr syncs so maybe £200/month or £2,500/yea

So that makes £4,000 roughly
with vaccination that's £8,300/year

Then emergencies and other stuff, we all get them and they tend to come all at once I find. How much do you budget? If I said £300/month that would bring my total vet spend up to £12,000/year or £1,000/month or £100/cow (but would include all youngstock too). But then again, since starting I've had 1 RDA, 1 c-section and thats about it, occasional down cow or ill calf maybe but I'm finding its better to ring the knackerman than the vet for them tbh, so perhaps £300 is too much?

What's that like compared to other ayr herds rearing youngstock - and what vaccines do you do if any?

 

[redsloe]

I'm not dairy so no comparison to your figures but I do run between 250 and 300 cattle rearing 120 calves from a month old all the way to fat and 30 sucklers. My vet/med costs since April 1st is currently £133.
It's a reflection on veterinary skills these days that if you can't diagnose a sick bullock yourself it's not worth ringing the vet for it.
I've just booked a herd health review for Red Tractor and that will double that I'd imagine....

 

[organicguy]

200 cows, everything reared to slaughter so upwards of 700 cattle at peak. Leptospirosis ,huskvac, blackleg, min intervention . Block calved so 3/4 routine visits a year
Was £6000/ year, so 1p litre, target less than 0.5p l for cows.
Jumped last year to £12 k, big difference I'm not in charge, everything that fa**s gets metacam

 

[Dumgal farmer]

I remember being in a benchmarking group many years ago! The member that was hung up on the v&m figure got it down by using cheaper, generic, traditional drugs. He had a really low figure - the flipside - these drugs had a longer withdrawal period so milk sales would be lost. The drugs were also less effective so the cull rate/replacement cost was higher!

 

[Farmer Keith]

I remember being in a benchmarking group many years ago! The member that was hung up on the v&m figure got it down by using cheaper, generic, traditional drugs. He had a really low figure - the flipside - these drugs had a longer withdrawal period so milk sales would be lost. The drugs were also less effective so the cull rate/replacement cost was higher!

Advice now is to use the traditional drugs first regardless of withdrawal periods, I think the modern ones you refer to in a lot of cases are no longer available to us.

 

[box]

I spent $9997 in the 23/24 season. 280 cows. 55 heifers. 55 calves.

Spring calving.

 

[Manney]

Total vet spend for 1st Jan to 31st Dec 2023 was £5502.

That includes vaccine for salmonella, whole herd johnes blood testing and all pd'ing.

That's for 200 spring calving cows and 80 head of followers.

Usually sit between 0.5ppl and 0.7ppl vet and med costs.

 

[Beef farmer]

0.92 ecm
1.10 as we sell it.
55k but that's irrelevant.
Vaccinate 1300 cows, flying herd for lepto, bvd, ibr.
Black leg and pneumonia vaccine for 650 calves
Inc Johnes testing