Special report from the Canadian Association of Bovine Veterinarians (CABV)

Introduction

Recent publications in The Canadian Veterinary Journal (The CVJ) have generated vigorous debate within our profession regarding farm animals and those who care for them, including veterinarians. To help foster a better understanding among veterinarians who are not familiar with current bovine veterinary practice in Canada, The CVJ approached the CABV to inform readers about developments in bovine practice. The CVJ will be publishing 2 reports under the auspices of the CABV — 1 on dairy practice and 1 on beef practice. These reports are written by two individual private practitioners in their own style, with contributions from the CABV. The present report is written by Dr. Frank Schenkels and is based on an actual conversation Dr. Schenkels had with his neighbor some 2 years ago.

Neighborly dialogue on dairy practice

I met my new neighbor, Colin, as I was walking past his yard. Colin is a 70-year-old retired orthodontist who is very sociable. The conversation started with the usual Maritime topics, but Colin soon asked me what I did every day. I responded that I was a dairy veterinarian. He told me that he had been out to visit a local dairy farm with his seniors club recently. Although he’d had some exposure to a dairy farm when he was a kid, he had not been on a dairy farm for over 50 years.

The farm Colin had visited is one of my clients. It’s a 4th-generation family farm that milks 180 dairy cows. It’s an impressive and progressive farm — the cows are housed in a 6-year-old sand-bedded, naturally ventilated, free stall barn and the cows are milked by 3 robots. The 120 calves and heifers on the farm are housed on bedded packs in remodelled older barns during the winter months, and on pasture in the summer.

“I can vaguely remember a veterinarian coming to the farm to treat sick cows and do some other things when I was young,” said Colin. “I have read some James Herriot books and watched Dr. Pol on TV. Is that what you do during your day?” he asked.

“No, today’s dairy farms are not like what is portrayed by James Herriot, and the work of many dairy veterinarians is much different than what you see with Dr. Pol.”

“Canadian dairy farmers are encouraged to produce milk at a steady rate year round in order to provide consumers with a constant supply of dairy products at all times. That requires that a significant and consistent number of cows calve every month. I visit most dairy farms every 2 weeks, including the one you visited, on a routine schedule. One of the tasks on these visits is to determine the reproductive health status of the dairy cows and breeding age heifers. It is important that cows are getting pregnant in a timely manner. I use a portable ultrasound unit to accurately determine each cow’s reproductive status. If they are pregnant, I can assess fetal viability and gestation stage. I also check for the presence of twin pregnancies because these cows require extra attention in the period before and after calving.”

“That sounds much more accurate than in the old days with just rectal palpation“ says Colin. “It definitely is!” I replied.

“I noticed that there were neck collars on the cows and computers in the office,” said Colin. “What’s that all about?”

I shared that many of today’s dairy farms have invested in technologies such as cow activity/rumination monitoring systems, feed intake tracking systems, and milking robots which collect valuable data on individual cows and the herd. The farmer will use this information every day but on my bi-weekly herd visits we review the numbers and determine if the farm is meeting its objectives for animal health, animal performance, and other criteria. I apply my skills and training in epidemiology to analyze these records. Part of my job is to assist my dairy clients in determining if there is a problem in a certain area. We also monitor whether or not the action plans we have put into place are working as desired.

“The farm that you visited has goals of < 5% sick calves for diarrhea or pneumonia and < 2% death loss in young calves. If our review of the data shows that we are not meeting our objectives, we review calving procedures, vaccination programs, nutrition, ventilation, and other areas to determine the cause of the problem. Then we discuss and determine changes to improve the situation.”

“Would these large herds have more disease issues and use more antibiotics than herds in the past?” asked Colin.

“Actually,” I replied, “in herds like the one you visited, there are fewer disease issues than on other farms. This is because of improvements in housing, feeding, vaccinations, stockmanship, and other best management practices. Vets also train farmers on identifying sick cows and about prudent antibiotic use to get the best treatment outcomes. You’ll understand this from your days in dental practice: it results in optimal use of antibiotics and reduces the potential for development of antimicrobial resistance.”

“I saw a feed mixer truck go through the barn and dump out a bunch of great smelling feed that the cows strolled over to the bunk to eat“ said Colin. “What’s in that feed?”

“That is a total mixed feed ration with all the ingredients mixed together. Practice has changed a lot since I started in the 80’s. Today my laptop and herd files are with me at every herd visit, and they get used more than my stethoscope and thermometer do. When I graduated, it was recognized that many health issues were related to nutrition. Feed expense is the largest cost on a farm and good milk production requires a well-designed feeding program for cows at all stages of lactation and during the dry period. Because of this, I developed a passion for nutrition early in my career, and it has been very rewarding for the cattle under my care, my dairy clients, and for me personally. It quickly became obvious that cows did better as farmers implemented better diets. With current farm data available on forage analysis and animal performance, I can quickly and accurately balance the nutritional content in a diet. Believe it or not, I can create a diet for all the animals on a farm that is more nutritionally balanced than that of most humans!

The incidence of nutritionally related diseases has decreased dramatically from the time I started my career almost 35 years ago. On the farm you visited I team up with the nutritionist and we are responsible for nutritional management of all the cattle on the farm. It is my personal responsibility to look after the nutrition of the dry cows and fresh cows to prevent the occurrence of hypocalcemia, retained placenta, ketosis, displaced abomasums, and other diseases that occur around calving time.”

“I don’t suppose that you were involved in the design of the barn that I visited?” asked Colin.

“Funny you should ask, Colin. When I applied to vet school, I also applied to engineering school,” I replied. “Obviously, I became a vet but my passion for designing stuff hasn’t gone away. I get a charge out of helping farmers build better barns for their animals. I consulted with the producers you visited over a 2- to 3-year period on the new barn design to ensure that the cows were as comfortable as possible, that the barn was conducive to good animal health, and that animals could be handled with the least amount of stress. The cows can display behaviors similar to their natural grazing behaviors in this barn — grooming themselves with the cattle brushes, socializing with their herd mates, and lying around for most of the day. The producers, the engineer, the builder, and I worked as a team to ensure that we built the best possible environment for the animals. Dairy vets challenge their clients every day to utilize the latest research on animal behavior and animal health when they are modifying their facilities or building new facilities.”

“Creating facilities that meet the needs of the cows must be expensive” says Colin.

“Yes, good buildings cost money,” I noted. “But it is important to know that a poorly designed barn is just as expensive to build as a well-designed barn. In order to convince farmers and bankers that a building project is a sound business decision, I had to learn more about accounting, business practices, and partial budgets so that I could construct a solid business case for good cow housing, care, and feeding. I have added financial consulting to my toolbox of skills over the years to improve the lives of farmers and their animals. Whether it be a simple cash flow analysis on adding a set of fans to cool the cows, or the complex multi-year financial feasibility on the barn you visited, I help farmers determine if a project is a sound investment. Farmers are business people. They need to be profitable and the more profitable they are, the more money that will be able available to fund improvements for their animals. Frankly, animals don’t fare as well on unprofitable farms.”

”Colin, can I ask you what you expected to find when you visited the farm?”

He replied, “I thought that the cows in the large newer barns that I see around the countryside would not be very well taken care of because the farms were so big. It didn’t seem to me that the animals could be as well looked after as on the smaller farms like the one I was used to as a youngster. I was totally surprised when I saw the cows walking around freely, whether to the feed bunk to eat or to the robot to get milked. And to see them laying down in these large clean sand-bedded free stalls or standing at a cattle brush that was cleaning their back was very neat. I was most surprised that the cows were coming up to visit us — total strangers — with no fear while we were standing in the alley. The cows were relaxed and seemed to be content. I was wrong in what I thought modern dairy farms are like.”

“Colin, I’m glad that you had the opportunity to visit one of the many dairy farms in the area that really take good care of their animals. I have worked with many farmers over my career and have seen many positive and innovative changes in that time. It is rewarding to hear from someone from the public who can appreciate the progress that’s been made.

When I started my career in the mid 1980’s, my days were largely filled with dealing with emergencies such as milk fever, dystocia, uterine prolapses, and with treating sick cows with conditions such as displaced abomasums, retained placentas, ketosis, metritis, mastitis, pneumonia, and with trimming feet on lame cows. We called it “fire engine practice” because you were always on the run, putting out fires. I grew frustrated with dealing with failures on farms that resulted from preventable conditions, so I acquired some new tools through education and trying new things.

Today, most of my time is spent working on the prevention of diseases, improving the health and welfare of animals through better housing, nutrition, ventilation, udder health, parasite control, and vaccination programs. My evolution as a dairy vet is unique but not dissimilar to other vets. As a group, we have adapted to change by adding advanced skills to our foundation of vet school training. We apply these skills to support our clients and their animals every day.

Dairy vets are involved with national dairy farm programs that offer proof to customers that farmers work to ensure milk quality and safety, and to continually improve animal health and welfare as well as environmental stewardship. Veterinarians have critical input into the animal care, biosecurity (disease prevention), and food safety (prudent drug use) components of these programs at the national level and act in a supervisory and guiding role at the individual farm level.

Dairy veterinarians serve as coaches, teachers, and agents of change with their dairy farm clients. Fortunately, much research has been conducted in the fields of dairy nutrition, animal welfare, calf feeding, disease prevention, and animal behavior, among others. Also, there are abundant continuing education opportunities available to veterinarians. Many have taken full advantage of these opportunities to increase their dairy knowledge. Dairy vets rank as the most trusted advisor on most dairy farms and are instrumental in bringing new research and ideas to the farm. Dairy veterinarians also benefit immensely from working for a variety of farmers and seeing first-hand what works and what doesn’t. We then take the good ideas and practices and attempt to implement them with other farms we service.

Dairy vets provide service to a spectrum of dairy farmers who vary in their animal husbandry skills, their commitment to animal health and welfare, and their receptivity to new ideas and desire to make progress. This is not unlike the range of pet owners who visit small animal clinics.

We have witnessed tremendous progress with new developments in the skills, training, and education of dairy veterinarians and livestock farmers. We will continue to see more progress over time as new generations of dairy farmers and veterinarians will stand on the shoulders of those who came before them (as I have done) to continue that progress for the benefit of animals and those who care for them.

Dairy veterinarians are the main voice for the animals under our care, a responsibility that we take very seriously. Good animal husbandry is the foundation of every decision made on farms and we feel entrusted to work with the farmers to improve the lives of those animals while simultaneously helping dairy farmers achieve their goal of efficient food production.

I’m pleased that I chose to become a dairy veterinarian. I get to help farmers solve problems, create better environments for the animals under their care, participate in farm construction projects, and to help people to be better in their business. The thrill of learning and applying new skills, the satisfaction of participating as a team member to improve the welfare of animals under my care and collaborating with progressive farmers makes my life interesting and rewarding every day.”