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Archived News
28th May 2014
It was another great day at the Surrey County Show and all credit should go to the livestock exhibitors who put tremendous effort into the preparation of the cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry which compete within their individual breeds.
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery Musical Drive and The Band of The Royal Artillery provided a magnificent display which had the audience on its feet and the horses steaming!
The Bank holiday rain has continued and as the sheep are due to be sheared early on Friday they have moved in from the field to dry out a little beforehand.
We began our annual Belted Galloway BVD vaccinating today, fetching in the bull and cows from the Cressbeds and having the added advantage of working in the shelter of a large barn at Paddington for an hour or so.
We undertook routine cattle checks and ear tag checking and applied a fly repellant.
Amanda applying fly protection
Later we moved the crush to vaccinated five in-calf cows. It was too damp for my camera today and I had my hands full, so the photos on the phone are a bit misty.
Me vaccinating against BVD
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is a pestivirus infection of cattle which can cause losses from infertility, poor production and increased susceptibility to other infections especially in young calves. Cattle exposed to BVD in the early stages of pregnancy may abort or have a mummified foetus or a calf may be born with birth defects of the nervous system and eyes, born premature or be persistently-infected calves shedding the virus to cattle they come into contact with.
In herds with little or no immunity, the spread of BVD can be devastating so vaccination is advised to increase or maintain a high health status. Bio-security of the herd is important and ensuring there is no direct contact with any other cattle that may not have been vaccinated.
Although vaccination in England is voluntary it will help control BVD and with more farmers undertaking the annual vaccination the disease could be eradicated from the national herd.
Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark undertook control and eradication schemes and have virtually eliminated BVD from their national herds.
Tomorrow we will continue vaccinating the Belties grazing on the North Downs.
The young stock at Hackhurst will have their very first BVD vaccination (they can have this after 8 months of age) and the second will follow in three weeks time, after that it will be a single annual booster.
Once the vaccinations are complete the Belties will move to their summer grazing according to age, whether the cows are in calf or have calves at foot, according to how much public access there is in each area and the accessibility for us to fetch the cattle in for any routine tasks.
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