​SUNRISE VETerinary SERVICES
​CATTLE  Producer ​NEWSLETTERS​

​CURRENT INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN USE
​TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS
REGARDING YOUR HERD'S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING.

Sunrise Vet Services  January 2020 Producer Newsletter

      Well, Santa wasn’t the nicest to John this year, but he thinks he should move a little bit higher up on the nice list for 2020. John did use the lump of coal he got to help write his name in the parking lot to reserve his spot. He cried a little though when the rain & snow runoff washed it away!  Next year he’s planning on using some red tractor paint. He figures that will last a very long time as it stands out much better than other tractor color paints! One more thing from John; With 2020 arriving, he's going around saying his vision is now finally going to match the actual year! Be sure to set him straight!!!
     
      This month starts Sunrise’s new policy where all Large Animal customers are on 30 day terms. For example: All purchases or veterinary work done on the farm in January will need to be paid in full by the end of February. Also, a reminder that the early payment discount has been raised to 5% for payment made within 7 days of receiving the bill. You are responsible for deducting your 5% off when your payment is made to Sunrise within 7 days of billing.

MEETINGS:
      Reminder: SIt's almost time for Sunrise’s January 15th noon Cattle Producer lunch meeting at the Reedsburg VFW, 200 Veterans Drive. Please call Sunrise at 768-7297 to place your RSVP for yourself and others on your farm to attend. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Paul Fricke speaking as he’s very well known and respected in the dairy industry. We hope you take a couple hours out of your busy schedule to have lunch with us and benefit from his knowledge. Dr. Fricke’s talk is sponsored by Parnell (makers of estroPLAN and GONAbreed) as well as Sunrise Vet Services and will focus on the latest in fertility treatments and options as well as management updates.  Dr. Fricke was one of the people who helped develop Ovsynch and has been instrumental in promoting the 30/30 concept of a 30% pregnancy rate with 30,000 lbs of milk production. You won’t want to miss this opportunity.
      Our 2nd Cattle Producer Meeting will be Wed., Feb. 26. This will be offered as both a lunch and a dinner meeting that you can choose between. It will also held at the VFW. Our featured speaker will be Dr. Wagner from Newport Laboratory, maker of our autogenous vaccine. Dr. Wagner will be presenting the how’s, why’s, where’s, etc on our arch nemesis, Pinkeye. There’s a lot of new information out there, and we need everyone to understand what this fight involves.  Even if you were at the last Pinkeye meeting 3 yrs ago, this disease is changing so fast that coming again will still definitely be worth your while. Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim & Newport Lab & Sunrise Vet Services.
      There is also a grazing conference put on by GrassWorks Inc. at the Chula Vista Resort in the Dells. That will be Jan. 23-25. Go to www.grassworks.org to register or for more information.

GOOD TO KNOW:

     Dr. Darren recently read an article about dairy replacements. Many farms have been breeding heifers younger in order to get them into the milking string as soon as possible. At the time, this was thought to be the best way to minimize raising expenses and to increase profit. However, Dr. Darren reports that according to this article, this has not been proven out with solid data. In fact, the opposite has happened. These early bred heifers are not producing the appropriate amount of milk in comparison to their body size/age even later in life, and will never be able to catch up and produce as much as a conventionally raised heifer calf who is then bred to calve at 85% of her adult body weight. The authors recommend weighing several adult 3 year old cows and to get your heifers bred at 55% of that average mature cow weight. Age matters also, as you really don’t want to have animals freshening at 35-36 months old. We should be aiming to have first time heifers freshen at 24 months of age. 
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     In addition, Dr. John went to a meeting with Dr. Milo Wiltbank and Dr. Paul Frinke (who is our presenter at our meeting Jan. 15th).  Both of these researchers have had a monumental influence in the dairy industry with developing breeding synch protocols: Ovsynch 20+ years ago and over 200 published research papers. In some regards they have helped bring about some of the challenges in the dairy industry by improving breeding efficiency which has created an excess of heifers and dairy cattle. With that being said, they’ve also made the dairy industry what it is today...  A well oiled machine able to crank out calves at a high rate of getting cows pregnant very efficiently.  
     Take-aways from the meeting: BCS (Body Condition Score) changes with Pre & Post Calving makes a big difference. Paul and Milo have been working on multiple areas of research, but they are very excited about the changes that occur in a cows body condition score around freshening and how that has an effect on reproduction. Cows who lose BCS after freshening have reduced fertility, those who gain weight will have some increase in fertility, but those who have no changes in their already good BCS have great fertility! Their goal for dairy cows is to have a BCS of 2.75-3.0 (on a 1-5 scale)  at freshening and to not have the cow lose any BCS after calving. Cows love consistency and they will perform much better if maintaining a uniform weight / BCS after calving.   We'd be happy to assist you with scoring body condition on your cattle when we are at your farm. 
      Paul wanted to stress the importance of the timing of all shots when utilizing a timed breeding program. Female cattle respond to prostaglandins at 6-16 days after a heat, so starting them out at the wrong time of the cycle will lead to poor results. Also, when you start them, make sure you give the remaining shots when you are supposed to. Having worked out when the shots are needed, he stressed the absolute need of giving the right shots at the right time.  

      What is the HIGH FERTILITY CIRCLE in dairy cattle? Imagine the next sentence in a circle because we couldn’t get the computer to do it that way!  You get an animal bred back at the proper time → Less BCS loss / changes for this and future lactations → Fewer health issues → Greater fertility →  Reduced early pregnancy losses in the next lactation → repeat.
      Highly fertile animals perform better for you. An analogy from the beef side is you should only retain heifers born in the first ½ of the calving window as they are more fertile. What should be the goal for getting animals pregnant? UW- Madison Arlington dairy herd has 90+% pregnant cows after their 3rd breeding at approx. 150 DIM. Our general rule of thumb is cows must be serviced before 100 DIM, and must be confirmed pregnant by 250 DIM.  When looking at the numbers, we like to see preg. rates of >26%, and services per conception of <2.7. Now, some of you might say we are doing better than this. Awesome! Then we need to set your goals even higher. These are guidelines, so feel free to ask us about your individual farm benchmarks. 
     For the meeting with Dr. Paul Fricke, John wants to let everyone know that 90% of the time Dr. Fricke asks a question the answer will be "Progesterone". Attend the meeting and learn why we need to be interested in this compound in dairy cattle.

      Please call us to RSVP your spot for this meeting which is in just a couple of weeks. (Wed., Jan. 15th at noon at the VFW)

      Attention FAT WEEK IS COMING!!!!  

Well, most people call it the Annual United Fund Radio Auction, but John refers to it as Fat Week. This radio auction supports 25+ local organizations and all money raised stays in the local communities. John doesn’t think it can get much better than that. Guess what else? Sunrise Vet has been known to donate items to the auction that you can bid on. In addition, some people may be brave enough to bid against John & Sunrise on some sweets, but we will definitely make you bid high and bid often which is the point of a charity auction!!! The auction is Jan. 20-24th and is aired & streamed live. More info is on their Facebook page. Farmer’s night will be Wed. Jan. 22 from 6-10 PM. Listen along and call 768-7000 to bid. There may be a guest auctioneer on that evening whose goal is to put some professional auction guys in their place! Remember, bid high and bid often!