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SUNRISE VETerinary SERVICES
CATTLE Producer NEWSLETTERS
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CURRENT INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN USE
TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS REGARDING YOUR HERD'S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING. |
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SUNRISE VETerinary SERVICES
Sunrise Vet Services March 2020 Producer Newsletter
Someone very smart and wise recently told me a new snowfall makes everyone equal. From the cleanest farm to the one with junk all over, a fresh snowfall makes them all look pretty and alike. That got John thinking, does that mean when other tractors besides red ones get covered up with snow, does that mean they are all beautiful and the same? Likely not, but John just wanted to ask that question! Maybe at this point we’ll be having less snow?... We can only hope… in which case it may take longer to answer that question. Speaking of hoping, John hopes you enjoy this very short poem.
Spring is upon us very soon.
Dr. John’s truck is needing more zoom.
Wash the dirt off you might say.
That will have to wait for another day!
Recently Dr. John attended a meeting sponsored by Parnell discussing the survival of embryos and reproductive strategies. Some of the take home points were: Overcrowding is proven to reduce pregnancies. One of the researchers looked at an ET farm and looked at how well recipients maintained the embryos implanted in them. If crowding was in excess of 120%, the number of pregnancies went down significantly. Stress from overcrowding leads to less reproductive success. It didn't matter who they had as the breeder, vet, nutritionist, feed consultant, etc. Overcrowding costs you money and reproductive success.
The researchers also looked at using CIDRs to improve pregnancy rates. Did they? You bet they do improve preg rates, at the cost of the CIDR though. In some cases the CIDR did not improve retention of the embryos or increase the pregnancy rates. Embryos can be touchy things, but they do help us with understanding the bovine reproductive tract and cycles. For those of you who attended the Paul Fricke meeting, he does stress progesterone and the role it plays in bovine repo. CIDR’S are "controlled progesterone releasing devices" that help increase reproductive rates.
If you’d like to use Long Range for processing this spring, please call Zumbro and get it on order. Because the manufacturer did not offer clinics the same deal as in the past, we did not place a large volume order. You can get a great price from our Zumbro Catalog Service though!
Hey! Speaking of Zumbro catalog pricing; Did you know that by using our Zumbro catalog you are staying within our Sunrise network and can usually get the best pricing around? Free shipping, no minimum order, and a very well stocked inventory. They stock even more than what’s in their catalog, so always call them and ask if you are wondering about a specific product you don’t see. Chances are they’ll have it and you won’t have to pay the prescription fees that get charged for out of network prescriptions. If you aren’t familiar with Zumbro yet, give us a call at Sunrise and we’ll hook you up!
Someone very smart and wise recently told me a new snowfall makes everyone equal. From the cleanest farm to the one with junk all over, a fresh snowfall makes them all look pretty and alike. That got John thinking, does that mean when other tractors besides red ones get covered up with snow, does that mean they are all beautiful and the same? Likely not, but John just wanted to ask that question! Maybe at this point we’ll be having less snow?... We can only hope… in which case it may take longer to answer that question. Speaking of hoping, John hopes you enjoy this very short poem.
Spring is upon us very soon.
Dr. John’s truck is needing more zoom.
Wash the dirt off you might say.
That will have to wait for another day!
Recently Dr. John attended a meeting sponsored by Parnell discussing the survival of embryos and reproductive strategies. Some of the take home points were: Overcrowding is proven to reduce pregnancies. One of the researchers looked at an ET farm and looked at how well recipients maintained the embryos implanted in them. If crowding was in excess of 120%, the number of pregnancies went down significantly. Stress from overcrowding leads to less reproductive success. It didn't matter who they had as the breeder, vet, nutritionist, feed consultant, etc. Overcrowding costs you money and reproductive success.
The researchers also looked at using CIDRs to improve pregnancy rates. Did they? You bet they do improve preg rates, at the cost of the CIDR though. In some cases the CIDR did not improve retention of the embryos or increase the pregnancy rates. Embryos can be touchy things, but they do help us with understanding the bovine reproductive tract and cycles. For those of you who attended the Paul Fricke meeting, he does stress progesterone and the role it plays in bovine repo. CIDR’S are "controlled progesterone releasing devices" that help increase reproductive rates.
If you’d like to use Long Range for processing this spring, please call Zumbro and get it on order. Because the manufacturer did not offer clinics the same deal as in the past, we did not place a large volume order. You can get a great price from our Zumbro Catalog Service though!
Hey! Speaking of Zumbro catalog pricing; Did you know that by using our Zumbro catalog you are staying within our Sunrise network and can usually get the best pricing around? Free shipping, no minimum order, and a very well stocked inventory. They stock even more than what’s in their catalog, so always call them and ask if you are wondering about a specific product you don’t see. Chances are they’ll have it and you won’t have to pay the prescription fees that get charged for out of network prescriptions. If you aren’t familiar with Zumbro yet, give us a call at Sunrise and we’ll hook you up!
WOW! What a turn out for the meetings sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim and Newport Labs for Sunrise Vet discussing Pinkeye and respiratory issues! We appreciate the strong turnout of 86 producers!
Dr. Wagner speaking at the Sunrise Veterinary Services Pinkeye Meeting
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As those of you who were there learned, Pinkeye is a multifaceted disease. It continues to change on a yearly basis and can be difficult to control. Guess what? Respiratory disease follows the same pattern. We've decided to have a special single dose pinkeye vaccine made for Sunrise, but it will be more expensive. It will be approximately 10 weeks for the new vaccine to be made and shipped to us. Meanwhile, we still have plenty of the two-dose Pinkeye vaccine left which is more economical if you can get that 2nd shot into them. For those of you who are interested in either the single or double dose, please let us know.
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How important is it to have a Breeding Soundness Exam (BSE) done on your breeding bull prior to breeding season? Well? Let John tell you a story... A beef farmer bought a bull from another farmer and put him out with his cows. That bull was a breeding machine, breeding cows all through the summer and even into the late fall. Dr. Darren went out to pregnancy check the cows, and every single one was open. This farmer now has gotten a different bull and will have late fall calving cows. He lost 6 months of calf sales for 18 head of cows. We are talking about thousands of dollars of lost revenue. Our cost to do a BSE is only $25 plus time, and what this does is tell you if the bull has viable semen at an acceptable level of mobility. We also examine the bull along with his reproductive tract. If a bull does not pass the BSE, he needs to be replaced ASAP. Don't lose thousands of dollars with a bad bull.
Exciting news: We have just hired Dr. Neil Ruppel who started Feb. 24th. Dr. Darren had the pleasure of working with Neil when they were in Lodi together. Dr. Neil has been in practice for 10 years and is a mixed animal veterinarian with interests in working with both large animals and small animals and he has small animal orthopedics experience. Our plan is to have him work the farm side of the business most of the time, but with 1-1 ½ days a week doing small animal work in the clinic. A few things to note for Dr. Neil. 1st: He owns Hereford cattle. 2nd: He’s married and has 4 kids. 3rd: He owns Hereford cattle. Well, one out of three ain’t bad! Another positive point is that although he currently has an orange tractor, he says he’ll be acquiring a powerful red tractor this spring! John is starting to really like this guy. We had Dr. Neil riding with the large animal vets for the first week or two, but now he's off doing farm calls in Jim's old truck. We are all excited to have Dr. Neil here and hope you will enjoy working with him in the future.
We are all saddened to announce Dr. Jim has decided to retire from Sunrise Vet Services to pursue other opportunities in his life. Dr. Jim isn’t sure of what that is yet, but we sure will miss him. Some of the more famous quotes from employees during Jim’s time here include, “Jim is always happy to be the top of the cake for our potlucks.”, “My! What big hands you have Jim!”, “Jim really really likes strawberries and whip cream.”, “Jim is the sweetest.” Some of the women at the office would say with a dreamy sounding voice, “Oh Jim, Jim, Jim.” John would tell Jim, “ Hey. Can you try not to keep up with me for the earned title of Dr. Death?” (See the contradiction of attitudes there?) What adventures lie ahead for Jim? Even Jim is not sure yet. We wish him the very best, and hope that he will finally get a few things off of his “Honey Do” list. Hopefully no more hitchhiking is in his near future!
Jim’s parting advice to us, “Don’t pull on Superman's cape, Don't spit into the wind, Don't pull the mask off of the old Lone Ranger, and don't mess around with Jim.” John put it best when he said “ Jim is a really good person and damn good vet. I hope I can be as good as him some day”. Best of luck to Jim with his new adventures.
Exciting news: We have just hired Dr. Neil Ruppel who started Feb. 24th. Dr. Darren had the pleasure of working with Neil when they were in Lodi together. Dr. Neil has been in practice for 10 years and is a mixed animal veterinarian with interests in working with both large animals and small animals and he has small animal orthopedics experience. Our plan is to have him work the farm side of the business most of the time, but with 1-1 ½ days a week doing small animal work in the clinic. A few things to note for Dr. Neil. 1st: He owns Hereford cattle. 2nd: He’s married and has 4 kids. 3rd: He owns Hereford cattle. Well, one out of three ain’t bad! Another positive point is that although he currently has an orange tractor, he says he’ll be acquiring a powerful red tractor this spring! John is starting to really like this guy. We had Dr. Neil riding with the large animal vets for the first week or two, but now he's off doing farm calls in Jim's old truck. We are all excited to have Dr. Neil here and hope you will enjoy working with him in the future.
We are all saddened to announce Dr. Jim has decided to retire from Sunrise Vet Services to pursue other opportunities in his life. Dr. Jim isn’t sure of what that is yet, but we sure will miss him. Some of the more famous quotes from employees during Jim’s time here include, “Jim is always happy to be the top of the cake for our potlucks.”, “My! What big hands you have Jim!”, “Jim really really likes strawberries and whip cream.”, “Jim is the sweetest.” Some of the women at the office would say with a dreamy sounding voice, “Oh Jim, Jim, Jim.” John would tell Jim, “ Hey. Can you try not to keep up with me for the earned title of Dr. Death?” (See the contradiction of attitudes there?) What adventures lie ahead for Jim? Even Jim is not sure yet. We wish him the very best, and hope that he will finally get a few things off of his “Honey Do” list. Hopefully no more hitchhiking is in his near future!
Jim’s parting advice to us, “Don’t pull on Superman's cape, Don't spit into the wind, Don't pull the mask off of the old Lone Ranger, and don't mess around with Jim.” John put it best when he said “ Jim is a really good person and damn good vet. I hope I can be as good as him some day”. Best of luck to Jim with his new adventures.
Sunrise Vet Services February 2020 Producer Newsletter
Well folks, it’s starting to feel like spring out there! Never mind. It’s just the end of January. This is the weather John enjoys!.. not too hot, not too cold. It’s his Goldilocks zone! FYI: John was strutting around this last weekend in a t-shirt! EEK! Now, with the warmer weather please keep a close eye on your livestock for pneumonia. Bedding packs will start to warm up making ammonia vapors and creating more problems. Make sure you adjust the curtains daily to allow enough fresh air into the barns. Better to allow too much air as opposed to keeping it buttoned up tight allowing vapors to build up. Also, frequent cleaning out is a great plan for those packs right now. Is frequent cleaning out of Dr. John’s truck a good idea? Yes!, but John says, “No!” At least he cleans himself up sometimes. Well, he says he does, but he smells just the same everyday & that smell is not of a fresh spring.
Just a reminder about our 5% discount. Yep, every month you can save 5% on your farm vet bill by paying within 7 days of receiving the bill. John has said he’s not going to do the calculations for you, as you don’t want him to take off his boots to use his toes! If your bill is really small, he can still use his fingers, even wearing gloves. If you have any questions, feel free to call and talk with Kathy about the discount (rather than John!).
SVS Beef & Dairy Producer Meeting on Pinkeye and Respiratory Issues on Wed. Feb. 26.
We’ll be featuring Dr. Douglas Wagner and Dr. Curt Vliestra as our speakers. Our topics will be Pinkeye, as well as respiratory issues & vaccines. Dr. Wagner will be covering updated Pinkeye information on the hows, whys, wheres as well as other valuable insights. Pinkeye is our arch nemesis, 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 as there's a lot of new information out there. Plus Dr. Curt will address the issue of respiratory vaccines for beef and dairy. These meetings are being sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, Newport Lab Vaccines, and Sunrise Vet Services. Choose between the 12 Noon lunch session or the 6PM dinner session when you RSVP. Both sessions will be at the Reedsburg VFW Post 1916, 200 Veterans Drive. Please call Sunrise at 768-7297 to place your RSVP for yourself & others on your farm to attend & let us know which session you’re choosing so we can plan for food.
How many times have you had it where an animal has died and you think, “Why did that critter die?” (No. It’s not that Dr. John, aka Dr. Death, looked at it!) Dr. John was at a farm recently where they’ve had a history of some pneumonia problems in their calf barn. Seeing a dead calf, Dr. John asked about it and the farmer agreed to let him do a necropsy. Necropsy is a detailed investigation of how and why the animal died, referred to as an autopsy in humans. What did Dr. John determine from the necropsy? Bad pneumonia? No! Actually, he found the calf had a stomach ulcer that had eaten through the stomach wall and caused massive infection of the abdominal cavity = peritonitis. Was it worth the 15 minutes for Dr. John to cut the calf open to get this info? You bet! And it showed that not all calf deaths are from pneumonia or scours. Even with treatment this calf would not have survived. Dr.’s John, Darren and Marla are still working up a case at a farm with fresh cows dying. They have sampled several cows in their search for an answer to what’sgoing on. We want to point out that we do NOT ALWAYS get a definitive answer for each case; however, any information is better than wild speculation. If you have any questions about necropsies, feel free to ask us about them.
Everyone at Sunrise Vet Services wants to extend a big thank you to Parnell Laboratories and their rep., Kris, for sponsoring the Dr. Paul Fricke talk about “The High Fertility Cycle in Dairy Cattle”. It was an excellent talk about dairy cattle, breeding programs & protocols, and body condition scoring as it relates to fertility! We did make a mistake in the last newsletter discussing this subject. Here is the real scoop: Cows who lose weight after freshening have very poor conception rates (<20%), cows who maintain weight have average conception rates (25-30%), but cows who gain weight have much higher conception rates (+60%). Paul Fricke described this as a “Eureka” moment for them when they saw this relationship between body condition score (BCS) and fertility. When we are on your farms, let’s start looking at BCS & your cows. Dr. Fricke would like to have cows freshen at a BCS of 2.75 and then have them gain weight to achieve a BCS of 3.0 at one month fresh.
Another point from the meeting is that you don’t need to change your protocol, but change which cows you are breeding & what you are breeding with. When you have a fat fresh cow, what should you do? We suggest taking good care of her, but when it comes to breeding her, consider high fertility beef bulls. Do you want to keep a family line of cows that calve in fat and who have lots of problems after freshening? Now, if you have a cow who comes in with minimal problems at a BCS of 2.75, never misses a beat, and is in heat at 68 DIM. Breed that cow with high quality dairy bull semen!
One more point from the meeting is regarding the number of heifers on a farm & what to breed them with. We harp on this a lot, but do you need all those heifers you’re raising? Can you take 15-25% & breed them for beef? You bet you can! Just make sure you’re choosing the correct cow to breed with that beef bull semen. Certainly animals who’ve been less than stellar in growth performance, or if they are out of less than average cows should be bred with beef for sure. (Dr. John recommends red angus, but then he’s definitely biased!) Above average calves need to be bred with better semen or sexed semen so that you can continue to improve your herd.
Ag Plastic Recycling in Sauk County: Sauk County is accepting silage bags, bunker covers, bale wrap, hoop film, & plastic feed bags for free. Collections: 10AM - noon on Mar. 18, May 20, July15,Sept. 16, & Nov. 18 at the Sauk County shop at 620 Linn St., W. Baraboo. For additional information please contact Justine Bula at justine.bula@saukcountywi.gov or 608-355-4842.
Well folks, it’s starting to feel like spring out there! Never mind. It’s just the end of January. This is the weather John enjoys!.. not too hot, not too cold. It’s his Goldilocks zone! FYI: John was strutting around this last weekend in a t-shirt! EEK! Now, with the warmer weather please keep a close eye on your livestock for pneumonia. Bedding packs will start to warm up making ammonia vapors and creating more problems. Make sure you adjust the curtains daily to allow enough fresh air into the barns. Better to allow too much air as opposed to keeping it buttoned up tight allowing vapors to build up. Also, frequent cleaning out is a great plan for those packs right now. Is frequent cleaning out of Dr. John’s truck a good idea? Yes!, but John says, “No!” At least he cleans himself up sometimes. Well, he says he does, but he smells just the same everyday & that smell is not of a fresh spring.
Just a reminder about our 5% discount. Yep, every month you can save 5% on your farm vet bill by paying within 7 days of receiving the bill. John has said he’s not going to do the calculations for you, as you don’t want him to take off his boots to use his toes! If your bill is really small, he can still use his fingers, even wearing gloves. If you have any questions, feel free to call and talk with Kathy about the discount (rather than John!).
SVS Beef & Dairy Producer Meeting on Pinkeye and Respiratory Issues on Wed. Feb. 26.
We’ll be featuring Dr. Douglas Wagner and Dr. Curt Vliestra as our speakers. Our topics will be Pinkeye, as well as respiratory issues & vaccines. Dr. Wagner will be covering updated Pinkeye information on the hows, whys, wheres as well as other valuable insights. Pinkeye is our arch nemesis, 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 as there's a lot of new information out there. Plus Dr. Curt will address the issue of respiratory vaccines for beef and dairy. These meetings are being sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, Newport Lab Vaccines, and Sunrise Vet Services. Choose between the 12 Noon lunch session or the 6PM dinner session when you RSVP. Both sessions will be at the Reedsburg VFW Post 1916, 200 Veterans Drive. Please call Sunrise at 768-7297 to place your RSVP for yourself & others on your farm to attend & let us know which session you’re choosing so we can plan for food.
How many times have you had it where an animal has died and you think, “Why did that critter die?” (No. It’s not that Dr. John, aka Dr. Death, looked at it!) Dr. John was at a farm recently where they’ve had a history of some pneumonia problems in their calf barn. Seeing a dead calf, Dr. John asked about it and the farmer agreed to let him do a necropsy. Necropsy is a detailed investigation of how and why the animal died, referred to as an autopsy in humans. What did Dr. John determine from the necropsy? Bad pneumonia? No! Actually, he found the calf had a stomach ulcer that had eaten through the stomach wall and caused massive infection of the abdominal cavity = peritonitis. Was it worth the 15 minutes for Dr. John to cut the calf open to get this info? You bet! And it showed that not all calf deaths are from pneumonia or scours. Even with treatment this calf would not have survived. Dr.’s John, Darren and Marla are still working up a case at a farm with fresh cows dying. They have sampled several cows in their search for an answer to what’sgoing on. We want to point out that we do NOT ALWAYS get a definitive answer for each case; however, any information is better than wild speculation. If you have any questions about necropsies, feel free to ask us about them.
Everyone at Sunrise Vet Services wants to extend a big thank you to Parnell Laboratories and their rep., Kris, for sponsoring the Dr. Paul Fricke talk about “The High Fertility Cycle in Dairy Cattle”. It was an excellent talk about dairy cattle, breeding programs & protocols, and body condition scoring as it relates to fertility! We did make a mistake in the last newsletter discussing this subject. Here is the real scoop: Cows who lose weight after freshening have very poor conception rates (<20%), cows who maintain weight have average conception rates (25-30%), but cows who gain weight have much higher conception rates (+60%). Paul Fricke described this as a “Eureka” moment for them when they saw this relationship between body condition score (BCS) and fertility. When we are on your farms, let’s start looking at BCS & your cows. Dr. Fricke would like to have cows freshen at a BCS of 2.75 and then have them gain weight to achieve a BCS of 3.0 at one month fresh.
Another point from the meeting is that you don’t need to change your protocol, but change which cows you are breeding & what you are breeding with. When you have a fat fresh cow, what should you do? We suggest taking good care of her, but when it comes to breeding her, consider high fertility beef bulls. Do you want to keep a family line of cows that calve in fat and who have lots of problems after freshening? Now, if you have a cow who comes in with minimal problems at a BCS of 2.75, never misses a beat, and is in heat at 68 DIM. Breed that cow with high quality dairy bull semen!
One more point from the meeting is regarding the number of heifers on a farm & what to breed them with. We harp on this a lot, but do you need all those heifers you’re raising? Can you take 15-25% & breed them for beef? You bet you can! Just make sure you’re choosing the correct cow to breed with that beef bull semen. Certainly animals who’ve been less than stellar in growth performance, or if they are out of less than average cows should be bred with beef for sure. (Dr. John recommends red angus, but then he’s definitely biased!) Above average calves need to be bred with better semen or sexed semen so that you can continue to improve your herd.
Ag Plastic Recycling in Sauk County: Sauk County is accepting silage bags, bunker covers, bale wrap, hoop film, & plastic feed bags for free. Collections: 10AM - noon on Mar. 18, May 20, July15,Sept. 16, & Nov. 18 at the Sauk County shop at 620 Linn St., W. Baraboo. For additional information please contact Justine Bula at justine.bula@saukcountywi.gov or 608-355-4842.
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.
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, 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.
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!!!!
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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!
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