Q&A: Preparing for spring turnout

For this issue’s Q&A we spoke to Tonia Simms of Hampden Vets, part of the VetPartners Group.

What are the most common pitfalls around spring turnout?

A: For most animals, there are few pitfalls around turnout. A lot of people refer to grass as ‘doctor green’ and while there can be a degree of nutritional bene t from grass, the positive health response, in my opinion, is the fresh air and lower stocking density, leading to lower chance of an animal being infected by a pathogen.

However, my main concern as we see the climate changing is that there is an expectation as to the nutritional value of grass, that perhaps isn’t applicable anymore with lower rainfall and ash ooding/ poaching when it does rain. For this reason, it’s prudent not to turn your animals out and forget about them. It’s easier with dairy cows as they’re coming in every day, but beef and small ruminants shouldn’t be left to fend for themselves. Monitoring youngstock growth, adult animal body condition scores and grass growth is prudent to a successful grazing season – it is expensive to correct once animals are housed again.

What vaccinations would you recommend before turnout?

A: The vaccinations I recommend vary depending on herd/ ock status and other risk factors. The ubiquitous one would be for clostridial diseases in both cattle and small ruminants. This group of bacteria cause various syndromes, but most result in death, for example tetanus, black leg, pulpy kidney etc. The likelihood of this happening varies between farms or even elds, but your animals are more likely to come across clostridial spores if you have had recent ground works, a new ley, ood meadows or if you are grazing low down in the sward and there is increased chance of soil ingestion. Various clostridial vaccines are available that are relatively inexpensive.

For sheep, some of the clostridial vaccines also include Pasteurella, which generally a ects lambs when there is a sudden stressor, e.g. weaning or a change in weather conditions. Covering with a pasteurella vaccine pre-turnout or from three weeks of age if already grazing will prevent these deaths, however, cover is only for approximately six months so a booster should be considered later in the grazing season.

For cattle, historically vets have recommended leptospirosis vaccination before turnout. However I personally suspect that most of the spread these days will occur during the housing period, cow-to-cow, so I would advocate vaccinating as soon as possible if it is diagnosed on your farm.

Finally, I would urge cattle farmers to consider lungworm vaccination. Again, the likelihood of infestation depends on the farm’s history and weather. However, as an industry we are trying to reduce the use of anthelmintics – using lungworm vaccination, rather than routine treatment, is a great step to promoting farm biodiversity.

What sort of parasite burden might we expect this season?

A: The long-range forecasts appear to be for another hot summer. While terrible for grass and crop growth, it is great for reducing parasite burden. However, last year when it did rain, at the back end of summer we got a massive ush of gastrointestinal parasites in all our species. For this reason, even if the weather is hot and dry, we still advocate taking faecal egg counts across the summer to monitor parasite burdens. Adult animals routinely do not need treatment for parasites but suckling calves, lambs and kids start taking on su cient grass to pick up worms from about six weeks old. The lifecycle of most worms is approximately three weeks, so I would advocate taking your rst faecal egg count from about nine weeks old.

Obviously, this is going to be a ected by the calving or lambing period, when you turn them out, and the weather, but use this as a guide. Just be aware that coccidiosis can a ect young animals earlier than this, from about three weeks, so any ill thrift or loose faeces should be investigated by faecal egg count. Nematodirus will a ect lambs when a temperature change of 10ºC occurs.

A: The main nutritional de ciency I foresee is lack of grass, as we saw last year. Be mindful to monitor the body condition score of the adult animals and growth rates of the youngstock and consider supplementary forage feeding if either decrease.

Ironically, the trace element and mineral status of the cows is better if there is less moisture in the grass, as all molecules are concentrated. My main concern is that if it were to suddenly rain and there was a ush of grass for lactating animals, we would start to see magnesium de ciencies. Magnesium is not stored in the body, so if the intake is diluted by sudden lush grass, animals are prone to neurological e ects. If one animal is clinically a ected by magnesium de ciency (staggers), it is worth supplementing the whole group as it is likely that there will be some sub-clinically a ected.

Other trace elements to be aware of are copper, selenium, cobalt and iodine. Their availability in grass is widely variable across the UK so I would recommend blood testing your animals and getting analyses performed on forage so that any supplementation can take place if necessary, particularly at breeding times. FG