M Bovis will make for a different type of season

Outlook
with Bill Webb
Bill Webb Feed Solutions

We hope everyone took advantage of men’s health month in June and got a check-up at their GP. With calving starting soon farmers will be busy and won’t have much time for visiting doctors. So hopefully they’ve done it – or have at least made an appointment.

The Mycoplasma Bovis outbreak is really starting to get farmer’s attention. They’re really starting to take on-board that they’re going to have to be pretty proactive about trying keep it off-farm and reduce its spread.

At Fieldays we found everyone was quite nervous and worried about it. The trouble is farmers don’t know who has got it and who hasn’t, or the farms under restrictions. They’re not sure if it’s their neighbour or not, so are unsure if they need to put in extra boundary fencing to keep stock away.

So the Privacy Act is causing a lot of grief out there. If farmers knew the farms infected they’d be able to avoid them – they could work around it – to reduce the chance of contamination of their own farms and prevent further spread.

So farmers will have to be very proactive in how they’re going to reduce the risk of infection of M Bovis on their properties. They may have to start vetting the type of vehicles coming on-farm, find out where machinery has been, set up wash stations and disinfectant areas for visitors with dirty gumboots.

It’s a bit like when the kiwifruit industry was dealing with the spread of Psa-V. Orchardists were disinfecting vehicles and footwear – all that sort of thing. I know it sounds a bit over the top but if farmers want to keep themselves secure in terms of biosecurity they’ll have to do it. They’ll also have to be strict on stock entering their farm – find out where they came from first.

Obviously, keeping NAIT records is very important. Farmers need to ensure they’re focused on getting all of these numbers right. Doing this will step up their game plan.

So farmers will have to be very vigilant. In fact, we’re all going to have to be vigilant. All of these measures will make for a different type of season – and I’m not sure where it’s all going to end.

Think of a fertiliser truck – which farm did it come from? Did it have any cow crap on it? Or a stock-truck – where did it come from? What stock has been on-board? Are the stock-trucks going wash out after every delivery? I don’t think so. If they did have to where are they going to wash and when? How long will it take? How far will they have to travel to do so? And at what cost?

Vets, Artificial Breeding technicians coming on-farm – will they have to disinfect their vehicles, footwear and equipment? I suppose it’s up to the individual farmer on how far they want to take it. So there’s a lot to think about and get their heads around.

At Fieldays farmers were happy with the predicted payout forecast but also a little concerned with Fonterra and where it’s heading. Then there was M Bovis and environmental issues.

So they’re all wondering where it’s all heading. Fieldays didn’t seem to offer a lot of new stuff – just more things that do things better. More technology for fertiliser placement and mapping, yield monitoring etc with science is connecting up more and more.

We’ve still got grazers but the cows head back to the farms soon. It’s been a wet winter so far – we’ve had rain just about every day. So it’s hard not to make a mess of paddocks and hard to keep condition on cows – because they’re burning energy just to stay warm. Pugging damage in paddocks could be a problem for grass regrowth come spring. So farmers need to plan for it.

Pastures might be a bit open and prone to weeds coming through. Farmers should be onto it and spray them sooner than later. Otherwise they’ll end up with paddocks full of weeds and not grass. They could drill in new grass if spring is dry enough to stitch in a bit to keep weeds at bay. So another challenging season so far. Fortunately, we still have a reasonable supply of quality silage, and straw available for anyone that gets caught short of supplement going into spring.

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