In the third part of our health planning academies, vet Dick Sibley explains how setting targets and objectives regarding health planning for beef cattle can pay

Health planning for beef farmers is a matter of setting objectives and targets and achieving them in a systematic and rational way alongside your farm vet. Disease is not inevitable all health issues can be controlled, but some are more important than others.
Starting the process is about measuring what you have got, managing priorities and monitoring progress. If this can be put into a written document and offered to the farm assurance inspector, all the better, but the process is what is important and results paramount.

Where to start

The objective for any suckler herd is to get a weaned calf from every cow going to the bull. A well-grown, healthy animal that will go on to make quality beef.

In reality the average commercial suckler herd manages to wean fewer than 90 calves for every 100 cows served. What happens to the other 10? Some are aborted, some die at birth and some succumb to disease. Many of the best herds manage more than 96% weaned, as well as higher weaning weights. It's not luck, it's judgement. Good stockmanship with the help of health planning can be achieved by anyone.

Know what you have got

A review of losses can be uncomfortable. It is essential to know what is going on in the herd and assess what could happen.
Knowing what you have got requires a strategic approach to disease surveillance. Every loss must be noted and a reason established. If you do not know why a calf died, find out. Reproductive failure can be disastrous in a suckler herd, so find out why. When a definitive answer cannot be found, don't give up. A negative test result rules out that particular cause and can avoid unnecessary and costly interventions.

Calf losses

Birth is a risky time for both mother and calf. Expect 15% dystocia in heifers and 5% in cows and know when to intervene. Calving cows is as much an art as a science, but should not be left to trial and error.

Straightening a leg should not be a great challenge, but there should be an agreed and fully understood plan for traction on big calves - when to start and when to stop.

Watch out for crossing front legs and hyperactivity when you start pulling. Plan to deal with the problem calf that won't breathe properly, or won't raise its head. These calves are not in need of being hung over a gate, they are going into metabolic acidosis, which needs correcting. Agree a standard procedure to deal with them, including advice from your vet so that everyone knows what to do when it happens.

Colostrum is the elixir of life. It takes 20 minutes to suck an adequate amount of colostrum and a calf needs to do that in the first six hours of life, before the gut loses the ability to absorb crucial proteins. It will have no other protection from infections, so colostrum is essential. Plan for the calf that can't suck or the mother who can't provide.

Colostrum will store in the freezer for several months and can be gently thawed in warm water or the microwave, but do not allow it to go above body temperature, as this will cook those protective proteins. Most calves suffering from navel ill, joint ill, scour and pneumonia succumb because they have received insufficient colostrum.

Disease is the result of imbalance between host and pathogen. When the host (the cow or the calf) is strong and resistant and the pathogen (the bacterium, virus or parasite) is weak and few in number, the host will see off the pathogen and stay healthy. Once disease strikes, it is too late and intervention is a matter of damage limitation.

Calf scour and pneumonia are classic examples of infections where host and pathogen battle it out for supremacy. A plan to reduce the infective load and protect the calf will inevitably evolve out of a risk analysis and management plan for calf scour.

Remember also that vaccines are totally dependent upon colostrum to protect the calf.

Plan for when things go wrong. A standard operating procedure for the scouring calf should be agreed and followed by everyone.

Few scours are caused by bacterial infections and scouring calves are not suffering from antibiotic deficiency. Fluid and mineral balance must be restored and if their skin tents and they lose their suck reflex, this is unlikely to be achieved by simple oral rehydration. Intravenous fluids may be necessary.

Standard procedures for routine husbandry tasks are also worth a regular review. There may be a better way of disbudding and castrating which will reduce stress and avoid susceptibility to disease.

Plan to beat disease

Controlling classical infectious diseases is the ultimate in health planning. Knowing what you have got, assessing its impact and setting about control and protection is worth pursuing, as the consequences of uncontrolled BVD, IBR, Johne's or leptospirosis can be disastrous.

Biosecurity is all about risk management. Assess the level of risk and the potential impact and then plan to manage those risks in a practical and effective way.

This may involve the use of vaccines, minimising exposure and protecting the herd. The biggest biosecurity risk to any herd is the new animal (see panel), which may threaten the indigenous stock, or may be at risk from diseases already in the herd.

Surveillance of infectious diseases requires recognition of clinical signs in infected animals and use of tests on the whole herd or selected animals.

Blood tests can appear expensive and inconvenient, but careful thought and planning can limit cost and provide a wealth of information. Getting the vet to take some extra samples at the brucellosis or TB test should not cost a lot and there is generally no need to test the whole herd.