News & Advice

Calving will be well underway or finished for most farmers by now.  Therefore, mating is just around the corner, and we should be asking ourselves what key management decisions can be made now to maximise beef herd profitability. It is known that the productivity of the beef herd is predominantly influenced by reproductive efficiency.  More […]

Working dogs are an essential part of a sheep and beef farming operation. Vetlife partnered with Massey University to conduct a working dog study in New Zealand which collected data on: feeding, housing, general health practices, training and condition, disease and injury, career duration and risk factors for disease, injury and end of career. No […]

Harriet, a four-month old female greyhound, was presented to the Oxford clinic with the suspicion of a dislocated toe. Greyhound puppies are reared on their mothers until around 10 weeks of age, before being weaned with their litter mates and managed in small paddocks with kennel shelter. This puppy was apparently normal at weaning and […]

Congratulations to a local Fairlie family on their litter of adorable Jack Russell Terrier puppies born from a successful artificial insemination performed by Dr. Hillary Nicolson of Vetlife Fairlie. Teazel’s humans sought help from Vetlife after it became clear that Teazel was not having a bar of ‘standing’ for the baby daddy ‘Ace’, even although […]

MPI have a commitment to assuring New Zealand’s export customers that we are free from TSE’s (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, known as mad cow disease).  This helps keep exportation demand strong for local farmers. Biosecurity New Zealand offer financial incentives to help monitor animals which may present clinical neurological signs.  This financial incentive of $150 plus […]

It is common practice to winter young growing beef cattle on brassica crops. Brassica crops are a great source of dry matter over a period when dry matter is at a premium. Good crops may yield 6-7 tonnes of DM/ha, and, in wet areas, condensing stock onto a good crop enables valuable winter pasture to […]

“Can this be achieved?” you may ask, because if you do not drench your lambs regularly, they will go backwards and you will lose money! Maybe not necessarily. A report just out from the UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, found that monitoring of faecal egg counts (FECs) by their suppliers (New Zealand farmers) using the latest […]

This spring, somewhere between 3 -9% of dairy heifer calves will die within 48 hours of birth, and a further 5-11% will die before weaning.  With similar losses in overseas dairy systems, this is a major welfare and productivity issue for all of us involved in the dairy industry. Vetlife vets, techs and farmers have […]

Metrichecking is used to detect endometritis, or ‘dirty cows’. Endometritis is a chronic infection of the uterine lining and severely affects reproductive performance if left untreated. Why metricheck your cows? Metrichecking is used to detect endometritis, or ‘dirty cows’. Endometritis is a chronic infection of the uterine lining and severely affects reproductive performance if left […]

Understanding where lamb losses are occurring is very valuable information and, when utilised, can help improve future lamb survival. From scanning to tailing it is normal to see losses, but if you are seeing losses greater than 15% then there is room for improvement and an opportunity to increase efficiency. Losses tend to fall into […]

No matter how well the process of calving goes we always end up with a myriad downer cows, the bane of spring. They represent a lot of cost, effort and wastage. However, it is important to get the diagnosis right. Not all downer cows are due to metabolic issues. The list of downer cows includes […]

Cattle with horns are dangerous to both cattle and humans alike, and this leads to the disbudding of around two million calves every year in New Zealand.  Calves are ideally done between 2 and 6 weeks old as the procedure becomes more invasive, stressful and less reliable in older animals. It is essential to ensure […]