News & Advice

Reports of triple drench resistance are becoming far more commonplace in dairy heifers across NZ. To prevent this on our farms we need to be looking towards more sustainable use of drench going forward. A great starting point here is doing faecal egg count monitoring. Worm eggs in the faeces of cattle can give us […]

A lot is asked of calves after they are born and, in many ways, the odds are stacked against them. They are born without a functional immune system which still has four to six weeks to fully develop on them. Instead, they are reliant on the passive transfer of antibodies across their intestine from their […]

Cow wearables are no longer a novelty on New Zealand dairy cows. With over two years of collar analysis under our belt, I thought it appropriate to share a snippet of findings and trends we have picked up while working with client data. ‘Days the First Heat’ vary between farms (and first calvers always take […]

This is a summary of a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2024 by Vetlife Scientific on behalf of the Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) Background Following concerns from deer farmers about a novel severe form of lameness in adult stags[1] a national cross-sectional survey was developed by the authors of this study to estimate the prevalence […]

Vetlife production animal veterinarian Amy Avery has been practicing with Vetlife for over 13 years, the last eight of which have been at Vetlife Temuka. Amy has an active interest in calf rearing and herd health and is a keen proponent of our ‘Future Cow’ programme. Amy chose to specialise in farm animals after graduation […]

As Autumn is in full swing and we head towards winter, the opportunity to put weight on ewes with pasture alone is declining – if it was there at all recently. Off the back of drought conditions and a subsequent lack of feed, there are some lighter ewes around the countryside, but, if managed correctly, […]

Calf scours in New Zealand is commonly caused by any of the following: rotavirus, cryptosporidium, E.coli, coronavirus, salmonella and coccidiosis. As well as infectious causes of scours (diarrhoea), nutritional scours (as a result of various stresses, milk type changes) can also be pretty severe. Regardless of the cause, it is the ensuing dehydration that results […]

Hopefully, the weaning process has gone smoothly this year and, despite the recent dry conditions in many regions, with careful planning and feed management, you have still achieved some decent autumn growth rates in the fawns. As the day length has now decreased into winter, the growth potential of weaners has also decreased, so realistically […]

Drying cows off is an opportunity to reduce herd mastitis which only happens once a year. Doing this job well can have great results. Mistakes and treatment failures are frustrating and costly. This means having a good plan and great records of what happened to which cows and when is becoming essential.   What’s the […]

This is a question I hear often… but not often enough! Why not often enough? Because occasionally I am called in after the fact, when the cows are way behind production targets or the breeding has been terrible, or both. In these cases, by the time I am called it is too late, the damage […]

The use of cow monitoring technology in heat detection and rumination changes, has become commonplace on many dairy farms around New Zealand, but how about its use for detecting mastitis and reducing the financial impact of one of the most prevalent health issues in the New Zealand dairy herd?  Detecting mastitis with cow monitoring devices […]

“UBAC®,” is an exciting development in treating mastitis which is likely the largest cost to the New Zealand dairy industry. It was estimated to cost approximately $180 million for the 2005/2006 dairy season (National Mastitis Advisory Committee, 2006). While several factors can influence the costs per cow on an individual farm, Compton and McDougall (2011) estimated […]