Cattle herd management strategies, such as disease detection and prevention, nutrition, vaccination, parasite control, and biosecurity, are important for your animals’ health and safety.
These strategies also help farmers identify health issues in their animals at an early stage and come up with solutions, said Gcinikhaya Xhantibe, a livestock technical advisor at the Red Meat Industry Service (RMIS), at a recent webinar on livestock growth.
Xhantibe explained how to manage herd health and the mistakes that most farmers make.
“You have to prevent diseases from entering your farm, from entering your animals, and you must be able to see an animal that is not okay. You must be able to see early symptoms of diseases, so you can be able to treat your animals.
Nutrition, clean water, and spotting early signs of disease
“We tend to focus more on medication and forget about nutrition. We also have to make sure your animals are in good condition. For them to be in good condition, you have to make sure of nutrition,” he said.
Xhantibe advised how to check the physical appearance of healthy animals and how to spot a sick animal.
“ A healthy animal should have bright and alert eyes; the eyes must not be teary. One of the signs when you see a sick animal, or when it is hydrated or dehydrated, is the eyes,” he said.
He highlighted the process of monitoring the body condition score of cattle and the importance of maintaining it.
“You have to make sure that your animals have a good body condition score. Your animals are not too thick, and your animals are not too fat, because the body condition score is so important in a way that it can affect the fertility of your animals.”
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The availability of clean water on farms is very important because it plays a crucial role in many aspects of animal health.
“The water that is available for drinking for your animals must be the water that you are willing to also drink; it must be that clean. When that water is that clean, the animals are going to drink it more, and once they drink more water, it means that they will have more appetite,” Xhantibe explained.
Vaccination, biosecurity safeguards, and record-keeping
He advised farmers to conduct parasite control for the calves at three months from birth with a dewormer, and vaccinate those calves at six months. Xhantibe urged farmers to consult a state veterinarian in your area for more information on the vaccination process.
“ I always advise farmers that they contact their state vets. They should approach them to do an annual vaccination programme for them, because the state vet of your area or animal health technician of the area is the one that knows the diseases that affect the animals of that particular area.”
He highlighted the importance of biosecurity and steps to prevent diseases from entering the farm. “We have to make sure that we practice biosecurity on our farms, because biosecurity is the first line of defence.
“Make sure that the animals that are new to your farm, you firstly quarantine them for 28 days so that they do not show any signs of being sick before you mingle them with your herd.”
Keeping animal health records is crucial, he added, and helps farmers in the long run.
“I always encourage farmers to do day-to-day activity record-keeping; once you go to the animals, you record everything that you did on the animals,” he said.
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