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Shining a light on our superstar techs

Vet technicians are fast becoming a highly sought-after addition to New Zealand veterinary practices. They were recently referred to as the “Teslas of the veterinary industry” (efficient and full of skills, yet difficult to replace if something goes wrong).Here at VetSouth, we are very lucky to have an amazing team of techs to support us and our clients.So, what do they do? Winton tech Brittany is getting prepared for the busiest time of year for techs, and shares her thoughts on t...

New retail head brings client relationships to the forefront

“In my first few weeks, I have learnt that VetSouth is a unique business in the amount of touch points it has with its clients. I see my role is to help the experience flow down through to the retail chain offering, so that clients know they are valued, are being looked after and will want to return.”Born and bred Southlander Steve Kelly has recently joined the VetSouth team as our new retail sales manager and has hit the ground running, with a passion for ensuring our clients get access to ...

Monitoring parasite burden

With a constant stream of decisions to make and work to be done on-farm, new technology that makes it easier for farmers to manage their animal health needs gets a thumbs up from us.We have just received some new faecal egg count machines that, once set up, will be able to give us results in less than 5 minutes, which we are pretty excited about!The Parasight system was born in Australia to combat the rise of anthelmintic (drench) resistance. The portable push-button machines show you an image o...

Value of a KeyVet

Our team is made up of specific vets, technicians and support staff who are your main points of contact. We believe that dealing with the same team helps us to build a “whole farm picture” and provides you with a better service. We want to get to know you, your staff, your animals and your goals and help you develop systems to achieve them.You have direct access to our team by mobile phone, but please still ring the clinic phone to book in visits, or for after hours emergencies (emergen...

Dairy cow nutrition at dry off

The dry period is an important time of the season for heavily pregnant cows, as it is a time for ‘restoration’ and ‘preparation’.Restoration: Milk glands in the udder need some time to recover in order to get ready for another year of milk production.Preparation: The cow can focus on putting more energy into her fast growing foetus in order to have a smooth calving that marks the start of another lactation year.There are a lot of changes that occur in a dairy cow around the time of dryin...

Two-tooths: Less treating, more testing

It is well established within the farming community that mixed age ewes, outside of a few very particular sets of circumstances (drought/starvation), do not need to be drenched routinely.This is because a healthy ewe’s immune system should be perfectly capable of keeping her parasite burden well under control.We often find that older ewes who are losing condition have other diseases and comorbidities (more than one, often chronic disease), such as gut cancer, poor teeth or johne's disease, whi...

Fertiliser prices may have a bigger impact…

We find ourselves in a very challenging farming environment. Our farmers are making significant strategic decisions every day to manage animal production and cash flow. If you are changing your fertiliser application schedule in light of increased prices (not putting on maintenance, reducing the area covered, etc), I urge you to consider how your stock will receive their selenium this season.We have seen in the past when selenium prills are missed - even for just one year - that the stock h...

Preparing ewes for next spring

Next spring seems ages away, but your recent weaning weights will have given you the best indication of how last spring went, making now the ideal time to prepare for lamb growth in the 2023-24 season.Would you like to go into the winter with ‘guaranteed knowledge’ that you have sufficient feed and body condition to have a successful lambing and lactation season to look forward to?The supplementary feed situation for this winter is looking good, with lots of excess pastures being bailed up o...

How to maximise weaner growth

They have lower feed intake and low liveweight (LW) gain in winter, with shorter daylight length, and high intake and potentially high LW gain in spring and summer, with increased daylight length.Slow winter growth is a function of both lower appetite and greater need for heat regulation. To meet chilled season targets, deer need to gain a minimum of 185g/d over the autumn.Weaners are not as sensitive to day-length as older deer, so have the potential to grow well in autumn. There are, however, ...

Bearing prevention

Bearings have long been a sore point for sheep farmers (and sheep) in the South, with little scientifically proven about the cause of them.There are, however, some things that you CAN do now to help to reduce the incidence of bearings in your flock in late gestation....

Beef weaning tips

Weaning your calves is a big day for your business and for your stock. However, smooth and successful weaning starts long before ‘separation day’, and ensuring optimal cow and calf health continues long after it.Here are some tips for each stage to help you get the most out of your calves....

Scrotal Mange in rams

Chorioptes mange, more commonly known as Scrotal Mange, is an important condition seen in NZ rams.The causative mite, Chorioptes bovis, lives and feeds on the skin of sheep, goats, cattle and horses. In sheep, ewes and lambs can both carry the mite, however it is most significant in rams.How does it present in sheep?Affected sheep usually haveThickened skin,Hair loss,Exudate (fluid that oozes out from blood vessels, especially as a result of a lesion or inflammation), andScabby formations on the...

Campylobacter always waiting in the wings

For West Otago farmer Richard Young, the mathematics was simple and pretty compelling. Do you risk a potential 5–10% loss in your lamb crop each year, or do you prevent that loss with a vaccination programme?...

Winton’s ‘rock’ becomes local shareholder

Production animal vet Keryn Cresswell has become the latest of our experienced vets to buy into VetSouth.Many of our Winton clients will recognise Keryn Creswell as a talented and dedicated production animal vet at VetSouth. After around 12.5 years of working with us, Keryn has decided to buy into the business, becoming the latest local shareholder and further strengthening our ties to the communities in which we work.Keryn started her vet career with us as a mixed animal vet, but now focus...

Combatting Campy with annual boosters

Many of our farmers are already vaccinating for Campylobacter in a bid to prevent abortion storms at lambing time. But, how many of you are topping up your flocks?With over half of M/A ewes shown to still be naïve to the bacteria, it may be time to rethink your vaccination plan to cover all of your flock (rather than just maiden ewes) and to introduce a third shot, or even an annual booster....

Top 'teaser' tips

It is that time of year to start thinking about teasers and ewe synchronising prior to mating.Teasers (vasectomised rams) are used to stimulate earlier cycling in ewes, or synchronise ewes that are already cycling. They can be particularly useful for ewe hoggets in their first year of mating who do not actively seek out rams.Here are some key considerations for managing your teasers pre-mating 2023:Teasers should have their surgical procedure 6 weeks before use to ensure adequate healing times a...

Scanning the herd

It’s that time of year again…time to think about pregnancy scanning your beef cows, and the benefits of getting us in for this are huge!These include:Age scanning cows into pregnancy groupsDetection of twinsDetection of abortions/fertility concernsAnalysis of bull performanceMore information for culling decisionsAbility to sell in-calf cattleMore control over the feed budget.Lets not forget the top quality conversation we can bring to the call out!We have a team of skilled pregnancy scanners...

Chicken care 101

Recent regulatory changes banning battery cages for layer hens in NZ mean supermarkets are now only accepting cage-free eggs. This is a great win for our feathered friends, who now have the room they need to be happy and productive, but it has left our egg shelves a little bare! In a bid to ensure we have eggs to go with our bacon, there has been a dramatic rise in Kiwis taking matters into their own hands and buying chooks.TradeMe reported a whopping 190% increase in searches for chickens ...

Are self-shedding sheep the answer to your prayers?

The reality of increased shearing costs and a continued poor return for crossbred wool has led to more interest in self-shedding breeds such as the Wiltshires and Aussie Whites.The introduction of self-shedding stock decreases the labour requirements around shearing, crutching, dagging and the associated yarding. But, do the benefits of transitioning your flock outweigh the costs?With little data on transitioning flocks and the resultant production outcome, Professor Steve Morris from Massey Uni...

Reducing Yersiniosis in weaner deer

The yersinia bacteria (Yersinia Psuedotuberculosis) are widespread on soil, water and pasture. Carrier animals, such as deer, birds, rabbits, pigs, cattle or sheep, shed the bacteria in their faeces. Deer then become infected by eating or drinking contaminated material. Stress is a major factor in making fawns vulnerable to yersiniosis around the time of weaning. Some of the main stresses include:WeaningCold, wet, windy weatherUnderfeeding, or a sudden change of feedTransportationA heavy in...

A new “top dog” for VetSouth

We are excited to announce the appointment of Ian Hunter to the role of General Manager at VetSouth. Hailing from the North of England, Yorkshireman Ian has spent the last couple of decades  managing and leading operational teams and businesses in a variety of industries across NZ. This has included GM roles at Toycomm Auto Recyclers, Canterbury Aluminium Ltd,  B&D Doors NZ Ltd, and Lion Nathan. He was also GM of Operations at Kiwicare Corporation Ltd; headed up Veritide and C...

Chocolate - the sweet but deadly treat

Chocolate is delicious - to both humans and dogs. Unfortunately, dogs are much slower to metabolise theobromine, one of the chemical components in chocolate, making even a small amount potentially toxic for them. While at the time it might seem funny that Fido the golden lab has had a good nosh on the block of chocolate left on the table, within a few hours, we might not be laughing so much. ...

Meet the Farm Distribution team

Simply text us your order and get your VetSouth products delivered direct to your farm.Roaming across Southland and Otago, our Farm Distribution team is out on the road helping all our farmers get the products they need, without having to leave the farm. Simply text us your order before 9am on your delivery day and we will pack it up and drop it off to you. Our busy team services the East, West, North and South, heading to a different location each day to enable us to deliver to all our clients ...

WelFarm: A vet's perspective

Find out more about this popular programme and what real-time impact it can have on-farm.Many of our clients have already signed up to WelFarm, but recently we have been receiving more enquiries about the programme and what real-time impact it can have on-farm. WelFarm is an NZ web-based assurance programme designed to help dairy farmers better understand key animal health markers and how they impact on the optimisation of on-farm production performance. Our rural Large Animal Veterinarians...

Reducing antimicrobial use at a local level

Mark Bryan looks into how VetSouth is performing and what changes farmers are implementing to reduce their antimicrobial usage.Antimicrobial use (AMU) is the term given to describe the use of antibiotics and antimicrobials. You may have noticed a strong movement over recent years to reduce AMU in both humans and animals. This is because antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a huge risk to our continued use of antimicrobials; and the more we use, the greater the risk. Of real concern for us is that a...