Vaccination Schedule for Cattle

Vaccination is very important part of any cattle operation. Here is the table for the vaccination schedule for cattle mostly for Pakistan and Indian region.

Month	Cattle &Buffaloes		Sheep & Goat
	Calves upto one year	Adults	Lambs/Kids	Adults
January	FMV & ETV	HSV	ETV	ETV
February	--	FMV & Anthrax	--	Anthrax
March	--	Theliria	--	Pox Vaccine
April	--	Black Quarter	--	FMV
May	FMV & ETV	--	ETV	CCPV
June	HSV	HSV	--	HSV
July	--	--	--	ETV
August	FMV & ETV	FMV & Anthrax	--	Anthrax
September	--	HSV	ETV & FMV	Pox Vaccine
October	--	Rinder Pest	--	FMV
November	--	--	--	CCPV
December	HSV	HSV	--	HSV

FMV= Foot & Mouth Vaccine;        

Enterotoxaemia Vaccine;  

HSV=Hemorrhagic Septicemia Vaccine

CCPV=Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia Vaccine

10 Key Principle of Profitable Calf Rearing

(NRM) Dr Bas Schouten Key Principles in Successful Calf Rearing

1. Calf Selection – Purchase a good quality calf

• Minimum weight 40kg
• No twins, sick, or induced calves
• Must be 5 days of age
• Dry and clean naval cord
• Bright and alert
• Check joints for swelling and pain

2. Colostrum – A good colostrum intake is vital for animal health and survival

• A calf needs at least 4 litres of colostrums within the first 12 hours after birth (ie 2 litres twice a day)

3. Entry into Barn

• Do health check (as in rule 1)
• Transport calves humanely in a covered vehicle with soft clean base of shavings, straw or bark at a minimum depth of 100mm. There must be enough floor space for calves to be able to sit - about 1 square meter per calf
• Spray cord with iodine before and after transport
• On entry into barn allow time for calves to de-stress by allowing rest
• Feed only electrolytes for the first 12 hours

4. Pen sizes

• Allow at least 1.5 – 2 square meters per calf
• No more than 10 – 12 calves per pen
• No more than 100 calves per barn
• Use more than one barn to control diseases and to separate age groups
• Separate old calves from young calves
• Avoid mixing calves – leave in one pen for the first 3 weeks

5. Housing – Calves must be sheltered for at least 3 weeks

• Calves should be dry and draught free
• Best is a barn that is twice as deep as it is wide
• Check for draughts at ground level
• Flooring – base of clay/sand with a slope to allow drainage
• Slats or raised flooring is often draughty and less suitable
• Bedding – straw, bark or shavings at least 200mm deep
• Add to bedding when required
• Control rodents and birds to prevent disease transfer
• There must be no water lying around barn or feeding areas

6. Ventilation and Drainage

• Good ventilation is critical to remove affluent gases.
• Ventilation should be adjustable by doors and windows on exterior walls in the barn
• High levels of ammonia indicates insufficient ventilation
• Drainage – see housing

7. Feeding Schedules

• Feed milk or a good quality Calf Milk Replacer (CMR) at the rate of at least 10% of the body weight daily (ie 40kg calf requires at least 4 litres a day)
• CMR – Follow the recommended mixing rate and volumes on the bag
• Make changes in volume or strength gradually and allow 3 days between changes
• When animals are under environmental or nutritional stresses, or when recovering from disease challenges, increase CMR concentrate to aid recovery

8. Milk and Milk Feeders

• Best results are achieved if calves are fed twice a day for at least 10 days
• Feed hot (40oC) for at least the first 14 days
• Teat feed – with a compartmentalised feeder
• Feed by the same person each day – preferable a woman

9. Concentrates and Roughage

• Feed a highly palatable concentrate ad lib from 5 days of age
• Allow access to hay or straw from 5 days of age
• Allow access to clean fresh water at all times
• Calves can be weaned off milk when consuming 1 kg concentrate per calf per day
• Continue meal/pellet supplement for at least 1 month post weaning off milk at the rate of 1.5 – 2 kg per day

10. Animal Health

• Sterilise barn, bedding and feeding utensils with a proven virucidal spray before entry into the barn and then twice weekly
• Carefully observe calves daily. Record and treat properly at therapeutic levels
• Autopics and faecal cultures and blood tests are valuable for the prevention and prevention of disease – consult with your vet
• For the treatment of calf scours remove calves from milk. Treat with a good quality electrolyte mixed at adequate levels to correct dehydration and to maintain fluid and energy balance. About 6 – 10 litres of electrolyte are required daily. Return to milk feeding when the scouring stops

40 liters of milk per cow per day

12,000 Liters Milk per Cow

By ZAC B. SARIAN

(MB.com.ph) High-tech agriculture in Israel is producing record yields in both animal and field crops. Vegetable farmers produce as much as 300 tons of tomatoes per hectare per year under greenhouse. And in the case of dairy cattle, they also have the highest production in the world – some 12,000 liters of milk per cow per lactation of 305 to 310 days. That’s 40 liters of milk per cow per day.

In comparison, the Philippine dairy farmer is making just about 10 liters a day per animal. A former senator who has a dairy farm in Laguna says they are getting an average of 9.7 liters per day per cow.

At the SAE Afikim(Afimilk) dairy farm which we visited during the Agritech press tour we participated in from December 4 to 7, the 900 cows being milked at that time were giving 40 liters each day. They are milked three times a day.

There are a number of reasons why milk yield is high in Israel. One is superior genetics. The Israelis have developed their own Israeli Holstein which is claimed to be adaptable to harsh and varied climatic conditions. Most of the cows are inseminated artificially with semen from proven sires.

Research in feeding and nutrition is contributing to the economical production of milk. Dairy cows are raised in confinement and are fed based on a total mixed ration (TMR). The milk cow’s TMR contains around 33 to 35 percent of forages (dry matter basis, mainly wheat silage). The remainder, 63 to 65 percent, is concentrates (grains and meals) and byproducts. The fact that the diet of Israeli cows contains relatively high percentage of agricultural and industrial byproducts lowers feeding costs. At the same time this reduces environmental contamination.

At a big kibbutz that we visited, we saw a wide planting of wheat. We were told that it was planted not for the grains but for silage making for cows.

Advanced technologies developed in Israel are also making a big impact on the efficiency of dairy farming in the country. One example is a flow-meter which is attached to the milking equipment. This automatically measures the milk flow and milking duration. It is also used as a means for early detection of mastitis and udder infection.

A typical dairy farm in Israel

Another is a tag containing an “activity meter” which is used to identify the cow and transmit the information to the computer regarding the cow’s general activity, detecting the sick cows as well as those that are in heat and need to be inseminated immediately.

Other recently developed tags can detect daily rumination-duration and lying duration, supplying information about a cow’s nutritional and welfare status.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, linear programming software developed in Israel assists in formulating the lowest cost rations for optimized feeding and production programs. A feed controller is a mobile unit attached to the mixing wagon which stores group-feeding data, and downloads it to the main computer. Data are interlinked with the herd management software to generate intake reports per head or group.

Also, cooling systems developed in Israel and based on Israeli-made equipment, are used in most dairy herds to help maintain relatively high production and fertility levels in summer, and reduce production seasonality.

Israel produces enough milk for its growing population. It could produce much more than its present production but dairy farming is regulated by means of production quotas. These quotas are set by the Dairy Board and prices are controlled by the government. According to special government regulations, no dairy farm may produce or market unprocessed milk.

This procedure helps to maintain the balance between supply and demand in the sector, while allowing continued growth and reasonable profitability.

Milk consumption in Israel has increased tremendously since the country was established in 1948. In 1950, milk consumption in Israel was about 90 million liters. By 2008, total milk consumption reached 1,280 million liters. Each Israeli, man, woman and child, now consumes an average of 180 liters per year. That’s about half liter a day.

Milk produced in Israel is made into many processed products. After milking, the milk undergoes a laboratory and quality test. It then continues through the pasteurization process, after which it can be manufactured into butter, yoghurt, cheese or other dairy products through totally automated systems. There’s a wide range of over 1,000 dairy products.

Back to the Afikim (Afimilk) dairy farm, the milking cows are really pampered. They are given feed throughout the day and are milked three times daily. The animals feed in a lower portion at the edge of the house where they also defecate. Each day, the manure is collected by a contractor who brings it to a biogas company. Afikim pays the manure contractor $140 per animal per year. The biogas company, on the other hand, uses the manure to generate methane gas for the generation of electricity.

Afikim’s Daniel Hojman estimates that their high-milking cows eat $8 worth of feed everyday. That’s small compared to the value of the milk produced. On the average, after deducting the expenses on the non-milking animals (the replacement stocks and dry cows), the estimated profit is between 23 and 25 percent of gross revenues.

Afikim employs a user-friendly software called AfiFarm Management Program developed specifically for the dairy farm. In a herdsman’s hands, AfiFarm is a powerful analysis tool used for the management of daily operations and long-term strategic planning. The program processes automatically gathered real time data and provides a wide range of analysis reports covering all the many different factors that the herdsman must know about the herd – yield, health, fertility, nutrition and more.

Afimilk’s Rojman said that AfiFarm supports strategic decision-making by using scientific models for individual and herd milk yield prediction, planning of cow replacements and strategic planning of nutrition.

AfiFarm also supports import/export data to and from external sources and features self-diagnostic and control capabilities.