Ontario Agriculture

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U of G OVC Student Veterinarians Share Experiences Working With Animals in Local Clinics - Externship

Diagnostics, clinical skills, problem solving, and working with clients are all critical pieces in a student veterinarian’s education. This summer, five student veterinarians have been blogging during their practical experience (externship) at veterinary practices.

Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Ministry of Rural Affairs (OMAF and MRA), students must complete an eight-week Externship Course between third and fourth year in a rural (companion and food animal or companion and equine) practice.

This week student-veterinarian Lindsay talked about the broad knowledge required by dairy veterinarians. Check out www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/externship for the latest blog and click on each student's photo to access all of their blogs.

Many factors contribute to dairy herd health

After completing three years of veterinary school I feel like I have been taught a lot of information! However, going into a career of dairy medicine requires knowledge about so much more than just dairy medicine.

One important component of dairy farming that is important for vets to know about is nutrition. Nutrition affects production and transition cow health and therefore is very important for a vet to know about. There are several vets at Heartland Veterinary Services that are very interested in nutrition and I have learned a lot talking with them and walking crop fields to know when they are ready to be harvested.

One aspect of dairy farming that I am very interested in is barn design. Many farmers ask veterinarians about their opinion when building a new barn so it is something I would like to learn more about. There are five key things that need to be assessed when building a new barn: cattle resting space, cattle walking space/flooring, water sources, feeding space and ventilation. Within each of these categories are many aspects of barn design to think about. Now when I go into a barn with a veterinarian I try to remember to assess the barn for these five things.

Another thing key to being a good dairy veterinarian is being able to assess production traits. Many dairy farmers use a milk recording service called CanWest DHI. This company collects production data on farms to be used for management purposes. Things that are recorded include: herd average milk production, fat and protein production, individual cow measurements, somatic cell measurements, average age at first calving, longevity, etc. These values are used to assess how the dairy farm is doing and how it can be improved. The veterinarian plays an integral part in this!

Growing up on a dairy farm I was lucky enough to be exposed to many of these components of dairy farming, but I still have lots to learn!

 

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Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

July Heat Wave Puts Midwest Corn and Soybeans Under Pressure

A major heat wave is building across the central and eastern United States, raising concerns for corn and soybean crops as July begins.

- Derecho climatology (Gaustini/Bosart): a corridor through the northern Plains/upper Midwest carries a >65% annual chance of a derecho-strength MCS, driven by northwest flow on the ridge's periphery. We must watch this region over the next 60 days. More on this below... - Cold North Atlantic: Years with the current North Atlantic cold-tongue pattern favor western troughs + heat pushing into the Midwest. Caveat: rapid warming on the south side of the cold plume means the simple composite likely understates the evolving pattern. Plus the Gulf of Alaska has been warming which could negate these impacts. See this part of the video for a deeper dive. - Modeling caution: During Summer, global models like the ECMWF and GFS are at their weakest due to coarse resolution and their inability to resolve convection. So we lean on the hi-res models like the HRRR and then ensembles for large scale anomalies. Be very careful with model forecasts to total precipitation... - National yield projection

A major heat wave is building across the central and eastern United States, raising concerns for corn and soybean crops as July begins. Nutrien’s Eric Snodgrass says producers should closely monitor high heat, overnight temperatures, derecho risk and dry pockets in key growing regions.

Swine Health Advisory Committee Sets Five Focus Areas

The Swine Health advisory committee is focused on turning strategy into action. To help advance the National Swine Health Strategy, the committee identified five focus areas that will drive action and measurable progress for U.S. pork producers. A Producer-Led Push for Swine Health Pork producers need a swine health strategy that actually works on the farm. The Swine Health advisory committee was created to make sure that happens. For the inaugural meeting in May, the advisory committee’s twenty-seven producers, veterinarians, USDA staff and packers/processors met in Des Moines and left with a clear direction: build on what’s working and accelerate action. The National Swine Health Strategy (NSHS) only succeeds if it reflects producers’ needs, and the advisory committee is responsible for ensuring it delivers. The advisory committee identified five focus areas to drive measurable progress in swine health. The Top 5 Focus Areas Driving Progress Build Industry Buy-In for the NSHS Fi

Closing the Gaps: New Research Investments Support Swine Disease Elimination

The Swine Disease Research task force recently funded new PRRSV and PEDV research projects that support National Swine Health Strategy priorities. These projects aim to close critical knowledge gaps and provide producers with practical information to support disease elimination efforts. Disease elimination doesn’t happen with a single breakthrough. It happens when the industry asks and answers the hard questions that still stand in the way. New research projects recently selected by the Swine Disease Research task force will address those hard questions. Each project aligns with the National Swine Health Strategy (NSHS) priority of eliminating endemic diseases, addresses key knowledge gaps and aims to deliver information to help producers make better herd health decisions. The latest research investments concentrate on two diseases that continue to challenge U.S. pork production: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV).

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