These are the non-infectious causes of lameness, normally Shelley hoof or white line abscesses.

The connection between wall and sole is elastic, but is the weak point in the foot. 

Shelley hoof, which is a separation of wall and sole, is common but is not usually associated with lameness, although can cause a problem if mud becomes impacted.

We have teamed up with Vetoquinol, Semex and ActivfET to offer you a chance of winning a trip to World Dairy Expo 2018 in Madison.

We have a limited number of vouchers available. Each voucher entitles you to 3 donors each having a full OPU/IVP cycle on the same day with St Boniface Farm Vets, at a discounted total rate of £325 plus VAT (NB there will be additional fees of £95 plus VAT per embryo produced and keep fees may apply).

Embryo transfer techniques can be used very effectively alongside genomics.  If you can identify your best heifers by genomic testing, collect embryos from them, and implant them into your worst genomic heifers, your herd genetics can improve even more rapidly than via genomics or advanced breeding alone.

There are two collection techniques that can be used:

Clarifide is a new UK veterinary led genomics package that aligns genomic testing with breeding objectives and herd health goals on your farm.

Tony is a Clarifide vet and will work with you and your breeding advisor to develop a ranking tool that is bespoke to your farm. This will focus on those traits where an improvement through breeding will likely lead to an improvement in on-farm performance for your herd.

Genetic evaluation is changing.  Genomic testing is revolutionising the way dairy producers make management, selection and breeding decisions on the farm.  Up until now the major focus on genomic testing has been the benefit in identifying high quality young bulls early.  We can now use exactly the same power of prediction for female youngstock, as a cost-effective management tool available to dairy farmers.

More research than ever is going into calf nutrition and how differences during the first weeks of life can have a significant impact on the productivity of these animals over their lifetime. The effect of the environment and external factors on the expression of genes has long been studied in human medicine. Termed metabolic profiling, the scope to affect gene expression is mostly limited to early life. An example of this is seen when an increase of 100g average daily weight gain is achieved during the first 8 weeks of life, when feed conversion efficiency is at its highest.

English beef and dairy farmers can have their Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) test results uploaded to the national BVDFree database without charge until the end of March*.

The offer is open to all farmers who are registered with the BVDFree England scheme and is available for all results uploaded by the following labs: APHA, Biobest, CIS and NML. Farmers can register with the scheme at bvdfree.org.uk. The aim is to grow the number of searchable BVD statuses on the existing 65,000 strong database.

Through February, March and April St Boniface Farm Vets are running a series of meetings addressing cattle fertility and healthy calf production. The series begins with calf rearing and the promotion of rapid growth to produce an efficient and healthy heifer.