Scour prevention made cost effective
SCOURS prevention and treatment is now simple and cost-effective for Southland calf rearer Vickey Harrington.
Starting her firth year of calf rearing, and expecting 1000 calves to pass through her hands this year, Harrington uses NRM Biopect to guard against scouring and weight loss.
She says that it takes a great deal of the animal health worry out of calf rearing on a large scale.
Vickey and Raymond Harrrington farm dairy grazers, sheep and beef cattle on 653-hectares at Kauana, near Winton.
Friesan bull calves are collected locally at four days old and are taken through to 100kg, after about 10-12 weeks.
Weaning is at about 6 six or seven weeks, with ad-lib grain and calf meal.
Each calf gets two days on Biopect at standard dose of 50g in two litres of milk after pick up and arrival.
Last year Harrington reared 550 calves and says Biopect’s reliability is part of the reason why she is confident to go to 1000 calves this year.
In previous years she used an electrolyte of her own making, but scouring calves had to be taken off the milk.
“If a calf were to scour during the first few weeks on whole milk then it costs me about $3 worth of Biopect to get it right again,” Harrington says.
“Biopect stops all that downtime associated with scouring which can make calf rearing so unpleasant.”
Biopect is made in Europe and imported by NRM New Zealand . It is a complete natural remedy for the treatment of diarrhoea, the harmful bacteria are removed and the natural balance of the gut is re-established.
Biopect contains no antibiotics of sulphonamides but can be used alongside veterinary prescriptions for severe scours.
There is no withholding period.
It can also be used as a preventative at half dose three days before calves are exposed to stress.