Beef

Optimising fertility is critical to the success of any beef suckler herd. The profitability of a suckler herd is directly related to the number of calves sold from it each year. We recognise therefore that fertility needs to take priority in any herd management decision.

Our vet team are motivated to help you achieve the fertility targets that underpin suckler herd profitability. Improving herd fertility not only means producing more calves each year, but also getting cows in calf quickly resulting in a tighter calving period. We can offer a number of services to help you achieve fertility success.

• Pre breeding visits to examine potentially problematic cows (e.g. late calvers)
• Pelvic measuring to aid replacement selection.
• Synchronisation and Artificial Insemination. 
• Sire selection advice. 
• Bull fertility testing.
• Accurate pregnancy diagnosis using portable ultrasound scanners. 
• Farm data analysis and bench marking. 
• Nutrition advice. 

In the suckler herd, feeding makes a particularly important contribution to fertility, calving ease and calf performance. Careful management of body condition throughout the production calendar is vital to allow cows to utilise cheaper, grazed grass and other home-grown feeds when available, without compromising performance during the rest of the season. 

Maximising feed efficiency is crucial in all growing and finishing systems. Driving feed intake requires careful consideration of gender, live weight and growth rate, genetic merit, animal health, stress, nutrition and feed management. 

We believe vets are uniquely placed to assess the success of feeding across all beef systems. Access to farm data, on farm observation and an understanding of the science behind successful feeding means we are well placed to advise on this topic. 

Some of our vets are highly experienced in the field of nutrition with further qualifications. Specialist computer programs are used to carry out ration formulation and body condition scoring alongside weight analysis is used to measure and monitor performance. 

Production is often limited by the environment animals are placed in. Our vets are able to consider performance in conjunction with a comprehensive assessment of building design and utilisation. Improving existing buildings, or designing new builds to highest standards, has a lasting and positive impact on animal health and productivity. 

We offer a range of competitively priced medicines including a full range of parasite control products. Medicine advice, availability and technical support are all included within our pricing structure. As well as fully stocked farm dispensaries at all of our branches we are able to offer a free zonal delivery service for medicines providing you with the peace of mind that access to medicines when you need them will not be a problem.

Infectious disease can have a devastating impact on health and productivity. If your herd has been living with a disease for some time you might not even be aware of the losses incurred. We offer routine surveillance and advise on national scheme membership, as well as perform risk assessments and action plans tailored to specific diseases.

Our teams contains BCVA Accredited Advisors for both BVD and Johne's

Post-Mortem investigations can be a vital way to gain information about the disease status of your farm. This increased understanding may allow you to implement changes that benefit the remainder of the herd now and in the future. 

Our team includes vets who have done further training in post-mortem technique and diagnosis. 

Proactive herd health advise is our main focus and we are proud to be able to offer this not only to our regular clients here in North Yorkshire and  but to travel further afield to work with clients whose location means we are unable to offer a reactive emergency service. This can be delivered on a regular basis to monitor ongoing herd health or in response to a disease outbreak working in conjunction with your regular vet. If you would like further information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

At Bishopton we are proud to work closely with our clients to promote the best ways to keep livestock healthy and provide the greatest economic return.

Through our sister company RAFT solutions we offer a wide range of advanced breeding services.

These include:

• Bull Fertility Examination
• Ram Fertility Examination
• Semen Collection
• Semen Analysis
• Embryo Collection and Transfer
• Repeat Breeder Investigation and Embryo Transfer
• Ovum Pick-up and In Vitro Fertilisation
• Semen and Embryo Storage