While inclement weather will have made spring 2018 one to forget for Irish farmers, in Limerick, snow was the least of Shane Gleeson’s worries.

“On the Thursday of the really bad snow, we had a case of scour in a young calf. Ten more followed after that and I lost five to it in total,” Shane told me on a recent visit.

Shane’s calving began on 6 January and he had 42 due in total. On 1 March, as Storm Emma gripped the country, Shane had his fist case of cryptosporidium.

He began to treat infected calves with Halocur (20ml – 2 x 10ml – per day for one week) and as a preventative, went with 10ml daily to all new calves. Weak calves were put on saline drips to rehydrate.

“I don’t mind sharing the details of my bad experience. Others would hide it, but if I can help others to prevent or overcome an outbreak of crypto, it’s worth telling the story. I’m convinced that colostrum was the difference eventually. That, and getting calves outside as soon as possible – even in the rain. I got colostrum from a local dairy man and the calves that got that beat the disease. It shows you the value of good neighbours and I must commend them for their help, be it farmers supplying colostrum or local nurses that got me up to speed on the rehydration process. My vets – Midwest Vets, were obviously fantastic too,” Shane told me.

Shane works off the farm full-time, which sometimes prohibits him from keeping an eye on younger calves to see whether enough colostrum has been ingested. Now he is taking the time to get enough colostrum into each and every newborn calf, be it from their own mothers or the imported dairy colostrum. He is also offering cows a small amount of soya bean meal in the weeks prior to calving, which helps to improve the potency and volume of their own colostrum.

The good news story on Shane’s farm this spring is his grass. On the advice of the BETTER management team and his own B&T adviser, Pat Blackwell, Shane began closing up paddocks in early October. This meant that the covers were there for him to get out early and he had his dairy beef calves out on 3 February, though they came back indoors during the snow. They are now out again.

Both slurry and urea were spread across the farm in February and while growth rates are low, these nutrients have helped to maintain Shane’s covers.

The crypto outbreak forced his hand and he had to turn out cows and young calves. Luckily, his home farm is dry and this is now almost completely grazed.

There is a good supply of grass on his out-farm, which has recently been further divided to make more paddocks, and stock will go there next in the hope that growth will have picked up by the time Shane has completed a rotation here.

Crypto scour is parasite-based and generally occurs in the second week of life. It can be hugely difficult to eradicate as many disinfectants do not work against it. An infected calf will shed billions of crypto eggs – only 10 are needed to establish an infection. Older animals can act as reservoirs for the disease, without themselves showing signs of infection. It is transmitted via the faecal-oral route. An important point of note is that crypto can spread to humans and cause diarrhoea, so proper hygiene is vital.

Steps to take

  • Isolate infected calves and their dams.
  • Vaccinating cows (Rotavec Corona) can help as it is often a combination of crypto and another viral scour that causes high mortality rates. Colostrum management is crucial for immunity here.
  • Administer Halocur for seven days and isolate recovered animals from the rest of the stock for a further seven days (note Halocur is POM).
  • Continue to feed infected calves as normal if they will drink and offer oral rehydration solutions on top of this (two to three litres daily).
  • Use Halocur prophylactically (as a preventative) on other calves.
  • Use IV drips to rehydrate very weak calves if necessary (based on veterinary guidance).
  • Ensure that enough colostrum is going into newborn calves – two litres twice in first six hours.
  • Feeding cows soya bean meal in the weeks prior to calving can help to improve colostrum quantity and quality.
  • Clean out calving pens twice weekly and get newborn animals outdoors as quickly as possible.
  • Don’t handle healthy stock after handling known infected animals.
  • Raise water troughs to at least 0.75m off the ground.
  • Steam-cleaning sheds between calving seasons will also help stop reoccurrence. Do this early on after calving and allow sheds to dry over the summer.
  • Effective disinfectants against cryptosporidium: 2% to 3% Keno Cox, 2% to 4% Neopredisan, 10% Ox-Virin, 3% hydrogen peroxide.

    • Upcoming BETTER farm walks

    In the next two weeks, the first farm walks of phase three of the BETTER farm beef programme will take place in Cavan and Sligo. The events will cover breeding and quality silage-making and will be held on the farms of Garreth McCormack outside Bailieborough and Glen McDermott, Castlebaldwin. Both farmers are part-time, use AI and are looking to make main silage crops in the seventies for digestibility percentage. There will be live demos of stock and machinery on the day as well as advice on using AI, synchronisation, choosing stock bulls, compacting calving patterns and fertilising for silage.

  • Thursday 5 April: Garreth McCormack, Skeagh, Bailieborough, Co Cavan, 3pm. Eircode: A82 A5R3.
  • Tuesday 10 April: Glen McDermott, Annagh, Riverstown, Co Sligo, 4pm. Eircode: F52 DY24