Event details

Sponsored By

Webinar Overview

Chaired by Farmers Guardian editor Katie Jones, this episode sees MSD Animal Health Technical Advisor Stephanie Small joined by Tom Pattison, who farms a high-performing pedigree Holstein herd at Thrintoft near Northallerton, to discuss how technology and proactive management can help detect and prevent the key health challenges facing dairy calves. The conversation covers the fundamentals of disease prevention — from colostrum management and hygienic housing through to proactive vaccination programmes — before exploring how monitoring technology can support the early detection of scour and pneumonia, two of the most significant threats to calf health. The panel also discusses how technology can be used around weaning to assess how calves are responding to dietary changes and to flag problems before they escalate. With the Willow Tree herd sitting in the top few percent of UK dairy herds for lifetime yield, Tom shares how investing in monitoring technology is helping to give calves the best possible start in life, while Stephanie provides the technical perspective on prevention, early detection and the role of data in making better decisions for young stock.

Presenters

Katie Jones
Katie Jones

Head of Livestock at the Farmers Guardian and Editor of Dairy Farmer magazine

Stephanie Small
Stephanie Small

Technical Advisor, MSD Animal Health

Having started milking cows next door to her childhood home in Worcestershire at the tender age of twelve years old, Steph Small graduated as a vet in 2010 and spent several years in farm animal practice in mid-Wales and Oxfordshire. She joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2014, moving to MSD Animal Health in 2017. She has been technical lead for dairy solutions at MSD since 2019 and now holds the title of ‘Veterinary Advisor for Technology’, advising on the real-world aspects of using data to inform clinical and management decisions on farm to improve health, welfare and sustainability. Her other special interests include the impact of farm technology on the working lives of farm staff and veterinary surgeons, udder health and infectious diseases of adult cattle.
Tom Pattison
Tom Pattison

Farmer

Tom Pattison farms with his father at Thrintoft near Northallerton where their Willow Tree herd of pedigree Holsteins produces an average of 13,100 litres per lactation at 4.25% butterfat and 3.4% protein. Calving and housed all year round, the herd sits in the top few percent of UK dairy herds in terms of lifetime yield, with a current figure of 23.4kg of milk per day of life. With one of the herd’s cows in her 10th lactation and having given 172,000 kilos of milk to date, the herd is performing well, but the Pattisons aren’t ones to rest on their laurels and are always looking for ways to improve production efficiencies. Therefore, in addition to focusing on nutrition to achieve better growth rates in their youngstock, the Pattisons have also invested in a herd monitoring system to monitor calf health and to improve heat detection and optimise AI timing in the farm’s adult cows and heifers.

Register

Do you also want to register for the following events?

Our registration process uses cookies, by submitting this registration form you agree to our cookie policy. * Required Fields