Blog

Red Tractor review, how we can help, is your training up to date?

Red Tractor Health Plans have been taking up a lot of my time this month, and this is often a good chance to review what has happened in the past year and identify areas where there are opportunities.

This has identified some real positives such as fertility improvements resulting in higher yields and more even calving pattern, less lame cows resulting in less antibiotic use and then fewer cows in the hospital pen; and less infectious disease impacting on both cow and calf health.

Health plans can also be useful to identify what aspects need attention. This can be cows but sometimes it is people. Staff skills training can be a good way of building staff loyalty. At the practice we can provide training across a broad range of topics. Currently we are running courses on calving and calf health but have recently covered other topics such as cattle behaviour (best practice in cattle handling – cows, races and crushes; sick cow recognition – changes, actions and records) or housing and health (skin lesions, cleanliness, mobility; good shed and cubicle design). We can review your staff skills and training requirements as part of the Health Plan.

Animal Health and Welfare review offers free vet time to investigate any aspect of concern in more depth. We have used this to review several areas including; trace element status, lameness, fertility and calf health including lung scanning. You simply need to be in receipt of BPS and register online. Let us know if you need help with registration and what aspect would be useful to you.