MSD Animal Health Demonstration Farm open day

Major Farming is one of five dairy farms with which MSD Animal Health has been collaborating across Great Britain over the last two years to showcase best practice in their approach to animal health and the adoption of technology.

Visitors will have the opportunity to gain an insight into each of MSD’s Ruminant business units product areas: biopharma and monitoring and animal identification, including electronic identification (EID). You will also hear about how working in conjunction with their vets has helped improve the herd’s performance and the farm team's workload. 

The event will provide opportunities to:

• Gain practical insights from the team at Major Farming, who manage every aspect of the business together
• Explore a modern, future-focused farm with a focus on optimal performance in dairy cows and youngstock
• Learn how monitoring behaviour, and vaccine protocols for known pathogens, are driving performance, production and longevity
• Take inspiration from outstanding youngstock rearing, with exceptionally low mortality rates
• Understand how this block calving dairy farm is surpassing industry standards
• Network with fellow farmers and industry professionals in a relaxed, informative setting

The morning will be spent going around three workstations; and after lunch there will be an opportunity to visit the grazing platform which is a key component of the dairy enterprise.

Workstation 1: Optimising animal health to drive productivity

Speakers will include:

• Gill Whitehurst, IVC Evidensia vets
• Sonja van Dijk, MSD Animal Health key account manager

In this workstation, visitors will be taken through the steps which have been taken to prevent disease on the farm; by reviewing the vaccination protocol against the industry recommended guideline against endemic disease; using diagnostics to identify the presence of sub-clinical disease including the use of Thoracic Ultrasound (TUS), adhering to strict biosecurity protocols during the calving season and in the early weeks of the calves lives to ensure they all get the best possible start in life.

Workstation 2: SenseHub monitoring to optimise herd performance

Speakers will include:

• Will Sanders, Major Farming farm manager
• Lizzy Mercer, MSD Animal Health customer success specialist
• Shrea Patel, IVC Evidensia vets

In this workstation, visitors will be given an overview of the SenseHub monitoring system and what it can support in terms of insight into the real time performance of the dairy herd from alerts at a group or individual animal level.

You will hear how the system has encouraged greater collaboration among the team involved in managing the dairy enterprise and how it has contributed to fine tune the performance of the dairy herd. In addition, a range of reports and KPIs help support the targeted intervention of the vet as soon as key issues are flagged.

Workstation 3: Animal identification and sorting gate demonstration

Speakers will include:

• Helen Sheppard, MSD Animal Health Allflex ID technical manager
• Nick Bird, MSD Animal Health SenseHub technical support specialist
• Nick Harvey, Major Farming senior herdsperson

In this workstation, visitors will experience a demonstration of both EID in action and how the farm makes best use of the sorting gate that has been installed to segregate animals from the herd with the minimum of effort.

With compulsory EID for cattle on the horizon, the team will provide insight into the existing range of Allflex tags available and plans for the future once EID is introduced.

The herd manager will share the benefits the sorting gate is delivering; consistently identifying animals that need further attention post-milking with the minimum of stress for both the animals and the farm staff, and how over the season it saves time that can be spent on other tasks.

Workstation 4: Tour of the grazing platform

After lunch, visitors will be given a tour of a proportion of the grazing platform which is core to the success of the dairy enterprise at Major Farming.

The tour will be led by the Major Farming team in conjunction with PastureTec, specialists in maximising the return from grass and forage.

Important information:

• The deadline for registration is Friday, 2 October
• Places are limited
• Light lunch provided