Cattle health planning to reduce emissions

How health planning for your herd can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as improving animal health and productivity.

Herd health planning is the cornerstone of disease prevention and performance improvements, a combination that drives output and profitability in beef and dairy farming. By preventing disease on your farm you will save money and time incurred by treating sick animals, reduce the need for reactive treatments and improve your environmental footprint.

Healthy cattle produce fewer emissions per kilogram of meat or litre of milk than unhealthy animals. This is because their feed conversion ratio is better and so is their fertility.

Every animal that is lost to a preventable disease also increases GHG emissions. When cattle are disease-free there are inevitably fewer losses resulting from poor performance, mortalities and involuntary culls. They will also require less veterinary treatment and medicines, which will help reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance.

Including health and welfare traits in the selection of breeding stock that improve resilience to disease can also help to reduce antibiotic use.

These factors will also reduce the cost of production as fewer inputs and veterinary interventions are needed and beef cattle reach finished weight more quickly.

Good health not only underpins sustainability and efficiency, but animal welfare as well. High standards of welfare are essential for protecting the reputation of the industry and, together with health, are among the most significant issues influencing consumer trust and perception of meat and milk.

The mental health and wellbeing of farmers cannot be overlooked either. Dealing with sick animals can take its toll, therefore healthy cattle not only contribute to overall farm productivity but support the mental health of farmers too. Time and resources not spent on tending sick animals allows them to focus on proactive management practices.

Studies of endemic diseases have demonstrated the impact unhealthy cattle can have on the environment.

A study by Jonathan Statham and colleagues in 2020, concluded that mitigating bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) alone would cut GHG emissions of milk by around 4% per kilogram of milk in the average UK herd and by 11% in the worst performing (bottom 10%) herds.

For infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), GHG emissions can increase by 8% per kilogram of milk and by 20% per kilogram of beef.

Studies have also demonstrated the impact of liver fluke on performance. The growth rate of a beef animal with liver fluke is reduced by 4% and it takes an extra 19 days to finish, adding 2% to its GHG footprint; half of those emissions will be methane.

Routinely monitoring for liver fluke can be helpful in the decision-making process around:

• If and when to treat an animal
• What product to use
• Establishing whether a treatment has worked

It means that flukicide treatments are not given unnecessarily, reducing cost and labour and slowing the development of resistance.

Estimates suggest Johne’s disease can increase GHG emissions by approximately 25% per litre of milk produced and 40% per kilogram of beef – at least half of the emissions will be methane.

Johne’s disease will inevitably result in higher levels of involuntarily culls in affected herds, resulting in higher replacement rates, which feeds into GHG emissions.

Controlling mastitis and improving fertility alone can reduce GHG emissions by 6–7% in average herds and by 12–16% in the worst performing herds.

A written herd health plan provides an agreed method for dealing with disease, both preventative and curative, and for monitoring changes. It will help you recognise where weaknesses exist and set out actions to address these.

• Work with your vet and other advisers to create a herd health plan with clear, achievable goals
• Decide what your herd health priorities are, taking account of any obligations with supply contracts and farm-specific aspirations
• Take early action to improve herd health
• Monitor your livestock and reevaluate your farm health plan if your objectives are not being achieved – farm health plans should be dynamic, regularly discussed, and actively managed
• Maintain high standards of biosecurity to protect your farm against the incursion and spread of pests and diseases
• Where appropriate, consider breeding cattle with better disease resistance
• Consider and implement vaccination protocols

High standards of stockmanship, housing, health, hygiene and animal welfare are paramount, as is measuring, managing and monitoring the productivity gains from these.

Discuss targets with your team and vet, for example:

• Optimise daily liveweight gains to reduce days to slaughter or first calving
• Improve feed conversion efficiency to reduce inputs, increase growth rates and improve reproductive performance
• Focus on reducing involuntary culling resulting from abortions and other health issues

Keep an eye out for industry initiatives that can help your farm achieve its aims on health and disease prevention.

ImmunIGy is a novel lateral flow device (LFD) test that is used in conjunction with a Cube Reader for the quantitative determination of IgG antibody levels in blood.

The first part of the ImmuniGy project aims to confirm that the test results correlate with the current gold standard for IgG.

The second part of the project aims to determine if the measurement of IgG in dairy beef calves when they arrive at rearing units can be used to predict future performance, both alone and when used to improve the function of a pre-existing Calf Algorithm.