October 2025
Welcome to the October Newsletter
Hello and welcome to the October Newsletter – mixed bag weatherwise in September with plenty of rain early on then some welcome maize harvesting and planting weather at the end. The maize has been weeks early – helping with replanting, getting everyone off to a flying start to next year. I hope yours has gone well.
We had the unwelcome announcement on the 26th September that Bluetongue 3 has been diagnosed in Wales – a bovine on a beef fattening enterprise in Presteigne in Powys and a bovine in a sucker herd in Chepstow in Monmouthshire. Both animals were culled within 24 hours and investigations are ongoing at both premises and trying to determine the source of the virus. At the time of writing, there are movement restrictions only on those particular farms with the restriction zone/free zone border remaining the English/Welsh border. Vaccination remains our best tool against the virus. If you want a chat, please phone the office. Please continue to be vigilant of any suspicion of disease, here is a link to check them out again Bluetongue: how to spot and report it - GOV.UK and the web page www.gov.uk/guidance/bluetongue
Next month, we are holding a charity event in Llanharan Welfare Hall, on November 8th. See below for details. Your support would be much appreciated at what promises to be a fun evening.
Have you heard about our charity event?
Developmental programming
How the mother is fed during pregnancy can cause effects seen in the offspring. The effects were first noticed in humans where the birth weight of full-term babies influenced the proportion affected by heart disease and diabetes. Investigations and experiments carried out on farm animals, showed similar effects across both beef, sheep and dairy. However, in farm animals, the offspring either have reduced reproductive capability, or in dairy cows, reduced milk production. This is termed ‘developmental programming’ and is driven by the mother being under stress – either a lack of suitable food, or chronic disease process such as lameness.
When in-lamb ewes are underfed, the most common effect seen is a reduced reproductive potential in their ewe lambs. In these ewe lambs, puberty is delayed, meaning they are less likely to breed in their first year. On top of this, the ewe lambs’ ovulation rate is reduced, meaning more singles and less twins. However, this effect is not just seen in the first year, it is seen every breeding season for life.
The changes seen in experiments are large - 10 to 15% more twins (with similar barren rates) in the offspring of well-fed ewes. However, these effects were seen when Scottish Blackface ewes were kept on upland farms (high feed intake) and true hill farms (low feed intake), with no supplemental feed. It is recommended that ewes lose no more than 0.5 units of body condition score during mid-pregnancy. The results discussed above suggest that exceeding this condition loss risks reducing performance in the female offspring. This is particularly important in lowland farms aiming for high lambing percentages, as it is possible that replacement ewe lambs may not be capable of producing the required lamb numbers.
In beef cattle, most work has been done on the diet of in calf heifers. Here, as well as sufficient energy in the diet, it is important to ensure that the in-calf heifer has enough protein in her diet to allow her to continue growing whilst pregnant. When the offspring of these heifers were followed through life, effects were seen on both their growth and reproductive performance.
Growth rates in the offspring of underfed heifers were lower, meaning lower weaning weights, despite there being no difference in birthweight. However, it appears that the composition of the carcase was also changed. These calves had a lower killing out percentage, and less intramuscular fat, meaning a less marbled carcase, potentially affecting final price.
The reduction in reproductive performance was seen in female calves of underfed heifers being much slower to get in calf in their first year. There was a 10% reduction in the proportion of heifers getting in calf during the breeding season overall, but a 30% fall in heifers getting in calf in the first 3 weeks of the breeding season. This is important long term, as it means that the heifer has already slipped in the calving block, making it harder for her to get back in calf in time in subsequent years.
In dairy cows, comparisons are carried out between calves born to in-calf heifers, and calves born to milking cows. Having corrected for genetic potential, daughters of in-calf heifers produce more milk than daughters of milking cows, with the difference increasing with lactation number up to 100kg for third calvers and above. However, lifespan shows the opposite trend, with daughters of first lactation animals having the shortest lifespan, and daughter lifespan increasing with dam’s lactation number.
These effects are likely to be driven by the metabolic requirements for lactation placing the dam under stress but will be made greater by chronic problems such as lameness. Dairy diets will be formulated carefully to meet cows’ requirements, so attention should be paid to their environment to maximise feed intakes and limit metabolic stress.
The effects of developmental programming are large when diets are changed in controlled experiments, and over-feeding causes as many problems as underfeeding. It is important to check the body condition score of pregnant livestock so that feeding can be adjusted before significant effects are seen.
Acorn poisoning
We have been seeing a large number of animals affected by acorn poisoning this autumn. As well as there being large numbers of acorns, they also appear to contain more of the toxic compound.
Treatment of acorn poisoning is often difficult, as damage has already been done to the intestines and kidneys by the time the animal shows signs of being unwell.
Where possible, keep animals away from acorns, either by shutting them out of the field, or otherwise by putting up electric fencing around the areas with the heaviest acorn burdens.
Please make note of our new email address info@swfv.uk
