ANIMAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION
All the farmers on Sernick’s programme follow a standard plan for animal health and nutrition. The greatest challenge is tick-borne diseases. Patrick says they seldom lose animals to diseases such as botulism, anthrax, lumpy skin and Rift Valley fever because they apply the principle that prevention is better than cure. “We have a strict vaccination protocol that everyone has to follow,” he explains.
Brucellosis (contagious abortion), which is fairly common in the Free State, is a big problem. “We teach our farmers to vaccinate their heifer calves between four and eight months with S19 or RB51 to protect against brucellosis. Then we vaccinate again with RB51 60 days before they are ready to mate,” Patrick says.
Supplementary feed in summer and winter compensates for year-round nutrient deficiencies in the grass. “We feed winter licks with 40% protein at 400g to 500g per animal per day. This gets their intakes up, and they should be able to eat more dry winter grass to help maintain their body condition,” he says. Pregnant cows are fed production
licks to maintain body condition, support the birth of healthy calves and help the mother with milk production. Calves are weaned at six months at an average weight of 200kg to 220kg.
Once the grass has flushed after the first September rain, they switch to summer licks. “There’s only about 10% protein in these licks and they are higher in phosphorus. There is a deficiency of phosphorus in South African soils, and for the greener months until May cattle should have a summer lick,” explains Patrick.
The bulls are tested for fertility and trichomoniasis in August, three months before they go into the cow herds. The bulls are always on bull finisher or a production lick. Patrick describes the bull finisher as a complete ration containing natural protein, NPN (non-protein nitrogen compounds), carbohydrates and other trace minerals.
The bulls run with the cows from December to March. “For those with two breeding seasons, the same process will be repeated after the bulls are taken out at the end of the summer breeding season, before they go back for the winter season.”