LLM Farm Vets Newsletter June 2019

Newsletter
June 2019
In this edition...
• Ewes News - Scratching that itch!
• Dairy Talk - Why dung beetles are so good!
• Upcoming Events & Training Courses
• VetTech Tails - Worm FEC
www.llmfarmvets.co.uk 1

Contents
• LLM 20th Anniversary...............................................................................4
• Upcoming Events and Training Courses...................................................5
• Classifieds.................................................................................................7
• Premier Fantasy Football League.............................................................8
• Plastic Reduction Push.............................................................................9
• Dairy Talk - Unsung Heroes......................................................................10
• VetTech Tails - Worm FEC........................................................................13
• Ewes News - Scratching that itch!.............................................................14
Whitchurch...........01948 663000
Eccleshall.............01785 472211
Wrexham..............01978 280580
Pharmacy.............01948 302424
Accounts..............01948 663059
Lancashire...........01772 866014
Clitheroe...............01200 545456
Bakewell...............01629 691692
LLM Vet Team
Den Leonard
07970 267494
Bill May
07968 318493
Simon King
07973 271754
Tom Wright
07590 183804
Dan Stevenson
07894 586233
Mike Christie
07775 561820
Sarah Gibbs
07711 593783
Hannah Batty
07841 919227
Rob Hall
07889 408092
Claire Whittle
07841 775695
Tom Jackson
07837 291097
Raquel Teixeira
07889 599810
Peter Neilson
07889 595908
Lancashire Vets
Ian Cure
07590 225284
Rob Howe
07590 225283
Matt Hylands
07584 684919
Alun Beckett
07850 326432
Roland Millar
07894 406225
Matt Haslam
07502 994708
Derbyshire Vets
Andrew Henderson
07841 675549
Katie Fitzgerald
07765 644909
VetTech Team
Natalie Parker
07841 775697
Emily Hallett
07845 817070
Rachel Cooper
07834 547832
Bertie Martin
07711 593780
Steph Cowgill
07505 443231
Joe Wheeler
07849 835379
Jo Brown
07841 501655
Vikki Stockdale
07730 765543
UKET Team
UKET Office
01948 663124
Spike Newman
07921 374036
Stan Matthews
07971 118909
TB Team
Janka Zaleska
07894 586231
Alberto Alaman
07720 737872
Des Leonard
07811 342289
Simion Tiberiu Piticariu
07720 740881
Tudor Bunea
07849 835375
Emilio Martinez
07907 410983
Megan Thorpe
07714 770328
Lilli Fox
07889 580432
2

Welcome to the June edition
of your newsletter!
As I write this I’m sat in the office on
a peaceful Tuesday morning with a
coffee in hand…the birds are singing,
I’ve had a McDonalds breakfast,
Liverpool won the Champions League
for the sixth time on Saturday night
(Come on The Reds!!) and the first
episode of this years’ “Love lsland”
aired last night which both myself,
Dan and the other girls in the office
are extremely excited about! All in all a
pretty good week so far!
You’ve all been busy too these past
few weeks, everyone’s been silaging,
cows are out enjoying the weather and
it feels like summer’s in the air which of
course means show time! It was great
to see you all out at Stafford Show
last week – lovely to see some of our
clients placing in the show ring too!
Well done all! Coming up next we’ve
got Derbyshire County Show, Newport
and Great Eccleston - so see you all
there hopefully!
Before I sign off, I can’t possibly forget
the party to end all parties! You are all
very welcome to come and join us for a
drink on Saturday 20th July to celebrate
20 years of LLM (yes – Den, Bill and
Charlie are really that old! Some have
aged better than others…) There’s
some more info about this on page 4.
Somehow I’ve been roped into DJing,
six years on from my last ever gig, so
I’ll be dusting off my headphones for
one night only – worth a laugh right?
Look forward to seeing you all there!
Also, this month we’re trying to do our
bit with the global plastic problem -
every little helps. Rob Howe gives us a
very in-depth look at why dung beetles
are good for farms. Dan Stevenson
discusses scab in Ewes News and
Steph highlights the benefits of worm
egg counts towards combating wormer
resistance.
We hope you enjoy! And as always,
any questions, give us a shout.
Claire
3

Whitchurch Upcoming Events
Cheers to
20 years!
We would love to invite you to our 20th anniversary party
Saturday 20th July 2019
at the Whitchurch Practice Party Paddock, 6:00pm till midnight
luna sounds
RODEO
LIVE BAND
WHO’S GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
BBQ
DJ ASIAN
PERSUASION
OUR VERY OWN CLAIRE WHITTLE
GIN BAR
Tickets £10
(This is for number purposes and will be exchanged for tokens on the evening. Entry with
tickets only. Any proceeds will go to charity.)
Please put your ticket order in at the practice by Friday 5th July
4
# LLMTURNS20

It’s Show Time!
And before you know it, it’s that time of year again! Come and join us at the shows:
Derbyshire Show
23rd June
Bakewell Show
30th June
Newport Show
13th July
Great Eccleston Show
13th & 14th July
i
Nantwich Show
31st July
Oswestry Show
3rd August
Hope Show
August Bank Holiday
Garstang Show
3rd August
Training Courses
Training Course Date Time Location
WHITCHURCH
UK Dairy Day
11th September
Hodder Valley
14th September
Cheshire Ploughing Match
25th September
Brailsford Ploughing Match
2nd October
Please note, the date for the Lancashire 10th Anniversary Party has
now changed to:
Saturday 17th August.
This is due to timing, so please put this new date in your diary!
Artificial
Insemination
11th - 13th Sep
10:30am -
3:00pm
LLM Whitchurch,
SY13 4AQ
Calf Health
Thursday 11th July
10:30am -
3:00pm
LLM Whitchurch,
SY13 4AQ
Assessing the Dairy
Cow
Thursday 25th July
10:30am -
3:00pm
Please call 01948 663000 to book onto the above courses
DERBYSHIRE
LLM Whitchurch,
SY13 4AQ
Medicine Matters
Wednesday 19th
June
11:00am
LLM Derbyshire,
DE45 1GS
Please call 01629 691692 to book onto the above course
5

Come along to our SELEKT Pump
Servicing Clinic to have your SELEKT
Pump serviced free of charge.
Free SELEKT
Pump Servicing
Clinic
Date Wednesday 3rd July 2019
Time
Venue
Servicing
From 1.30pm
LLM Farm Vets, 136 Whittingham Lane, Broughton, Preston PR3 5DD
Drop off your SELEKT pump prior to the clinic or come along on the day so
the SELEKT team can service your pump. They will also be on hand to give
you advice on cleaning and maintaining it and can answer any questions you may
have about using the SELEKT System.
SELEKT® is a registered Trade Mark of Nimrod Veterinary Products Ltd.
6 Find out more at www.selektsystem.co.uk

Classifieds
For Sale
15 calf hutches in very good
condition. Collection from
the Newport area. Please
call 07740 512137 for more
information.
Heifer rearer available
Looking to take 300 from
weaned through to calving.
Isycoyd, Wrexham.
Please call 07960 455743
Herdsperson
Herdsperson position
available near Newport,
Shropshire. Please call
Martin for more information
- 07971 815389
Young Holstein Bull For
Sale
Quiet mother and many
siblings can be seen.
Canadian breeding, Lila Z
family with many bulls in AI.
Whitchurch
Please call 07949 331668
Simmental Bulls For Sale
BVD, IBR and Lepto
Vaccinated and Johne’s
accredited. Good
temperament and easy
calving.
Please call 07714 089001 or
07907 410983
Full or part time help wanted
On 200+ dairy farm & followers,
experience preferred. Duties
include milking, feeding & general
stock assistance.
North Shropshire - Whitchurch /
Ellesmere.
Tel: 07812 373482
Email: roger.edwards9@icloud.com
Dairy Calf Rearer Wanted
Friendly Family Run Farm,
Lancashire
Training not required but attention
to detail is a must
For more details contact Eileen:
07851 781448
7

News
Premier Fantasy Football League
Well the LLM Fantasy Football is
over for another year. It also sees
the end of Den’s five year bet that a
girl could not win it too.
The winner for the 2018-19 season is
Meg Richardson.
Many congratulations to you Meg.
Saved me having to pay Den any
money to settle the bet!
So the trophy stays in the Goodwin
family going from Neil Goodwin to his
niece Meg.
It was a closely fought league with
some changes in the top spot.
Liverpool and Man City helping us all
to rack up some points.
Second place we had Scott Wainwright
followed by Matt Haslam from LLM, in
third place. The highest placed client
was James Weaver in 5th place and
then Peter Hughes in 7th place.
Not long till we start the roller coaster
of emotions with the Fantasy League
all over again in August.
Seriously the results can affect my
mood but don’t let that put you off
joining in to try and lift the trophy. Give
us a call at Whitchurch if you want to
join and we will give you the league
code!
Hazel
Plastic Reduction Push
You will no doubt be aware of the
effects that plastic is having on our
planet, in our oceans, on our wildlife
and on human health too.
There has never been a time where
it has been more written and talked
about.
We have decided to do what we can
to limit our practice’s plastic output.
We hope you will join us as we need
your help, ideas and understanding to
reduce unnecessary plastic use across
our business.
8

What are we doing?
1. Reducing our use of plastic bags for
meds
a. If collecting, feel free to bring
your own reusable bag or box
b. We will aim to use cardboard
boxes we have deliveries in, instead
of plastic bags
c. We have sourced some recycled
paper bags – please let us know
what you think of the quality
2. Getting involved in the community
a. Recently, members of the
practice in Lancashire organised
a ‘mass unwrap event’ at Booths
Supermarket in Garstang.
b. Whitchurch are using a local
dairy for milk delivered in reusable
glass bottles.
Both Hazel in Whitchurch & Rob in
Lancashire have been putting their
heads together to find ways in which
we can reduce our impact as a practice.
We hope you will be supportive of our
efforts and get involved by giving us
more ideas and solutions.
If you have any ideas on this please
give us a call.
9

10
Dairy Talk
Why are dung beetles
so good?!
It’s great to see stock out again at
the start of what we hope will be a
fantastic grazing & growing season.
It is often easy to forget what other
life is also working hard for us in
our fields, such as the humble dung
beetle (bee & earthworm among
others!) Rob Howe unearths some
facts...
Did you know?
There are approximately 60 species
of dung beetle native to the UK.
Worldwide, they are classed into three
groups based on their poo-related
behaviour.
The most well known are the ‘Rollers’
(Telecoprids). These make a dung
ball and roll it away to be used as a
food source or for brooding chambers.
Rollers are tropical species, there are
none in Britain.
African dung beetles (above) can roll
dung balls 50 times their own body
weight, vast distances. These guys
can use the stars of the milky way to
navigate!
In the UK we have ‘Tunnellers’
(Paracoprids) and ‘Dwellers’
(Endocoprids). Tunnellers dig, burying
the dung up to 3 feet below ground,
where they lay eggs and where
their larvae can develop safe from
predation. ‘Dwellers’ neither roll, nor
burrow. They simply live their entire
lives in manure, the lucky beggars!
These guys are also found in the UK,
pictured above on a local sheep farm.
Every species has its own habits, which
are important in that the more species
you have on farm the better, since they
work synergistically to provide their full
array of benefits.
Why are dung beetles so good for
our farms?
• Increase soil organic matter by
dragging down dung (fertilises soil)
• Improve productivity of the land
(more grass)
• Increase soil aeration & structure
(through creation of tunnels)
• Improve rainwater infiltration
(reducing erosion & flooding)
• Speed up dung removal (reducing
numbers of nuisance flies,

parasites & therefore animal
diseases, which further reduces
need for treatments)
• They are FREE!
Money Saving Experts
Dung beetles are estimated to save
the British cattle industry £367 million
a year, primarily by encouraging the
growth of healthy grass 1 . Compare
this to what is often quoted as the UK
annual cost of BVD at £40 million a
year and it is quite staggering!
The true value of dung beetles is
likely to be even higher than the
estimate above, because despite
many assumptions in modelling,
they provide more services that were
not included in this model such as;
flood mitigation, increased carbon
sequestration, increased biodiversity
& reduced reliance on expensive
wormers, fertilisers & pesticides.
Under Threat
You may have heard the news
stories about rapidly declining insect
populations. Dung beetles are in
decline and like bees, are absolutely
critical to farming productivity and our
ecosystems.
The use of avermectins is one of the
biggest problems for dung beetles, and
therefore, the benefits they provide to
us. Check out your cow pats and see
how many holes appear within a couple
of days. They should be riddled with
holes if you have a good population of
dung beetles.
It is likely these products will be
subject to further legislation and
reclassification in the future, so if you
use them, it would be as well to begin
to think ahead now.
Fortunately there are plenty of effective
alternatives available, many of which
are also cheaper. Changes in chemical
use could save a potential extra £1.36
- £4.36 per cow each year according to
the study cited earlier.
What can you do?
Remove unnecessary treatments.
For example adult dairy & beef cattle
should be immune to gut worm burdens
so avoid treating adults. According to
studies, simply not treating adult beef
cattle for gut worms would save British
farming an additional £6.2 million a
Unfortunately, the active ingredients
in many convenient ‘pour-ons’
(avermectins) can be lethal to aquatic
life, birds, and many insects including
the critically important dung beetles.
Not only are these active ingredients
lethal at very low doses, but they also
stick around in the environment for a
long time.
1 Source: Dr S Benyon, University Aberystwyth, published
research in the journal of Ecological Entomology)
11

year! However, please speak to your
vet to ensure adults are still protected
against important parasites such as
fluke and lungworm.
Remember we offer our ‘Infectious
Disease Check’ bulk milk monitoring
service. It is one way to track fluke
exposure. There are many other
non-chemical ways to protect stock,
including Lungworm vaccination and
management strategies. For our
beef herds & sheep flocks, we need
muck samples to keep track of fluke
and worm burdens and many of you
have already taken up this monitoring
service via our health plans.
Solutions
Our VetTechs offer a FEC monitoring
service - find out more on page 13.
Avoid products in the avermectin
group between March & October when
animals are grazing. These products
are still useful but we should be aware
their lengthy persistence in muck can
have negative effects on the farm’s
productivity.
If we decide we need to use avermectins
we can opt for sub-cutaneous routes
since these reduce overall doses.
Creating ‘sacrificial paddocks’ well
away from water courses is another
way to reduce their impact.
Also keeping dogs out of rivers if
they’ve recently been treated with spot
ons.
Want to do more?
Parasite Planning
Get in touch if you would like to know
your worm burdens and manage this
important area in a more integrated
way. Our VetTechs can easily and
regularly collect muck samples or you
can drop them in. Your vet can use the
information as part of a full parasite
control plan that will likely be able to
save you on treatments as well as
increase farm performance in other
areas by creating a much bigger, more
diverse population of dung beetles
that help reduce compaction, improve
your soil organic matter, productivity,
drainage, biodiversity and carbon
sinking.
Do a Dung Beetle Survey
These are quite easy to do and one
way to assess soil health. Interested in
seeing how many dung beetles are on
your farm?
The “Dung beetle UK Mapping Project”
aka DUMP (haha!) would be interested
in knowing what you find (www.brc.
ac.uk/irecord).
Further Info
If you are interested in this article and
would like to discover more about
regenerative agriculture in general,
you may be interested in ‘Groundswell’
on the 26th & 27th June. It’s a farmer
led conference and we can obtain
discounted tickets if making a group
booking. Call Rob Howe for further
info.
12

With summer nearly here and the
weather warming up it is important
to worm your fat lambs effectively.
If you have already wormed your
lambs, are you sure your wormer
has worked effectively? With
increasing resistance to wormers
reported across the industry, Steph
is here to tell us more.
It is important to test if worming is
required by sending in regular faecal
samples from at least 10 animals for
a VetTech to perform a Faecal Egg
Count (FEC) before you worm your
lambs. It is useful to send in a follow
up sample 14 days post worming,
except if you have used those from
the yellow group, “levamisoles” which
is 7 days post worming. If this “postworming”
FEC does not show a 95%
reduction of worm eggs, then there
is a resistance problem in your flock.
Our SQP’s and vets will be able to
advise you on the most effective and
appropriate worming plan for your farm
using your results.
Resistance is a big problem. Ineffective
wormers cost the sheep industry £84
million a year including extra feed and
time needed to get lambs to finishing
weights.
tails
The use of faecal worm egg counts to reduce worm
resistance.
White group wormers (Benzimidazoles)
are the most commonly used wormers
against Nematodirus in lambs.
However, they have 94% resistance
on the majority of farms in the UK.
Yellow wormers (Levamisoles) have
68% resistance and 50% resistance is
found in clear wormers (Ivermectins)
with new cases of resistance being
found in the newest worming group,
the Orange wormers. With increasing
levels of resistance, it is critical to
plan ahead and prevent this causing a
problem on your farm.
The VetTechs are currently running
an offer of a “half price post-worming
FEC” when following a pre-worming
FEC. The benefits of using regular
Faecal Egg Counts:
• Diagnose worm issues sooner
– which will reduce production
losses.
• Estimate the level of infection –
which will allow you to monitor the
need to worm saving you time and
money.
• Allow you to target timing of dosing
– improving the effectiveness of
treatment and productivity.
• Monitor whether treatment has
worked – do you need to dose
again sooner or use a different
product.
• Detect worm resistance.
13

Ewes News
Scratching that itch!
Did you know that Sheep Scab can
infect up to 60% of your flock before
any clinical signs are seen? So
it’s a pretty important condition to
control. Dan Stevenson gets us up
to speed...
14
Sheep Scab, also called Psoroptic
Mange, is caused by the mite Psoroptes
Ovis. Infected sheep have an allergictype
reaction to the presence of the
live mites and as a result are intensely
itchy. Eventually this causes wool
loss and severe weight loss and can
lead to death. The full life cycle of the
mite takes 2 weeks and they can only
survive off the sheep for up to 17 days.
In the late 1980s sheep Scab was nearly
eradicated through a programme of
compulsory preventative treatment.
Now, diagnosis of Sheep Scab is on
the up with 167 confirmed diagnoses
in 2018 compared to 52 in 2015, made
by surveillance laboratories throughout
Great Britain.
Treatment and control has typically
relied upon the use of clear wormers
in injectable preparations, such as
Dectomax, Cydectin and Ivermectin
products. These have proved popular
as they are widely available, are
relatively easy to administer, do not
require special handling training and
are safe for the operator when used
correctly. However, they are also
used widely for the control of worm
infestations. The use to control Scab
is not specific and so whenever they
Photo Source: NADIS
are used in this way all parasites in
the sheep are exposed to the product.
While this might sound like a good
thing it is rarely necessary and so
has contributed to the development
of worm resistance to clear wormers.
Depending on the exact preparation
used, some persistent action can be
expected (theoretically up to 60 days
in the case of Cydectin 2%) although
two injections may be required for
treatment (in the case of Ivermectin
products).
Over recent years we have been
increasingly concerned within the
practice about the possibility of Scab
mites developing resistance to clear
wormers. This may have manifested
as persistent signs following treatment
or recurrent disease. Unfortunately,
we are often involved late on in these
cases when several treatments have
been tried with no success.
A study published last year, in the
Vet Record has confirmed that this is
indeed the case. Mites were collected
from four farms where resistance was
suspected when infected sheep had

failed to respond to injectable clear
wormers. These mites were then
exposed to a clear wormer within the
laboratory along with control samples
of mites that had never been exposed
to any treatment products. Worryingly,
the mites collected from the four farms
showed similar low levels of death
when exposed to the clear wormer
product as the control mites did when
exposed to no product at all. This
suggests that the product had little
effect on the mortality of the mites from
the farm outbreaks. The fact that the
control mites (that had never been
exposed to treatment products before)
nearly all died on exposure to the
product shows that it is still effective
but that resistance had developed
on the four farms as a result of overexposure
to these products in the
past. This was the first demonstration
of resistance to clear products in the
UK and it is likely that this represents
some degree of resistance across all
the clear products.
Whilst this is not great news for the
control of a disease that has serious
economic and welfare consequences
there are several things we can do to
ensure effective Scab management:
• If you don’t have Scab then talk
to us about effective quarantine
treatments and biosecurity to keep
it this way.
• If you suspect Scab then involve us
early to make sure the diagnosis is
correct. This way you will not waste
time and money with ineffective
treatments.
• Dipping provides very effective
treatment and protection for up to
four weeks. There are increasing
numbers of contractors offering
fully licensed, mobile dipping
services making this a realistic
option. All of our clients having
used these services, including
those where clear wormer
resistance has been suspected,
have been very pleased with the
process and results.
Whilst Sheep Scab is on the rise and
resistance to clear wormer products is
here to stay there is much we can do to
keep the disease under control on your
farms. Please give us a ring to arrange
a time to discuss your individual Scab
control plan.
15

Midlands
Whitchurch
Old Woodhouses, Broughall, Whitchurch, SY13 4AQ
01948 663000
Eccleshall
Unit 19A Raleigh Hall Ind Est, Eccleshall, Staffordshire, ST21 6JL
01785 472211
North Wales
Wrexham
Unit 24, The Bridgeway Centre, Wrexham Ind Est, LL13 9QS
01978 280580
Lancashire
Preston
136 Whittingham Lane, Broughton, Preston, PR3 5DD
01772 866014
Clitheroe
Unit 2 Deanfield Court, Link 59 Business Park, Clitheroe, BB7 1QS
01200 545456
Derbyshire
Bakewell
Riverside Business Park, Buxton Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1GS
01629 691692
www.llmfarmvets.co.uk
info@llmvets.co.uk
To unsubscribe from our newsletter, please email info@llmvets.co.uk