Professionalcare Centre -U- Ltd.

13/05/2019

31/03/2019

21/03/2019

10/03/2019

What to go for when buying bull semen

The big question often asked by dairy farmers is that what is the role of bull semen in cattle improvement. Bull semen is the pathway to profitable dairy business, therefore, must be able to transfer the following traits to a dairy herd.

Longevity

This is the period your high-yielding cow stays on the farm producing. It is important for the financial performance of the herd.

High longevity means a low culling rate, high milk production and low vet costs. The higher the number of lactations per cow, the higher the life time milk production and the more profitable the cow is.

Health and fertility

Udder health is a major challenge affecting the dairy enterprise. It leads to huge losses arising from reduced production, high vet costs and is a major cause of high culling rates.

A dairy farmer must select his bull semen from a pool of bulls with proven transferability of protection against mastitis.

Often linked to this trait is fertility. Kenyan dairy cows have long calving intervals. Ideally, a cow should produce a calf once a year but the average calving interval is about 600 days.

The problem, more often, is the inability to conceive usually preceded by silent heat and sometimes accompanied by pregnancy loss or abortion.

These problems can be avoided by breeding for fertility. The power is in the genes hence a farmer must select bull semen that will impart this power to the daughters of his cows and heifers

Production

Overall milk production determines a herd’s income. If a farmer is breeding for profits, he must select from the leading cow families in terms of milk production and the willingness to produce.

The production must be in terms of volume of milk and milk components like protein and fats

Conformation

Bull semen will transfer features that contribute to stature of the future cow. The feet and legs must be “dairy” to carry the weight of the animal and aid in locomotion, especially grazing animals.

Conformation traits determine the longevity of the cow and how durable they are and avoid issues of lameness and retained placenta as well they are a factor of milk production.

The beauty of a cow is in the genes and if a farmer is breeding heifers for sale and for agricultural shows, select your bull semen from a pool of beautiful bulls to inherit good conformation.

Reliability

A farmer will select the right bull semen from a bull catalogue. The information contained in a catalogue must be derived from large number of tests done on the semen and proven to be repeatable over and over using a large population of animals.

Genome trials where gene mapping of useful traits is done on young bulls before they even reach semen production age (puberty) is also used to create bull catalogues.

Selected bull semen must have high reliability for a dairy farmer to trust and use.

If a dairy farmer has a cow whose production is low, the first bull semen selection criteria should be production trait.

Therefore, select semen from a bull with high production. If the same cow has problems with feet or hooves, the farmer should select to improve both production, feet and legs. It is important that the farmer uses semen from renowned suppliers.

The breeding objective of every farmer is to ensure the offspring is better than the mother.

Success in breeding is dependent upon other factors including feeding the cows well with a balanced diet that has energy, protein, vitamins, mineral salts like Maclik Super (for lactating cows), Maclik Plus for heifers and clean water.

Detection of heat and proper timing of insemination is key in ensuring conception occurs. The signs to look out for are bellowing, mounting, standing to be mounted, clear v***al discharge and v***al swelling.

Artificial insemination should be done when the cow is standing to be mounted usually 12 hours since the heat signs are first noticed.

Proper record-keeping is important to track the heat, pregnancy history and to trace the pedigree development for each cow family.

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You can get a copy of our Dairy Farming Guide e-book @ kshs 150 payable via mpesa Till 664444 and text your email to 0724512194, or Buy printed copy at the Newspaper vendor outside Uchumi Agakhan Walk In Nairobi

06/03/2019

Treating birds with diarrhoeal infection

The best way farmers can know the health status of their flock is through their droppings.

Healthy birds will appear bright and alert with smooth feathers; their droppings will be fairly solid in consistency, either green or brown in colour with a white part on top that consist of urates.

Poultry droppings will vary depending on diet, weather, cecal dropping, broody hen dropping and the health of the bird. It is, therefore, important that a farmer knows which droppings are normal and which are abnormal.

Poultry diet contributes a lot to the colour of the dropping. Birds that are fed on leafy greens like sukuma wiki (collard greens) or grass may have green droppings.

Chickens that have bathed in sand that may have been mixed with wood ash may develop dark droppings caused by ingesting the ash.

Cecal droppings are produced severally during the day; they originate from the cecum which is located between the birds large and small intestines.

Cecal dropping is reddish brown sticky in consistency and has a foul smell. This is normal dropping and farmers should not panic once they spot it.

A broody hen will sit on her eggs and will be reluctant to go out and defecate. Once she goes outside, she will release a huge pile of dropping that has a strong smell. This is also considered as normal chicken dropping.

So which is the abnormal faecal dropping?

Any form of diarrhoea is abnormal. During heat stress, birds may consume a lot of water to cool off and may develop watery diarrhoea.

A farmer should provide adequate ventilation to prevent heat stress. Chicks in a brooder will move away from the heat source and will exhibit signs of heat stress (panting, drowsy, stretched wings and diarrhoea with matting around the vent).

Reduce the heat by reducing the wattage of the bulb or raising it higher.

Other causes of diarrhoea in poultry include:

Coccidiosis which manifests as bloody diarrhoea
Worm infestation
Viruses such as rota, gumboro and Newcastle among others
Bacterial infections such as Salmonella, E. coli
Kidney infections - white watery diarrhoea

Feed too high in protein causes wet litter as the birds ingest a lot of water to excrete uric acid. Broiler birds fed on excess protein may increase water intake by about 3 percent causing increased moisture in their droppings hence wet litter.

ALWAYS OBTAIN A VACCINATION SCHEDULE

Wet litter may lead to leg problems as birds develop wounds on their feet and breast lesions that affect the quality of the carcass.

1. Mouldy feeds contain toxins that cause poisoning of the birds. The birds will develop diarrhoea among other clinical signs. It is important that feeds are bought from a reliable source and stored in a clean and dry environment. Discard any feeds that become dump and mouldy.

2. Sudden change of feeds may cause diarrhoea that will last for a day or two. This is usually a stressful event for the birds and should be done gradually. Supplement Stressmix in their drinking water to help minimize the stress caused.
It is important that your of source drinking water is reliable. Contamination may cause infections that lead to diarrhoea in your flock.
3. Deworm your birds with Piperin once every three months. Worms rarely cause diarrhoea in birds but may cause irritation of the gut predisposing the birds to bacterial and other opportunistic infections.
4. Vaccinate your birds. Always obtain a vaccination schedule every time you purchase day-old chicks. Handle the vaccines carefully and administer according to the manufactures instructions.

Diarrhoea in poultry may present in different colours depending on the offending agent. It could be white, yellow, green, brown or even bloody red.

Always note the colour of diarrhoea while seeking help. Often, the diarrhoea is not massive but may present as slight pasting of the vent.

Diarrhoea causes damage to the wall of the bird’s intestinal lining leading to poor absorption of nutrients and water. The bird may become emaciated and highly dehydrated.

In severe cases, bacteria and other micro-organisms on the intestinal lining may enter the blood stream and cause infection.

Seek the help of a veterinarian and especially one with experience in matters poultry to obtain the right prescription.

As supportive therapy while treating all forms of diarrhoea, always provide the birds with Electrosol Oral, a quality product that contains dextrose and electrolytes that provide energy, corrects the electrolyte imbalances and helps in rehydration of the birds. This hastens recovery from the diarrhoea.

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Get a copy of Poultry Diseases, prevention and control manual,
Kindly pay ksh 150 via mpesa Till Number 664444 and text your email to 0724512194 for an e-copy or
buy
PRINT COPIES available at Newspaper Vendors: Outside Uchumi Agakhan Walk, Outside Cargen House- Moi Avenue, Outside Agriculture House- Moi Avenue, Outside Studio One- Moi Avenue, Outside Housing Finance- Koinange Street

23/11/2018

Successful Artificial Insemination in Dairy Cows

A dairy farm’s reproductive profitability is affected by accurate detection of heat and timely insemination of the cows.
These are the main factors that affect a dairy farm’s conception rates. A farmer’s ability to detect heat is crucial in the reproductive performance of a dairy farm as early or late insemination may lead to conception failure.
A herd’s fertility is beneficial to the farmer as it affects the number of calves born, the amount milk produced, veterinary costs and ultimately the amount of money a farmer earns.
Ordinarily a cow should calve once every twelve months.
Estrus cycle of dairy cows is between 18- 24 days with 21 days being the average. How then should a farmer know when a cow is on heat?
A cow on heat will have a drop in milk production, will appear restless and nervous, will bellow and have a clear discharge from her slightly swollen v***a; initially, the cow will mount other cows and will avoid being mounted cows but will later stand when mounted.
This is what is referred to as standing heat; if observed, this would be the perfect time to inseminate the cow.
Timely AI is important as delays in serving her will reduce chances of conception as the o**m/egg ages and/or the s***matozoa die.
It takes 12 hours for s***ms to reach an o**m once inseminated and s***ms have a lifespan of about 24hours inside the cow’s body.
The o**m has a lifespan of 6-12 hours from time of ovulation but is viable for fertilization for 8-10 hours. Ovulation occur 25-32hours after onset of heat.
If a farmer misses the standing heat sign then the AM-PM rule could be followed. If heat is observed early in the morning, then AI can be done late in the evening and vice versa.
There are several factors that affect the cow’s ability to show heat signs:
• Mineral deficiencies especially that of Phosphorus; Provide your cows with Intromin mineral blocks fed free choice.
• Poor body condition. Provide your cows with sufficient feeds
• A cow’s environment; cows in closed confinement may not show signs of heat.
Failures in conception in dairy cows are caused by among others:
• Poor semen handling and storage by inseminators; this affects s***m viability. Liquid nitrogen tanks should be tightly closed to prevent evaporation of the liquid nitrogen.
• Inexperienced inseminators.
• Poor heat detection because the farmer does not understand the signs of heat, or due to poor or no heat records; keeping records will help a farmer be able to almost predict when the next heat will occur.
• Cows with poor body condition caused by poor nutrition
• Uterine infection that may cause early embryonic deaths
• Hormonal imbalance
After insemination farmers should keep the semen straws for future reference to avoid inbreeding as bull/sire details are inscribed on them.
The straws will also provide records on a calf’s sire.

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To get a complete e-book manual on successful dairy farming, Kindly pay ksh 150 via mpesa Till Number 664444 and text your email to 0724512194

22/11/2018

Proffesional suppliers of all agrochemicals including;vet drugs,vaccines,farm quipments,treatments and trainings in farming practices and crop protection.

01/09/2018

18/06/2018

WE ARE NOW OFFERING ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION SERVICES.

18/03/2018

If you check this in your area report immediately