The first ever nutritional veterinary consultant within the ruminant feed supply sector has been created in an attempt to bridge the gap between professions and subsequently bring significant improvements to herd productivity and profitability.
Richard Vecqueray, who has eight years of experience working with cattle in the UK and overseas, has been appointed to the position by the UK's leading regional ruminant feed business, Dugdale Nutrition. He moves from the Cumbrian based Paragon Veterinary Group where he was responsible for delivering dairy herd health solutions. He also helped to develop the group's residential embryo programme.
On farm visits will continue to make up a large part of Richard's working week. However in his new role he'll be working closely with Dugdale Nutrition clients' local vet to closely monitor herd health, production and fertility.
Richard will also liaise with the company's team of nutritionists to help implement its therapeutic feeding programme, an integral part of Dugdale Nutrition's Management for More than Milk (M3) system.
"I'm very pleased to be offered the first opportunity of its kind within the feed industry and look forward to taking up the challenge ahead," he says. "As a qualified vet, I believe our profession has much to offer in the understanding of the dairy cow, her nutrition and associated health issues. In fact this new position is about addressing the much vaunted on-farm team of farmer, nutritionist and practicing veterinary surgeon working to optimise health, production and fertility.
"Dairy producers are currently managing cows with a metabolic turnover which exceeds that of a man cycling the Tour de France comprising more than 2,000 miles every single day during lactation," Richard explains. "These animals have a huge energy requirement to sustain that level of performance, so it's hardly surprising to find at the expense of yield the national dairy herd pregnancy rate has fallen below 40% and longevity has simultaneously declined.
"However, I believe if dairy producers introduce the company's holistic approach to nutrition and management, it will help them to realise their herd's true genetic potential."
Dugdale Nutrition's Ian Brown comments: "This new position will help forge a welcome relationship between the nutrition and veterinary professions. UK dairy producers tend to measure herd performance by milk output when in fact reproductive efficiency, lameness rates, and mastitis incidences should in our view be equally if not more important when it comes to assessing the suitability of production rations. We frequently find their herds have suffered from a season on a ration sympathetic to milk production yet disastrous for cow health."
He adds: "We regard Richard's appointment as the next logical step in the continuing development of our innovative M3 programme – it will enable producers to manage today's modern HGM cows to achieve their full potential without compromising health and fertility, or reducing life expectancy, and furthermore improve overall herd profitability."
