Operators To OWNERS

My 30 ways in 30 days series will provide an extensive list of 30 different consulting opportunities any new student, associate or owner can learn, frame out and implement in 30 days.

Today's podcast continues our dive into these 30 consulting topics.

Just like last week, today's dive will also drill down on three of my favorite consulting opportunities.

Remember, these are areas I feel have great potential to develop into key consulting areas in the future, are easy for new vets to uptake or are currently under-served.

This week we will cover consulting areas 11-20:

11) BCS/LS

12) Vaccination Audits*

13) Calf Care

14) Sire Selection

15) Heifer Inventory Audits*

16) Culling Audit

17) Culturing

18) Economics*

19) Ruminant Nutrition

20) Calf Nutrition

*One of my Big 3 favorite consulting opportunities!

Enjoy the episode OTO'ers!

Inoculation with rumen fluid in early life as a strategy to optimize the weaning process in intensive dairy goat systems

Find the Big 3 Infographic at otovets.com/cuttingedge

Find the full article at https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(20)30261-7/fulltext

Find the IASTATE wet and growing cost pdf at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/dairyteam/files/page/files/Wetcalfanalysisfactsheet-Final.pdf

Big Take Away #1:  Inoculation of rumen microbiota from both concentrate and forage diets improved rumen development better than cell free rumen contents or the control group. This was accomplished by populating the rumen and creating more VFA biproducts.

The authors attributed must of this development to protozoal populations that can only be established from adult cattle exposure.

Big Take Away #2:  Even though inoculated kids were driven to intake more forage and concentrates they did not take in more DM than cell free or control animals. Instead, control and cell free kids drank more milk than their inoculated peers.

This resulted in similar DMI and feed efficiencies between all four treatment groups.

Big Take Away #3: Inoculated kids displayed increased forage intakes in weeks 9 to 11 of the study post weaning while control and cell free groups saw increased, but not statistically significant, elevations of concentrate intake.

This suggests that such inoculation could be used to facilitate the second transition in modern ruminants

Ultimate Message: While not an outright dairy or beef model this ruminant experiment has interesting implications for the improvement of the neonatal transition from “monogastic” to true “ruminant” function. Potentially reducing weaning ADG losses, saving money on wet diet rations and avoiding post-weaning compensatory loss on high milk rations.

Inoculation with rumen fluid in early life as a strategy to optimize the weaning process in intensive dairy goat systems

Published by A. Belanche, J.M. Palma-Hidalgo, I. Nejjam, E. Jiménez, A.I. Martín-García, D.R. Yáñez-Ruiz

Location: Granada, Spain

Objective: The objective of this study was to optimize the artificial rearing systems of goat kids by implementing new nutritional strategies in early life. It was hypothesized that the inoculation of young goat kids with different types of rumen fluid from adult animals could modify or accelerate the rumen microbial colonization pattern toward a desirable anaerobic fermentation during the preweaning period, facilitate the transition to solid diet postweaning, and increase productivity or decrease feeding costs.

My 30 ways in 30 days series will provide an extensive list of 30 different consulting opportunities any new student, associate or owner can learn, frame out and implement in 30 days. 

Learn new techniques to grow your consulting portfolio and resume. 

Over the next three weeks I will cover these 30 consulting topics. 

Every week we will discuss 10 new consulting categories that could easily become a cornerstone to any ambitious veterinarians consulting resume. 

Within these 10 topics I will drill down on three of my favorite consulting opportunities. 

These are areas I feel have great potential to develop into key consulting areas in the future, are easy for new vets to uptake or are currently under-served.

This week we will cover consulting areas 1-10:

1) Be Present*

2) Ventilation Consulting

3) Milk Quality

4) Entrance/Midterm/Exit Interviews

5) Facility Design

6) PR/Social Media 

7) Employee Training's

8) Calf Statistic Collection*

9) Team Meetings

10) Fresh Pen Audits*

*One of my Big 3 favorite consulting opportunities!

Enjoy the episode OTO'ers!

Calf care personnel on dairy farms and their educational opportunities

Find the Big 3 Take-Away Infographic at otovets.com/cuttingedge

Big Take Away #1:  Only 50% of individuals employed in calf care have a high school diploma or GED. This makes the understanding and uptake of recommendations much more difficult, potentially effecting compliance.

With larger calf herd employee’s have 7x more likely chance of having less than a high school education.

Big Take Away #2:  . In this study they showed that language barriers are a common issue; with over 70% of employees speaking Spanish and less than 35% of owners and vets able to communicate in this language.

This contributed calf feeders being 3.4 times more likely to be trained by experienced feeders than management personal.

Big Take Away #3: Generation Y and Millennials tend to value more training and employee development with Coulombe in 2016 noting that Hispanic Millennials place greater emphasis on being comfortable with the workplace and seeing themselves there for a long time.

Tailoring trainings to ease comfort in the job through understanding of role and “why” will help with long term vision.

Ultimate Message: A huge opportunity exists for veterinarians to assume the role of the consultant that can tie together age, education, language and management barriers. Dairy operations are lacking in consultants that can fill this role effectively. Understanding the implications of each of these factors and how to bridge them will be key to the success of any future agricultural consultant.

Calf care personnel on dairy farms and their educational opportunities

Link: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(19)30146-8/fulltext

Published by W.M Sischo, D. A. Moore, R. Pereira, L. Warnick, D. L. Moore, J. Vanegas, S. Kurtz, K. Heaton, D. Kinder, J. Siler, and M. A. Davis

Location: Arizona, Idaho, New York, Oregon and Washington

Objective: The objective of this project was to describe selected demographics of calf care employees on large and small dairy farms as part of a larger project to understand on-farm communication with regard to calf health and treatment. One of the aims of this study was to provide background information that might inform educational efforts on prudent antimicrobial use for calf health on dairy farms and calf ranches, particularly for those with multiple employees involved in calf care.

Methods: Two to 8 individuals per farm involved with calf care, including owners, veterinarians, and calf managers, feeders, and treaters, were interviewed in either English or Spanish. Interviews were conducted in person on 53 dairy farms located in Arizona, Idaho, New York, Oregon, and Washington State. The number of preweaned calves on the farm ranged from 9 to 1,500 (median = 93). A total of 224 individuals were interviewed across 8 job titles.

This week’s Thoughts from the Truck episode will continue our discussion from last week. 

Learn how you can better market your expertise AND how you can separate yourself from every other consultant by becoming a teacher!

How you market your budding consulting service says a lot about how good you think it is.  Learn why you must make your new service a BIG deal and how exactly you can do that!

Finally, making the mental switch from doing the consulting to “teaching” the consulting is critical. This is what separates a normal consultant from a great one. 

Anyone can tell someone how to do something different but the best consultants I’ve ever seen are one step ahead; they are teaching the what, the why and the how all at once. Rolling them together into a package that the client can use and understand is key!

Join me today OTO'ers as we finish our discussion on how to grow your expertise!

Gradual weaning does not improve performance for calves with low starter intake at the beginning of the weaning process

Link: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(20)30198-3/fulltext

Big Take Away #1: This study re-enforces the common belief that we need to be sure to wean our limit fed or low milk ration calves based on starter intakes not time. The authors also proved that in limit fed calves, gradual weaning did not increase starter intakes vs abrupt weaning.

Big Take Away #2:  In this study ADG’s, were significantly different between starter intake level calves. Calves on low starter intake at day 35 had almost 6 tenths LESS ADG overall than those who had high day 35 starter intakes and that effect grew larger during the weaning period. We generally know 0.1 lbs of ADG equals ~250 lbs of milk.

Big Take Away #3: Today’s society places an ever increasing value on decreasing suffering or perceived suffering by any animal. This goes doubly for neonates. In this study observable hunger signs in abrupt weaning calves trended toward greater vocalization than the gradually weaned calves. However, no physiologic stress parameters were increased.

Ultimate Message: We as clinicians need to realize the double narrative that is playing our in our industry. First, we have producers feeding high milk rations and secondly, we have the producers feeding low milk rations in an attempt to save costs or because of tradition. For this second group we will need to concentrate on educating them about the importance of monitoring starter intake levels as a trigger for weaning vs days of age and how it can help set the calf up for a better weaning period and better ADG’s overall.

Gradual weaning does not improve performance for calves with low starter intake at the beginning of the weaning process

Published by C.M.M. Bittar, M.P. Gallo, J.T. Silva, M.R. de Paula, M. Poczynek, G.B. Mourã

Location: University of Sao Paulo Brazil

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of 2 weaning protocols and 2 levels of concentrate intake on the performance and physiological and behavioral variables related to stress in dairy calves.

Location:  University of Sao Paulo Brazil

Methods: Thirty-six newborn male Holstein calves were used in a randomized block design with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement: 2 weaning strategies, abrupt or gradual, and 2 levels of concentrate intake at 5 wk of age, high (>350 g/d) or low (≤350 g/d). Calves were equally managed until they were 5 wk of age and then grouped according to concentrate intake. Statistical analyzes were performed using the MIXED procedure of SAS software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC), and no significant interaction was observed between studied factors (weaning method and starter intake level); therefore, we considered each factor separately and their interactions with age.

Outcomes: The highest dry matter intake and concentration of β-hydroxybutyrate were recorded for animals with a high level of starter intake independent of the weaning method. Structural growth (cm/wk) and average daily gain were superior for calves with high starter intake, but weaning method had no effect. The gradual weaning protocol increased the time eating starter, regardless of the level of concentrate intake. Even animals with low concentrate intake that were weaned abruptly showed levels of cortisol and acid-soluble glycoprotein within normal physiological levels....CONTINUED IN ABSTRACT...

So you did all the work to develop a new consulting program; you put in the hours, connected with the clients and paid your dues!  Now it's time to grow this program!

There are 3 key points to growing your expertise and your consulting program:

1) Learning to Sell Yourself

2) Marketing Your Service

3) A Mental Switch from Doing to Teaching

Think of it like pouring gas on a fire. We now want to expose the expertise you developed and ramp it up into a full-fledged consulting program. You know…..the type that gets its own Quickbooks line item!

Using this framework is a great way to sell yourself and it doesn’t require any additional experience beyond what we learned in the “alpha” phase of the consulting program.

As you build these pitches you will notice that more and more people will become interested. They will feed off your enthusiasm and your perceived expertise and will actively seek opportunities to work with you in ways they may not have considered before!

So tune in OTO’ers for a brand new episode that will give you the tools you need to begin growing your expertise into a movement!

Dietary restriction improved feed efficiency of inefficient lactating cows

Link: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(19)30641-1/fulltext

Big Take Away #1: We need to facilitate a mental shift from total lbs of milk shipped or average per cow on our operations to improving efficiency. This is an important transition that I think we will see producers thinking about more in the current economy. It seems we are finally seeing people paying more attention the economic inputs of feed cost, even in home grown feeds. Hopefully, this will open up some avenues for us to consult in areas with HUGE potential upside for our clients.

Big Take Away #2: There is an economic breakeven point at which it may make sense to reduce feed offered to inefficient cattle and still come out money ahead even with the reduction in production. Targeting this point and understanding where it is will be key for providing clients advise about attempting this strategy.

Big Take Away #3: Inefficient cows fed the same TMR as efficient cows have a 25% higher DMI which is driven by a 23% faster eating rate and 23% bigger meal size. This leads to inefficient cows consuming DM and digestible energy beyond their energy needs resulting in excess energy losses and reduced feed efficiency.

Ultimate Message: While not always economically feasible; the monitoring, identification and alternative management of inefficient cows can have positive impacts on dairies. While continued research is done on the genetic components of this, it is important to note that more aggressive management of our current efficient cows can provide positive results in the meantime.

Dietary restriction improved feed efficiency of inefficient lactating cows

Published by Y.A. Ben Meir, M. Nikbachat, Y. Portnik, S. Jacoby, H. Levit, D. Bikel, G. Adin, U. Moallem, J. Miron, S.J. Mabjeesh, I. Halachmi

Location: Israel

Objective: The objective of this study was to reduce voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) to increase feeding efficiency of preclassified inefficient (INE) dairy cows through restricted feeding.

Location:  Israel

Methods: We studied the effects of dietary restriction on eating behavior, milk and energy-corrected milk (ECM) production, in vivo digestibility, energy balance, and measures of feed efficiency [residual feed intake (RFI) and ECM/DMI]. Before the experiment, 12 pairs of cows were classified as INE. The 2 dietary treatments consisted of ad libitum feeding versus restricted feeding of the same total mixed ration containing 36.5% roughage. Inefficient cows fed the restricted total mixed ration had a shorter eating time and lower meal and visit frequency, but a similar rate of eating, meal size, and meal duration compared with INE cows fed ad libitum.

Outcomes: Compared with the INE cows fed ad libitum, restricted INE cows had 12.8% lower intake, their dry matter and neutral detergent fiber digestibility remained similar, and their ECM yield was 5.3% lower. Feed efficiency, measured as RFI, ECM/DMI, and net energy retained divided by digestible energy intake, was improved in the restricted INE cows as compared with the ad libitum cows. Our results show that moderate DMI restriction has the potential to improve feed efficiency of preclassified INE cows.

Carry on OTO'ers

We have 171 work days left in 2020 to impact our clients.  How will you increase the impact you have on them?  

One of the biggest way's you can do this is to provide them value through consulting.

Today's podcast will focus on how new, emerging or seasoned vets can seek to build up a consulting service; even if they have no previous experience in the area they wish to consult in.

Tune in OTO'ers to learn more!

How benchmarking promotes farmer and veterinarian cooperation to improve calf welfare

Link: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(19)30910-5/fulltext

Big Take Away #1: The authors found in their pre-benchmarking interviews that while farmers ID’d the vet as having expertise on respiratory disease, diarrhea and pain management they did not as often see the vet as an information source for calf nutrition, growth or weaning.

Big Take Away #2: I’d urge every vet; whether students, associates and owners need to readjust their expectation that farmers will eventually recognize their expertise and potential advisory role. Instead it is our responsibility to create an environment that shows our expertise and change their mind. Because as Albert Einstein said; Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results…

Big Take Away #3: The author noted that benchmarking discussions did improve farmers understanding of the information; perhaps filling a different role for these clients as more of an educational tool rather than an on-boarding or social norm vehicle. The benchmarking also resulted in increased diagnostics performed by the vets; a positive for the farm in terms of getting answers and a positive for the clinic in terms of revenue. Clearly, we can see that even clients with the best farmer-vet relationships can still benefit from this type of benchmarking program.

Ultimate Message: Benchmarking of calf, and likely all farm data, with peer based data helped establish social norms, increased veterinary influence in the operation and enhanced the perceived value of vets as advisors in calf management. It also improved communication and interactions between farmers and vets on the topics of calf management.

How benchmarking promotes farmer and veterinarian cooperation to improve calf welfare

Published by C. L. Sumner, M. A. G. von Keyserlingk, D. M. Weary

Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia

Location: British Columbia

Objective: Understand how benchmarking measures related to calf immune development and growth affected farmer and veterinarian cooperation and influenced the farmer’s view of the veterinarian as an advisor for calf management.

Location:  University of British Columbia

Methods Veterinarians provided their clients (n = 18 dairy farms in the lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia) with 2 benchmark reports providing information on transfer of passive immunity and calf growth. Farmers were interviewed before and after receiving these reports to understand how they perceived their veterinarian as a calf advisor.

Outcomes: Qualitative analysis identified 2 major themes indicating that benchmarking (1) improved farmer perception of their veterinarian's capacities to advise on calves and (2) strengthened the social influence of the veterinarian. We conclude that benchmarking can help promote stronger relationships between farmers and veterinarians.