Lame stories from a country vet

As part of a series looking at this year’s rural winners, Leo Argent talked with Neil Chesterton, winner of the Veterinary Impact Award for his work on lameness in cattle and cow psychology.

How did you get started as a vet?

I did my vet science course at Sydney University. Me and my future wife Sandra were city people and when I finished the course the thing that really interested me was dairy cows. One of my lecturers saw my interest and he said, ‘Go to New Zealand, they have much more dairy cattle than Australia’. He joked that I should go for three years, make all my mistakes then come back as an overseas expert. To make a long story short, Sandra and I married just after my course finished then we packed our bags and came to New Zealand. Fifty years later, we’re still in the same town [Englewood] and I was in the same practice up until retirement. When I first came it was mixed practice with about four vets. Dairy cattle were 70% of the work but we still did cats and dogs. As the practice grew I did less of the dogs and cats and more and more of the dairy cattle.

What made you decide to focus on lameness in cattle as one of your career specialties?

We were always getting lame cows here. However, all the literature I read on the topic was from the Northern Hemisphere, indoor cows in big barns. People were thinking that’s what causes lameness in NZ and I realised that something different was going on here. I knew how to treat them, but I didn’t know what caused it. Right at the beginning there were two farms next to each other, identical setup, but one had lots of lame cows, the other hardly any. I started looking into what is the one farmer doing that the other isn’t and so began my inquiry. What I learnt from those farms, I then thought I’d set up some proper experiments. I contacted all the vet practices in Taranaki, and I ended up doing 60 farms all together. I wrote up a list of all the questions I had from the high and low lameness farms, and I wrote the answers down.

What were the main differences between the Northern Hemisphere systems and our systems?

Because they’re mostly inside on concrete and on feed pads the farmer must decide on nutrition and feed for his cows, while our cows ate grass. They were blaming nutrition and the design of rubber mats where cows slept on concrete. They had injuries which we hardly saw, such as solar ulcer. Even that difference in the injury percentage and types made me think there’s something different going on in New Zealand. How cows walk to the milking shed in New Zealand was one of the factors, with longer tracks having slightly more lameness. What’s the difference between tracks? How wide is the track for the herd and what is the track made of?

What is some advice regarding lameness in cattle that farmers should know?

Lameness mainly happens in the walking track and cowsheds. When you come with your cows, keep 10ms behind the back cow as they come to the shed. At 10m cows are not afraid of you so they walk naturally, looking where to put their feet. When the cows come into the yard don’t touch the back gate for at least 20 minutes. That allows the cows to shift from arrival to milking order; give them time to change. Then you may need to move your gate up but only move it a metre at a time to walk the cows up, not push them. Some farmers don’t even move them, just open the gate a bit earlier and let them come voluntarily. The cows just come in, get milked and go back to pasture. You get a farmer to do that and there’s less lameness.

Neil Chesterton says lameness mainly happens in the walking track and cowsheds.

How intelligent do you think cattle are?

Cows are amazingly intelligent. They recognise people. If you have changeover of staff and they don’t know a person, that person must be even more gentle and quiet with the cows.

What are some common mistakes people make when dealing with cattle on a psychological level?

Trying to rush the cows when coming home and entering the cowshed. Some people try to use the backing gate to put pressure on. Some have electrified topgates. The people who don’t understand cows use those too much. The other thing is moving too fast. Don’t go shouting at cows, whistling too loud, tapping the bars ‘bang, bang, bang’.

What are some tips to improve cattle behaviour?

Most of the fear they have of someone is when that person gets too impatient, putting pressure on them. If I come in and try to move the back ones, those cows are pushed in among more dominant cows who beat them up. The main thing is to keep distance and allow them to flow at their own pace. In the end, milking becomes quicker as they’re not afraid.

What is your proudest accomplishment in the industry?

Seeing struggling farms that had such a problem with lameness become such a different farm when they don’t have lame cows.

Is there anyone you'd like to shout out to having won this award?

When I first came here, I was a new graduate, a townie in a country practice. My original boss Gunner Groenbrek trusted me with my cause and gave me such support. Ray Paewai joined at the same time as me, but he was an experienced vet. As my interest in lameness got more and more, he allowed me time that I could spend on my specialty and investigate lame cow problems. I was able to leave the practice, and he organised others to do my general practice work. I don’t know any practice that I could do that in now.