Canadian vet leads transition cow roadshow for XLVets

XLVets has hosted a four-day “transition cow roadshow” to more than 200 farmers, featuring a leading Canadian vet and counterparts from the UK.

Stephen LeBlanc – a professor in dairy cattle health management and director of dairy at The Centre for Dairy Research and Innovation, University of Guelph, Ontario – spoke alongside UK peers about proactive transition cow health at events held in different parts of the UK.

XLVets used shared resources from its community of practices to plan and host the event.

Improvement

Roadshow project manager and XLVets farm animal marketing executive Alice Renner said: “Farmers attending the event enjoyed Stephen’s knowledgeable, pragmatic and challenging approach; our inspirational host farms also provided many new ideas, with all attendees taking home actionable changes for the improvement of their own operations.

“The roadshow was a huge success among both farmers and vets, and we extend our gratitude to Stephen for his time and expertise.”

Dr LeBlanc’s research focuses on transition cow management, and he was suggested for the events by Nick Gibbon from Belmont Farm and Equine Vets.

‘Team effort’

Mr Gibbon said: “Transition cow management can be a complex topic, but it’s one with such potential to make a real difference to herd health and performance. That’s why when I had the idea to invite Stephen to speak, the other practices were on board.

“Numerous member practices have been involved in curating this idea and it simply wouldn’t have been possible to have pulled this off without the team effort. Huge thanks to everyone at XLVets who has been involved with flying Stephen over and arranging this unique roadshow.”

Evening Q&A sessions for more than 70 vets followed the on-farm sessions.