CDQAP Update: Livestock Medications; Managing Liquid Storage

Read below excerpts of the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program’s October update. The entire update is available here.

What’s New with Livestock Mediations?Reducing medicated feed use, identifying the cheapest, most effective antibiotic to use and partnering with veterinarians are just a few examples of California’s leadership to combat antibiotic resistance. Passage of Senate Bill 27 back in 2018 gave CDFA the tools and funding necessary to start addressing the issue, with the bill introducing veterinary oversite of farm antibiotics.
 
It was only this year however that FDA required other states to similarly involve veterinarians, and by that time California already had a five year head start making progress. Central to the effort to protect drug effectiveness is CDFA’s Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship (AUS) program. Here are just some of the program’s most recent successes.
 
Reducing Antibiotics in Feed – In the United States, antibiotics are no longer used for growth promotion or to increase production. In some situations, however, antibiotics in feed may be the only feasible way to combat a disease outbreak in a herd or flock. Since using antibiotics in the feed or water can also encourage resistance, the practice requires veterinary consultation and special prescription.
 
CDFA’s AUS program tracks these Veterinary Feed Directives (VFDs), analyzing the types and amount of antibiotic used. The most recent annual VFD summary reportreveals an impressive 45% reduction in amount of antibiotic used in feed during the period from 2018 to 2022. 
 
Measuring Local Resistance – To both maximize effectiveness and minimize cost, veterinarians have to “pick the right drug for the right bug.”  But knowing which antibiotic will be effective on a given farm can be challenging. Dr. Edie Marshall, director of CDFA’s AUS program explains: “Our initial studies suggest that, for instance, respiratory pathogens can have surprising levels of variation in antibiotic resistance from one farm to another.”
 
Continue reading here.

Managing Liquid Storage is an Important Part of Your Bottom Line
By Deanne Meyer, Ph.D. Livestock Waste Management Specialist, Department of Animal Science, UC Davis and UC ANR
 
Dairy lagoons are used for biological treatment and to hold water and nutrients until they are needed by growing crops. It’s important to manage storage capacity closely during fall and winter. Each dairy’s Nutrient Management Plan identifies the frequency of liquid manure application during winter crop development to provide fertilizer for growing plants.
 
As sludge develops in ponds it occupies space that would otherwise hold water. Sludge creates a challenge during wet winters when much runoff occurs and is captured in ponds and fields require no irrigation from a water perspective. Regular removal and use of sludge is key to maintaining adequate storage capacity. Management of excavated sludge requires skill if it is to be dried down and blended with other material before land application.