Existing members should have received an email with the access and pin numbers. If there is anyone who has not received an email or any non-members who would like to attend, please call Jeanette Fisher on 0428 867551 to get these numbers.  The cost of the conference call is paid by the Association.

We have made some changes so it would be good to have as many people as possible at the meeting to discuss them.

The high quality speakers we attract need around 12 months notice of an event. Consequently, due to the short time frame between making this decision and the date of the 2010 IDW, we will not hold a conference this coming year. In its place, we are planning to have a field day in the middle of the year – the details of this are not yet finalised but will be published on the website well prior to the day.

Our 2011 conference will be held in the Tatura Sports Club, which has been booked for the 17^th Jan 2011; this is the first and quietest day of IDW. The venue can seat well over 200 and can provide morning and afternoon teas and lunch as well as an à la carte dinner.

This decision to change the venue will give us greater exposure to dairy farmers, who are the people who rear the majority of calves in Australia.

This coming year we will have a stand at IDW, with a view to promoting the P.C.R.A.A. to a wider range of dairy farmers, many of whom do not know we exist.

We look forward to talking to farmers about their heifers & hearing about their successes and failures. See you there!

If anyone is missing them and would like them returned, call Jeanette Fisher on 0428 867551.

Dr. Temple Grandin, the renowned animal behaviour specialist was the keynote speaker. She gave two presentations, one on the science of animal behaviour and the other on auditing farm stock handling practices.

Dr Grandin is keen that graziers, dairy farmers and other stock handlers improve the way they handle animals and is adamant that unless improvements are measured producers will slip back into bad habits. She said that producers measure indicators of economic benefit such as weight gain, feed conversion and reproductive rates so they should measure handling. In collaboration with her researchers, she has collected base line data for measuring indicators of good handling practices and has established, from these, reasonable targets.

Some of Dr. Grandin’s scoring figures are:-

• less than 25 cent of cattle in the yards should move at faster than a trot,
• less than 5 per cent should need the electric prod,
• only 1 per cent should fall over or crash into something and
• less than 5 per cent should vocalise when in the crush, except for when they’re branded.

“If you work on improving your handling, you will achieve those numbers.”

Dr Grandin had excellent PowerPoint presentations which illustrated some of her tips for better stock handling:-

• Remain calm when handling stock.
• Identify and remove things in the yards which baulk animals. Her slides showed examples such as shadows across races, stock walking into direct sunlight, dangling chains, workers in the yards, drains and flapping items.
• Never fill the forcing pen more than half full.
• Use it as a “passing through” pen so cattle can move straight up the race.
• Utilise flight zone principals. Walking in the opposite direction to that in which the animals need to go, can move animals effectively.
• Once animals start to move in the desired direction it is important to move out of their flight zone.
• Use the point of balance, which is at the animal’s shoulder. Cattle will move forward if the handler stands behind the point of balance and back up if the handler stands in front of it.

Dr Grandin said some producers would need to improve their stock handling facilities to help improve their handling. These improvements could often be made without significant changes to existing infrastructure. Ideas can be found at Dr Grandin’s website (www.grandin.com).

To help make simple changes by removing things which make animals baulk, it is helpful to look at yards through the animals’ eyes.

Dr Grandin said improvements in handling will prove cost-effective as they will lead to calmer animals which gain more weight. There is also the benefit that calmer animals are less likely to cost the enterprise money by injuring themselves or people working in the yards.

Other speakers were Claire Kentler,a science graduate who is working at LaTrobe University, who gave an excellent presentation about boosting calf immunity.

Some of the key points of her talk were:-

• Calves are born without immunity to disease.
• Colostrum will provide immunity so long as the calf has sufficient quantity of high quality colostrum early enough in life (4ℓ within the first 6 hours).
• 40% of dairy calves do not receive sufficient colostrum to provide immunity to disease.
• As a rule of thumb, older cows have better quality colostrum than heifers and second calvers.
• Calves which do not have adequate colostrum are often sick or fail to thrive in the pre-weaning period.
• These calves which do not do well in the first few weeks of life are usually the first to be culled from the herd.

Dr. Peter Wynn, who is Professor of Animal Science at Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga, gave a fascinating presentation about the work he has done with the dairy industry in Pakistan. Change in countries such as this can be hard to implement for many reasons. One example is that in Pakistan a sign of great honour is to give friends and acquaintances a bottle of fresh colostrum. This means that the calf never has access to this nutrient, which is a key factor in good health. Many of the calves shown in his slides were showing signs of severe ill thrift, which is in part due to the lack of colostrum. Many calves in Pakistan are never fed milk; they are expected to survive from day one on fresh green chop. Consequently, many die and those which do survive are malnourished and prone to disease.

The day provided a great deal of thought provoking material; wonderful food and a very enjoyable evening meal completed a very stimulating day.

The conference is being held on the 1st of July 2009 at the Airport Motel, 33 Ardlie Street, Attwood, VIC 3029.

This year’s keynote speaker will be the highly regarded stock handling expert, Dr Temple Gradin. There will also be presentations from Dr. Peter Wynn, Dr. Theresa Frankel and Mrs. Kerry Spain.

Cost is $30 for PCRAA members and $150 for non-members.

For further information contact Jeanette on 03 6491 2636 or 0428 867551.

Dr. Grandin is recognised as a world leader in livestock handling and animal psychology and her work has revolutionised stockyard design and stock handling methods world wide. She has designed livestock facilities throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries. Her curved race systems are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many producers to reduce stress during handling.

Dr. Grandin has a Ph.D in Animal Science and is currently a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. This enables her to continue her research while teaching courses on stockyard design and livestock handling. She has done extensive work on the design of handling facilities with the result that half the cattle in the U.S. and Canada are handled in equipment she has designed for meat plants.

Other professional activities include developing animal welfare guidelines for the meat industry. The majority of her work is involved with large feedlots and commercial meat packers.  She has worked with many large companies such as Cargill, Tyson, Smithfield, Seaboard, Cactus Feeders. She also does design work for many ranches and she has trained auditors regarding animal care at processing plants such as Wendy’s International, Burger King, Whole Foods, Chipotle, and McDonald’s Corporation. She also has consulted with organic and natural livestock producers on animal care standards. The animal handling guidelines she wrote for the American Meat Institute are being used by many large meat buying customers to objectively audit animal handling and stunning practices.

She has published several hundred industry publications, book chapters, technical papers articles, seven books and has developed her own website (www.grandin.com) which has been expanded to include information on livestock handling in addition to information relative to the design of handling systems
Securing Dr. Grandin as a speaker is a trememdous achievement as she is in high demand for speaking engagements; these days poor health limits the number of overseas engagements she accepts. Her visit to Australia presents a rare opportunity for people involved in stock handling to learn first hand from her accumulated wisdom.

Dr. Peter  Wynn, who is the Professor of Animal Production at the Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga will discuss his experiences working with dairies in Pakistan. He has a research grant with Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research to improve dairy production in Pakistan through improved extension services.

Dr. Wynn’s research work has included ruminant endocrinology, growth physiology and genomics. He has had major competitive grants of more than $5M in the past 15 years from the ARC and industry research funding agencies, eg MLA, AWI, Dairy Australia, Australian Pork Limited.

Dr. Wynn also played an integral role in the research programs of the Co-operative Research Centre for Innovative Dairy Products and the Pork CRC. Current research grants enable him to research feed conversion efficiency and carcass composition in pigs.

The secretary of the P.C.R.A.A., Dr. Theresa Frankel will present a paper on recent work on the absorption of antibodies from colostrum. Dr. Frankel, who has worked internationally as a practicing vet, is currently a lecturer in animal and human nutrition at LaTrobe University.

The final speaker will be Kerry Spain, who is the 2008 winner of the Diamond V Calf Rearer of the Year award. Kerry will tell us what she learned from her trip to the 2009 D.C.H.A. conference in Tucson, Arizona.

Once again, we can promise an informative and entertaining day and expect a full complement of trade displays to provide information on recent product developments.