NMR works closely with the Scottish dairy industry. Our service delivery team, headed up by Regional Services Lead Alison Thomas, are responsible for the day to day relationship with dairy farmers, overseeing work carried out by the self-employed milk recorders, helping with software queries and checking for any changes or developments in the dairy farmer's goal for his herd - be it health, production or efficiency.  If you are interested in any of NMR's services please contact our local Area Development Manager, Amy King, who will be happy to help.

Please browse this page to read about our team, services, events and news in Scotland

Our services

All of NMR's milk recording and testing services are available in Scotland. Our second testing laboratory is based at Hillington near Glasgow where we carry out the majority of our BVD Tag & Test testing with an excellent two day turnaround!

With many farmers opting to use robot parlours, we are also proud to offer a shuttle service which assists those farmers wishing to continue their Johne's, pregnancy or other testing, which isn't available with their robot parlour software.

NMR is also embedded in the Scottish Dairy R&D industry as we work closely with SRUC at their Barony site.

If you would like to find out more about what services NMR offers the dairy farmer in Scotland, please don't hesitate to contact a member of the team (see below). We are also looking forward to welcoming Scottish dairy farmers to two farm walks we are planning this autumn - keep your eyes peeled for further information

Farmer to Farmer - Johne's testing

Robin Campbell of Cally Mains near Castle Douglas, was recently interviewed by Cow Management about his herd management. Robin and his vet Will McCarthy are impressed with NMR HerdWise quarterly Johne's testing service which is also CHECS accredited - see below:

Access to NMR’s HerdWise reports has been invaluable for developing their Johne’s control plan and maintaining low infection rates, which are well under the National Johne’s Plan’s recommended Average Test Value (ATV) – the industry recognised indicator of a herd’s Johne’s infection rate – of 5.5 which it encourages all herds to reach by 2030.

At the most recent quarterly whole herd test, the Cally Mains Holstein herd’s ATV was 4.2 and Jersey’s 3.5 with only six animals testing positive. The herd ATV has reduced from 7.5 eight years ago, soon after they added the Jersey cows and, within a year, moved to Cally Mains.

Trends show that levels have dropped and have remained low for the past three years, driven by the identification of high risk cows and implementation of management protocols to block transmission around calving. Increased culling was then adopted as the prevalence went down.

“Johne’s is a horrible disease,” says Robin. “Although we’ve never seen a clinical case of Johne’s we’re suspicious that if a cow has poor feet, doesn’t get back in calf or has other problems Johne’s may well be the underlying issue. If a cow does turn Johne’s positive, she’s calved in her own pen and her calf is separated to ensure there’s no spread of infection. She’ll leave the herd at the earliest opportunity, and they won’t breed from any of her progeny.

“Control plans are in place to minimise the risk of any spread, should a cow have a positive test result,” says Will McCarthy “Now, with such low levels, they can afford to cull any suspects and take a hard line.”

“There’s no room for complacency, even in herds with low ATVs,” adds Will. The potential of infection from just one cow is huge, and the impact of control plans today will be seen in a few years. If the herd has a low ATV now, but controls slip, the herd could be back in the trenches in three- or four-years’ time.” 

He believes that quarterly milk sample screening is the best way of controlling Johne’s. “And access to test results directly from services like HerdWise so we can advise on control plans is really valuable,” he adds.

You can read the complete article here