Farm services

Independent care, built around your animals.

We are an independent practice with a team of dedicated farm vets carrying a cumulative wealth of experience of over 100 years in farm animal practice. We strive to provide a high level of support to our clients through building long lasting relationships and working alongside them to achieve their goals.

The diverse nature of Herefordshire and the surrounding counties’ farming systems mean that we are experienced in providing service and expertise in a broad range of farming settings — from large housed dairies to a huge variety of beef systems and small ruminants.

Farm services

How can we help your farm?

Select your livestock to jump to the relevant section, or explore our specialist services below.

Dairy
Routine fertility & herd health
Beef
Suckler & finishing herds
Sheep
Sheep
Flock health
Goats
Dairy & commercial herds
Smallholders
Smallholders
Pigs, poultry & mixed
Game Birds
Pheasant, partridge & flock
+ Specialist Services
TB Testing
Statutory testing & movement compliance
›
Vet Tech
Technician-led on-farm services
›
Animal & Products Exports
Movement certification & paperwork
›

Dairy

We are a group of progressive and forward thinking dairy vets working alongside our clients to improve animal health, welfare and long term business profitability. Our ultimate aim is to provide a personal and professional service to a range of varied and thriving dairy systems. We are a one-stop-shop for dairy animal health needs including;

 Dairy clinical services (drop down-to include as below):

  • All routine and front-line veterinary work 24 hours a day, every day.

  • Milking system audits and mastitis trouble shooting for better udder health

  • Nutritional trouble shooting

  • Youngstock disease monitoring and management

  • Foot health 

  • Genetic audit and genomic testing 

  • Competitively priced medicines 

    • We are passionate about delivering a high quality and affordable routine fertility service to our dairy clients. Each farm has allocated routine vets ultrasound scanning on a routine basis.

    • Good dairy herd fertility starts with excellent transition management. We are very familiar with putting in place and monitoring fresh cow programs to assess transition success. We use this farm data to visualise trends and work with the farms nutritionist to improve ration formulation.

    • We are frequently analysing on-farm and milk recording data to examine fertility performance in detail using TotalVet, Uniform and DairyComp 305.

    • We work with block calving and year round calving herds and our approach is tapered to be system specific.

    • We believe that a herd health plan is an ongoing conversation and relationship with the farmer and all other advisors involved on farm, based around farm goals and business needs. Our best performing units have this holistic, team approach.

    • Our structured health planning process is built to identify areas for improvement, develop aims and create bespoke protocols to deliver progress on farm. We work alongside our clients to hit the targets set in milk contracts for a range of milk buyers; from large supermarket buyers to local family creameries.

    • Benchmarking is often used to highlight areas of success and those for improvement across our dairy herds using milk recording data or data gathered on farm.

    • We understand the training needs of the modern dairy farm and we regularly run courses that offer you an opportunity to upskill your staff on AI, calf health, foot health and more. 

Beef

Whether grass-based sucklers or dairy-rearing systems, we aim to work with our farmers to produce efficient and productive livestock whilst maintaining the highest level of health and welfare. From 24 hour emergency cover to in-depth disease management and data analysis, we cover all areas of your farm enterprise to the highest standard.

    • Fertility – PDs (down to 30 days), Bull Breeding Soundness Exam, Synchronisation, Pelvic Scoring

    • Disease Control –Infectious Disease Control, Blood Sampling, On-Farm Post Mortems, Sick Animal Investigation

    • Health Reviews – Yearly Planning, Antibiotic Collation, Scheme Compliance

    • Disease Control – Disease Investigations, Calf Lung Scanning, Environment and Ventilation Assesment, On-Farm Post Mortems

    • Health Review – Batch Planning, Antibiotic Collation, Scheme Compliance, Vaccine Planning, Data Analysis

    • Nutritional Assessment – Milk Powder Analysis and Feeding Regime, Weaning Diet Planning

    • Disease Control - Disease Investigations, Environment and Ventilation Assesment, On-Farm Post Mortems

    • Health Review – Batch Planning, Antibiotic Collation, Scheme Compliance, Vaccine Planning, DLWG Data Analysis

    • Nutritional Assessment – Feed Assessment, Blood Analysis

Sheep

Alongside typical 24 hour emergency and routine flock care we also provide:

  • Post mortems – a valuable tool in preventative medicine

  • Flock health planning – vital for reducing losses and maximising productivity, working with farmers we develop a bespoke, easy to follow flock health plan that complies with red tractor and farm assurance guidelines

  • Poor performance investigation – rapid lamb growth is important to avoid sending too many to the store markets and maximise output per ewe

  • Ram pre-breeding examinations – essential for any Ram with a suspected fertility issue or as a preventative measure pre-breeding

  • Lameness control – using the 5 point plan

  • Advanced fertility techniques – for synchronisation or out of season breeding

  • MV and CAE health scheme testing – for accredited and general healthy flock management

We run regular workshops and courses on many of the key areas of flock health — keep an eye on the Training & Events page to see what's going on.

Dairy Goats

Our dedicated and enthusiastic goat vets work closely with our large dairy goat flocks to deliver a bespoke milking health plan whilst ensuring the routine work of disbudding and disease investigations are done to the highest standard.

Health Planning

  • We aspire to support you and to drive improvements in animal productivity, health and welfare including bespoke vaccine and medicine protocols for kids and adult goats.

  • We offer blood testing prior to kidding to ensure that energy demands of the nannies are being met.

  • Gaining health status accreditation involves regular blood sampling of the herd to monitor disease status and development of protocols to ensure that high health status is maintained.

  • Monitoring to ensure that milk production is at the highest possible level on your farm.

  • Our specialised vets are competent in fulfilling large disbudding sessions utilising general anaesthetic. Aim is to complete within the first 2 weeks of life and can be done on farm or at our practices.

Routine Procedures

  • Our specialised vets are competent in fulfilling large disbudding sessions utilising general anaesthetic. Aim is to complete within the first 2 weeks of life and can be done on farm or at our practices.

  • A valuable tool to reach a quick diagnosis and to prevent further losses.

Fertility Aids

  • Utilising synchronisation protocols to tighten and enhance breeding programs tailored to your farm.

  • Done on farm or at the practice, we use vasectomies as a valuable tool for tight kidding periods and vasectomised billies anecdotally can reduce the incidence of nanny to nanny aggression.

  • Semen analysis done on farm to minimise fertility issues and prolonged/poor kidding period.

Small Holders

Whether you are starting out or a seasoned small holder, we have a range of services to offer which can help keep the health and welfare of your holding to the best level it can be. We cover all species from chickens and pigs to alpacas and goats. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to book in for any of the following services:

Routine Services

  • Foot trimming

  • Castrations

  • Health planning including on farm injection training

  • Blood testing for accreditation

  • Fertility planning

  • Disbudding

  • Worming protocols and faecal egg counts

  • Vaccination planning

  • 24/7 emergency care

Training & Courses

If you are starting out and would like more support, we are offer a number of courses and meetings that are suitable for small holders to attend:

  • Lambing courses using the lambing simulator

  • Calving course

  • Small holders course

  • Responsible use of medicines courses

For dates on when we will be running these courses, speak to a member of staff, visit our News and Eventspage or find us on Facebook. 

Game Birds

As a practice we offer veterinary care to game bird laying and rearing businesses and shoots releasing birds. We have a small team of enthusiastic game bird vets that offer various services 24/7. From emergency outbreak visits to routine and health planning visits we offer a comprehensive service including:

  • Routine site visits

  • Post-mortem service

  • Biosecurity and housing advice

  • Husbandry and flock health planning for every stage of production

  • Disease control and prevention advice

  • Competitively priced medications

  • Regular meetings with industry experts

We pride ourselves on not being poultry vets but practical game bird vets. If you are keen to find out more then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Specialist Services

Beyond the everyday

Dedicated teams for the work that needs a specialist.

TB Testing Statutory testing & movement compliance

We consider TB to be one of the biggest animal health challenges on farm. In recent times, Herefordshire and the surrounding counties have become a challenging area for TB control.

With the support of a dedicated TB administrative team, our team of TB Vets and Approved Tuberculin Testers deliver TB testing on behalf of APHA across all our clients’ herds. As well as APHA statutory testing we carry out private TB testing prior to the movement of bovine.

Control of TB is not just about repeated testing. As part of the health planning process we advise on biosecurity to minimise the spread of disease, through the TB advisory service — free one-to-one on-farm visits to provide recommendations to reduce the risk of TB infection in herds.

Vet Tech Technician-led on-farm services

We offer a Vet Tech service with trained technicians providing an affordable, reliable and high-quality option for livestock-related tasks on farm, centred around preventative health care.

  • Mobility scoring (ROMS accredited)
  • Body condition scoring
  • Herd hygiene and teat-end scoring
  • Calf immunity testing
  • Calf and herd vaccination
  • Disbudding
  • Shared vaccination days for smallholders

They have recently been delivering shared vaccination days for smallholders for bluetongue vaccines and other vaccinations where whole-bottle pricing is prohibitive for small numbers.

Our Techs are already active on farms in the local area — please don’t hesitate to contact the office for more information or if you have any questions about how they may be able to help you.

Export Certification Movement certification & paperwork

We have trained vets able to certify many aspects of export, with an experienced support team to ensure all paperwork is completed correctly.

We are licensed to certify:

  • Live Farm Animals
  • Live Horses and Ponies
  • Products of Animal Origin
  • Animal Germinal Products (Semen & Embryos)

Please contact us to discuss your requirements. Email export@bfevets.co.uk or ring the office to speak to Andrew, Mike, Katie or Louise.

Further information:

Testimonials

We have been with Belmont farm vets for 12 years and have been very happy with the service from the whole team.  The vets are very pro active with their help and advice to problems we encounter.  We normally find a solution with antibiotics, vaccines, or feed supplements to cure the issue and stop it from occurring again.  The vets are also good at thinking outside the box when coming up with solutions.

Pursey, Trevase Farm

Meet the Farm Team

  • Matthew Pugh

    BVetMed MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Director

  • Andrew Cooke

    BVMS MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Director

  • Nick Gibbon

    BVSc DBR MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Director

  • Will Allman

    BVM&S MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Director

  • Katie Kipling

    BVSc BSc(Hons) CertAVP MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Senior Farm Clinician

  • Lisa Phipps

    BVM&S PGDip(VCP) MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Louise White

    BVSc MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Will Phillips

    BVSc MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Joe Pescod

    BVetMed MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Sally Clarke

    BVetBiol/BVetSc CertAVP MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Lewis Gregg

    BVetMS MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - Farm Clinician

  • Petre Balanescu

    MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - TB

  • Tudor Patcas

    MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - TB

  • Diego Sainz Garcia

    MRCVS - Veterinary Surgeon - TB

  • Mark Wrathall

    BSc (Hons) PgC Mem R.E.S - Approved Tuberculin Tester

  • Jen Grosvenor Smith

    Approved Tuberculin Tester - Vet Tech

  • Amanda Lambert

    Approved Tuberculin Tester - Vet Tech

  • Becky Howells

    Approved Tuberculin Tester

Full Team