Farm Vet Champions at BCVA

Mark Jelley, beef producer, chair of the Cattle Antibiotic Guardian Group, and Farm Vet Champion Steering Group member speaks on what farm vets can do to support the red meat sectors to maintain their reputation, export market and consumer confidence in burgers, chops, and steaks. 

He will be joined by Fiona Lovatt, Chair of the Sheep Antibiotic Group and RCVS Knowledge Clinical Lead for Medicines, with details of free-to-access CPD and award opportunities for all farm vet teams.

Tonia Simms from The Farm Vets at Hampden Veterinary Hospital (VetPartners) will join the session to talk about her work exploring antibiotic use in surgical calf castrates which won her an Antibiotic Stewardship Award in 2023. Hear about what Tonia did to reduce the routine use of prophylactic antibiotics.  The actions of the team following the introduction of the interventions also led to an increase in morale and confidence around not prescribing prophylactic antibiotics without compromising welfare.  

Rachel Hayton will discuss the approach to antibiotics taken by a large, independent, farm animal veterinary practice in South-West England. It was formed in 2009 by the merger of the farm animal departments of two neighbouring practices and has since incorporated several others. The practice places a high value on responsible antibiotic use which can be challenging for reasons such as harmonising prescribing practice across a large team, stock management, pressure from other prescribing sources or disparate client attitudes. This talk will examine some of the ways in which these challenges have been addressed in the long term and the benefits that can accrue.

Mark is a suckler beef farmer from Northamptonshire and has recently chaired the RUMA TTF2 group for the cattle sector. Over the last few years, close contact with his local vet practice has resulted in refinement and reductions in antibiotics used on farm, along with a corresponding improvement in herd health and performance too. Mark has been involved in developing farmer facing communications with groups such as COWS, sits as a farmer representative on the Veterinary Products Committee at the VMD and also as an appointee on the NFU Livestock Board. 

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Fiona Lovatt is the Clinical Lead for Farm Vet Champions at RCVS Knowledge. She joins the team with a passion for proactive veterinary involvement on UK sheep farms, particularly enthusing both vets and sheep farmers to interact better through proactive individual flock health planning and Flock Health Clubs.

Fiona Lovatt runs Flock Health Ltd, a sheep veterinary consultancy business (www.flockhealth.co.uk) that works collaboratively with vets, farmers, processors, retailers and pharmaceutical companies, primarily in the UK but also further afield. She is an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Sheep Health and Production, a diplomate of the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management and works, on a very part-time basis, as a clinical associate professor at the University of Nottingham.

Fiona is a past president of the Sheep Veterinary Society and currently chairs the UK Sheep Antibiotic Guardian Group, having represented the sheep industry on the RUMA Targets Task Force since 2016.

Fiona is a trustee of the Veterinary Christian Fellowship and lives in a beautiful part of rural northern England with her husband and three children, not to mention the dog, two pigs and three hens!

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Tonia is Clinical Director of the Farm Department at a well established mixed practice in the home counties. The practice has a strong ethos of preventative care, working hard with the farmers to develop efficient and sustainable livestock enterprises. Tonia's particular area of interest is bovine advanced reproduction techniques and genetics: using AI and ET to increase the profitability of a herd. She is an RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Bovine Reproduction.

Photo credit: VetPartners

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Rachel is a senior clinician, shareholder, and research lead at Synergy Farm Health, a 40 vet farm veterinary practice in South West England.

She has a special interest in the responsible use of medicines and is a British Cattle Veterinary Association Board member, leading the medicine and sustainability groups. She sits on a number of industry committees, including the RUMA Targets Task Force, Red Tractor Dairy Board, the Vet Sustain Food and Farming Working Group, and has been heavily involved in promoting and developing AHDB Medicine Hub since its release, chairing the Medicine Hub Industry Liaison Group. She was responsible for bringing MilkSure and QuarterPRO under the BCVA training umbrella.

Her clinical research programme includes topics such as innovative diagnostics, clinical approaches to infectious disease, nutrition, mastitis, lameness, and youngstock health. She also carries out a variety of training relating to mastitis and the responsible use of medicines. She has a special interest in sustainability and is a member of the practice Green Group.

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