Westpoint PRO

Collaboration with vets

Feel like you’re just scratching the surface of herd or flock health?

Westpoint PRO can work with your practice and clients to enact in-depth investigations and advise on:

Husbandry and management practices	Environment and buildings
Data capture and analysis	Infectious disease management and prevention strategies

We can aid in setting up monitoring strategies and health protocols in collaboration with existing veterinary care providers. Email us to find out more at consultancy@westpointfarmvets.co.uk

Not a current Westpoint client?

Our team boasts a range of experienced vets in varied fields, but you do not have to be a client to benefit from our services.

With open communication and cooperation with your vets, Westpoint PRO teams can offer a consultancy service to provide remote and practical support on a range of livestock health issues, including, but not limited to:

Mastitis investigations and protocols	Mobility scoring, housing and walkway assessment
Grassland management advice	Beef and dairy fertility protocols, stockperson training, fertility and breeding assessments, AI training and investigations
Sheep fertility and advanced reproduction techniques, nutritional assessment and embryo transfer	Youngstock health, holistic disease investigation, advanced diagnostics
Camelid second opinion medicine, fertility investigation and health planning	Nutritional advice for sheep, camelids and cattle
Infectious disease management for all farm species	Biosecurity site assessment and advice
Genomics, introduction to new technical tools and interpretation	Sustainability advice

We can train stockpersons and farm teams

Our herd and flock health consultants can provide on-farm training to stockpersons in many areas that can benefit farm efficiency, such as:

Scanning techniques	Lambing, calving and unpacking tuition
Youngstock scoring	Hygienic milking routine protocols
Artificial insemination	Basic post-mortem technique of lambs
Foot trimming	Selective dry cow therapy
Responsible use of medicines	Mobility scoring
Biosecurity

Current Westpoint client?

Existing Westpoint clients have unrestricted access to advice from our in-house consultants in collaboration with their home practice.

Your veterinary care contracts can now include a set number of visits from any one of our livestock consultants depending on your personal targets and priorities.

Your annual health planning visit is a perfect opportunity to discuss how our Pro: services can help bring a fresh perspective to your livestock’s health and productivity. However, you can enquire at any time.

Ask your practice about incorporating consultancy visits from our network of expert vets, many of whom hold higher qualifications in their chosen fields.

Meet our Pro: Teams

Dairy Team

Jack Balkham – BSc (Hons) BVSc MRCVS

Jack has been with Westpoint Farm Vets for a decade, and is a key member of our Pro Dairy team. He completed his Diploma in Bovine Reproduction in 2021 and utilises this in consultancy visits primarily focusing on fertility but also more widely, dairy herd health. He is also a member of the VetPartners fertility working group and is one of our bull breeding soundness vets in the Southeast. From semen assessment, to data reviews, Jack is all things fertility!

Kathryn Hume – BVM BVS MRCVS

Kathy has a particular interest in proactive health planning and mastitis control. She is an accredited AHDB dairy mastitis control plan user.

Emily Phipps – BVSc MRCVS

Emily’s primary focus is nutrition. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Bovine Nutrition. She can also advise on infectious disease management and control.

Mia Ellis – BSc (Hons) BVetMed MRCVS

With a Masters in sustainable agriculture and food security and a certificate in the veterinary approach to sustainable food and farming, Mia is able to confidently advise on sustainability, grazing management and agroecological issues. She can help you to meet specific requirements of your milk contract or help you focus on futureproofing your farm.

Beef Team

Jack Balkham – BSc (Hons) BVSc MRCVS

Jack’s main interests include bovine fertility and infectious diseases. He is part of the VetPartners’ fertility special interest group and holds a Diploma in Bovine Reproduction from the University of Liverpool.

Ian Roper – BVetMed MRCVS

Ian has been with Westpoint since 2007, and has worked with a variety of dairy units across the country as well as delivering consultancy services in the middle east, Denmark and Sweden. His mindset is understanding each unit’s infrastructure and capacities, in order to focus on the right areas to maximise performance overall. If a farm can optimise genetics, nutrition, the environment and control infectious disease, success will follow. Ian has a deep understanding of the viral, bacterial, parasitic and other conditions affecting cattle, and works with farms to devise the best management strategies. This might involve eradication, vaccination, biosecurity and group management options, but each farm is different, and the best approach is likely to need working out in partnership.

Camelid Team

Ami Sawran – BVSc CertAVP (CP) PGCertVPS PhD MRCVS

Ami is an RCVS Advanced Camelid Practice certificate holder. Her main interests are dental health and neonatal cria care. She is currently heading two research projects, one into inflammatory bowel disease of camelids, and another into trends towards altered head shape in alpacas. Ami can assist with all aspects of herd health planning.

Laura Gibson – BSc BVetMed MRCVS

Laura is able to advise on all aspects of camelid herd health planning. She has an interest in fertility.

Sheep Team

Sharminda Lockwood – BVetMed MRCVS

Sharminda is a sheep keeper herself, as well as lead of the Pro: Sheep group. Sharminda plays an integral role in promoting sheep medicine across the group, as the head of the Sheep Clinical Interest Group at VetPartners, and Deputy Head of the Farm Animal Clinical Board.

Ashley Marshall – BVetMed MRCVS

A pedigree breeder of badger faced texels, Ashley provides advanced breeding services for sheep out of our York facility.