Castle Farm Vets is a dedicated farm animal veterinary practice, established in Barnard Castle in the 1930s.

Since then, their friendly and professional services have seen them grow, with branches opened in Darlington and, most recently, Malton.

The new branch is staffed by three experienced farm vets who are able to give a personal service to farmers 24/7.

The health and wellbeing of livestock is vital to farmers, and the team at Castle Farm Vets will make the health of a herd or flock their priority, from carrying out a free introductory client visit to discuss their needs to drawing up herd and flock health plans, providing nutrition consultation and advice and providing preventative healthcare.

Their new purpose-built premises includes an onsite inpatient facility, allowing the staff to carry out complex procedures such as caesareans or lambings at the practice.

Vets Luke Williams, Harry Eastwood and Jorge Silva specialise in farm animal medicine and can offer services for both large farms and smallholders.

The team also offer specified visit area days once a week with reduced visit rates for any pre-planned work.

As well as being on-call for any unexpected emergencies, they will do routine visits for pregnancy, carry out blood sampling to check ongoing health issues and be on hand to help with any sick animals.

As part of a larger well established farm practice Castle Farm Vets can offer extra services to local farmers such as advanced breeding services for sheep and cattle, including artificial insemination and embryo transfer, semen collection and storage and bull and ram fertility testing.

For new farmers the team can also provide advice on planned or existing buildings to suggest the best changes that can be made to ensure animal health, welfare and productivity is maximised.

They also work with Axiom Veterinary Laboratories to provide veterinary diagnostic testing for livestock. This can help simplify the process of achieving herd accreditation and minimise the impact of infectious diseases in herds.

Their expert vets will provide detailed, easy-to-follow lab reports backed up with their experienced veterinary advice, and farmers can have herds tested for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), Johne’s disease, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), Leptospira hardjo and Neospora, and have their herd’s TB status accredited.

These are vital services, as the cattle industry drives to improve the health status of herds. Many European countries have already eradicated BVD virus and some also IBR virus.

Most milk processors now require their suppliers to have a control plan in place for Johne’s disease. Health scheme programmes provide a structured way to achieve better control of this disease.

In the worst cases, they are able to provide or assist with post-mortem examinations of any deceased animals to swiftly diagnose any problems that may exist in a herd and prevent any further losses.

Their expertise also means they are able to provide export certification (EC) and export health certification (EHC) for farmers and companies throughout the North East.

Senior vet Harry Eastwood said: “This is a big farming area, so we have expanded to help offer the best service possible to local farmers. We have some of the most advanced equipment available at our new practice, and being part of a larger practice also means we can offer really competitive prices on all prescription products farmers might need.”

To find out how the team at Castle Farm Vets can help you, visit the website here or to contact the Malton practice directly call 01653 531 151 or visit them at Malton Enterprise Park, Unit 5, Plot 6, YO17 6AD.