This is a subscriber-only article
There seems to be no let-up with the wet weather and this needs to be taken into account when planning a winter health plan for some groups of animals on the farm.
With this in mind we set about looking after our replacement ewe lambs and beef heifers' parasite problems – or not as the case may be – over the Christmas period. It was a joint effort with both our vets and Teagasc adviser involved.
The ewe lambs, which are hopefully pregnant, will be scanned shortly and are going to be kept out for as long as possible. A worm and fluke dose had also crossed our minds.
After liaising with the vets in the ICM abattoir in Navan, it was confirmed all our sheep’s livers were clean. This is the ultimate test but with the bad weather leading to such poor grazing management, we thought a dose might be no harm.
Dosing with Supaverm
To find out for sure our vet gave us some sample jars to collect dung from the ewe lambs to analyse.
The lambs in question were in good condition and seemed to be growing well. They were all 50kg+ going to the ram.
We collected said samples and within a few days the results were emailed back. We took on board the vet’s advice and also our Teagasc adviser's comments.
The lambs were dosed with Supaverm which is a white wormer. This product has a long withholding period of 60 days, but as these lambs are hopefully pregnant, this was not an issue.
Ewe lambs queuing up for their dose
Dung samples were collected again two weeks after dosing and the ewe lambs have a clean bill of health. This also tells us that there isn’t a resistance problem on the farm to the active ingredients in this dose. As part of our STAP tasks, (sheep technology adoption programme) we had found out there was no farm resistance to the yellow and clear group of wormers.
Levafas Diamond
Cattle were also dung-sampled and as a result we were advised to give them Levafas Diamond, a yellow wormer, which covers mature fluke, rumen fluke and worms.
This is a hard product on cattle’s systems as it increases their metabolism. Those with worms and fluke will be visibly sick for up to 24 hours after dosing and scour profusely for a few hours.
To ensure the product is fully effective on liver fluke, cattle need to be housed for six weeks.
As some of the cattle came from the west and north west of the country, there was a small amount of rumen fluke present also.
Cattle were dosed with a hook drencher, which we find easy to use and they also received pour-on treatment for external parasites.
It’s always a great way of seeing how the cattle are thriving during the winter – to see them out in the yard loose rather than in the slatted pens.
Overall we very happy with the way they seem to be growing; they were weighed at housing on the 16 November so it will not be fully known how they are doing until we weigh them at turnout.
Farmer writes: gearing up for calving season
SHARING OPTIONS: