It’s the June bank holiday weekend and many farmers (dairy and suckler) are using the presence of family members home for the weekend to dose calves for worms.

Most stock are two months into grazing and it’s a good time to check for presence of parasites and set stock up for the second half of the grazing season.

For dairy youngstock, it’s the start of the programme to manage gutworms and, probably more importantly, lungworms.

The best dairy farmers will start building a track record of stock performance and at this stage will run the young stock (male and female) over a weighing scales when worming.

This allows you accurately dose for weight and build up information.

Dose and move

Record all weighings and any other information. This weight will be useful when making decisions later.

Perhaps later in the year many will only dose those calves that have poor liveweight gain. This, combined with grazing calves on clean ground (aftergrass), can help manage the worm burden.

Some farmers will use a long-acting implant for worm control, especially if help is scarce or calves are going away to outside blocks of land where handling facilities are poor or non-existent.

Lungworms are again priority for spring-born suckled calves. Gutworms could be an issue but are more rare, so lungworm control is the priority. Lungworms are again the biggest threat in second-season cattle.

How do you know if stock have worms?

In both calves and cattle when you hear a lot of coughing after a gallop up the field you know you have an issue with lungworms. You can take faeces samples and check for egg counts.

Bulk a number of samples and get them tested. Ideally take from calves that have been out over eight weeks.

Get them into the lab as quick as you can (within 24 hours).

Individual animal sampling and testing can work again but maybe later in the year is more appropriate for this and it might mean you can skip dosing if you have aftergrass available for calves.

If you have aftergrass, try to get youngstock grazing these clean pastures.

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