Life after Capsules ... the results are in!

Last lambing season was the first when farmers no longer had the option of using Bionic CRC drench capsules. Farmers were forced to look at other options, so we have conducted an extensive survey to see how clients who previously used Bionic capsules managed.

The questions asked included the following;

• What did you do instead of using Bionics?

• How do you rate your ewe performance?

• How do you rate your lamb performance?

• Was the dag score any different?

• If Bionics became available, would you use them again?

Discussion

It is important to recognise this survey represents anecdotal comments from farmers, and this is not a scientific document. However several trends emerged.

• It is really encouraging to hear how many farmers now use targeted worm control programmes, with a mix of long acting injection, oral triple drench, or no drench at all, combined with a range of mineral supplement options. And these decisions are based on real information – age, body condition, twins, pasture contamination, laboratory tests, feed available, etc.

• Most farmers who used long acting injections (Cydectin LA, Exodus LA) to replace Bionics saw similar lamb numbers produced and similar lamb live-weights, and similar ewe losses to previous years.

• Many farmers who went from Bionics to a selected oral drench only, were happy with the season’s production, though this was confused by the associated use of minerals such as Smartshot B12.

• Farmers who used Cydectin LA or Exodus LA reported little change in dag score. Most clients who changed to a single oral drench or no drench reported increases in dags, while also noting the season “dried out” and dags were not really a problem.

• Many farmers reported excellent feed availability during the 2023 tupping, and felt this was the main factor holding their production up. (Certainly, it was a kind season, with heavier ewe tupping weights, -and lots of bearings out!)

• Despite acceptable results without Bionics, many farmers still said they would use some if they were available. Several comments reinforced the desire for long term worm control and cobalt and selenium supplementation in a single delivery system, in selected groups of ewes.

Resistance Monitoring

Worm egg counts 50-80 days after long-acting injections (“leakage”). For many years we have monitored faecal egg counts from ewes treated with Bionics, 60-90 days after insertion, to monitor their effectiveness, keep a check on emerging drench resistance, and make recommendations when exit drenching was required. These egg counts have generally stayed variable, but low, over many seasons of Bionic use.

It was unexpected to find this egg “leakage” was lower this year after long acting injections – 75% of all samples tested had zero or less than 50 epg, and only one test had more than 300 epg (further resistance testing followed this case). We had expected long acting moxidectin injections to show higher egg counts, in the knowledge that its length of action against Trichostrongylus worms was much shorter than Bionic capsules.

Veterinary Summary

So far we have proved we are not reliant on Bionic capsules.

Long acting moxidectin injections appear to be fairly equal in their performance in the field.

Most farmers have taken a hugely responsible attitude with their selection of options for targeted worm control programmes.

Long acting moxidectin injections are still performing as a valuable option in select groups of animals-lighter ewes bearing multiples, under feed pressure, etc.

If long acting injections are used, egg counts should be done 60-80 days after treatment, an essential part of product stewardship for future options.

Provision of adequate levels of high quality feed is the number 1 requirement for sound production-last season proved that!

It is likely the favourable season hid some of the increase in dags most of us were expecting to see.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE MANY CLIENTS WHO SO WILLINGLY PROVIDED THIS INFORMATION. IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU WE ARE ABLE TO ENHANCE OUR LOCAL KNOWLEDGE, AND MAKE BETTER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STOCK HEALTH AND PRODUCTION.

Beef Weaner Calf Health

With weaning right around the corner, it’s crucial to have a plan in place to keep calves healthy and growing strong. Here’s what we need to focus on:

• Parasite Control: Once calves are off their mothers’ milk and onto pasture, internal parasites can limit growth. Effective drench use is the key to staying on top of this. Injectable combination drenches such as Dectomax V or Eclipse E are available or alternatively Eclipse pour-on can also be used.

• Minerals: Two key minerals we need to think about are selenium and copper. Selenium is essential for immune system and overall health. This is where Selovin LA comes in handy – it’s a long-acting option that keeps selenium levels adequate for up to 12 months. Copper is crucial for growth. Copacap copper bullets provide long-lasting supplementation or you can use a copper injection. The Coppermax or Copaject injection is especially useful if wintering on brassicas.

• Vaccination: In order to protect the calves from clostridial diseases Covexin 10 in 1 or Multine 5 in 1 can be used at weaning, followed by a booster a month later. These vaccinations are crucial if going onto fodderbeet.

Summary

• Recommendation at Weaning: Combination Drench, Selenium Supplementation, Vaccination (1st Covexin).

• 5 weeks later: Copper supplementation, 2nd Covexin and drench if required.

So, as we’re gearing up for weaning, make sure you’ve got your bases covered with parasite control, minerals, and vaccinations. It’ll set the calves up for success as they make the transition to pasture-based diets.

Ewe BCS going into Breeding

We all know the importance of having ewes at target body condition score at key times of the year – if they are at target at mating, they are more likely to conceive, thus improving scanning percentages, and more likely to be at target at lambing, which increases colostrum production, lamb survival, increases lamb growth rates and weaning weights and has many flow on effects. In a dry year this is even more important, as the feed needed to get ewes to target BCS is a rare and precious resource. This is why looking at the individual ewe BCS is so important, not the flock average.

Ewe BCS target = 3.0 all year round

Key times of the year to monitor this are:

• Weaning

• Pre-mate

• Scanning

• Pre-lamb

Some of these times are more convenient than others – for example if you’re putting your hand on them to push them onto the scanning trailer, or giving pre-mate minerals. You don’t have to monitor ewes at each of these times, maybe just a couple, and you don’t have to condition score them precisely. The key is to identify and raise the bottom percentage of the flock so that you can put extra feed resources into them, not into those already at target.

1. There is a real benefit to lifting your lighter ewes

An increase of one BCS from 2.0 to 3.0 has been shown to increase scanning percentage by 15%, lamb survival 5%, lamb weaning weights 5% - analysis in 2010/11 gave an gross margin per ewe of $13 (over summer).

2. There is a “law of diminishing returns”

You will get massive relative gains in ewe performance as individual ewes go from a BCS of say 1 ½ - 2 and so on. This trend continues, but the curve becomes less steep – once ewe BCS reaches 3 – 3.5, there is minimal increase in production, whether it be increases in conception rate, lamb growth rates, or other effects of improved BCS. This is why there is no advantage to feeding ewes to gain condition over target BCS.

3. Feeding fatter ewes is inefficient

In addition to this feed being essentially wasted, as it will not improve production, it is also used very inefficiently. It takes a lot more energy – 351MJ – to go from 3.5 to 4.0 than it does to go from 2.0 to 2.5 – only 71MJ. So you don’t even have to put that many kg DM into those light ewes to bring them up to target, emphasising the importance of being able to separate them out and allocate precious feed to only those that need it.

Take home messages – putting precious feed into ewes at target will not improve production. Focus on lifting the individual BCS of lighter ewes at the bottom of your flock. Now is one of the key times you can do this to have a big impact on scanning, lambing, and weaning outcomes.

Dealing with Feet

The current run of hot dry weather has been a great opportunity to tip some ewes over to sort out lingering infection before it spreads again in the Autumn.

The works are getting picky about what is acceptable for transport and processing. Vet certificates can allow them to get priority processing if you do have space.

What are some options if you are having to keep and treat lame ewes for breeding:

• A plan is important. What are the trimmers for, how much do you pare? Do you carry on tipping if there is a lot of scald? What are the daily targets to get through?

• A pre-wash bath, a good handling facility, a set of sharp trimmers (pneumatics for the hard ones) can make a big difference. Don’t make them bleed. Running through pre-wash not only increases sensitivity it also softens hoof for easier trimming. Trimming itself is not a treatment. It is a diagnostic aid.

• CULL mis-shapen, multi-feet infections that are too far gone. Some sheep just keep getting re-infected and have lost too much condition to turn around.

• Antibiotics. There are some useful long acting formulation s that achieve good efficacy provided you do the follow-up (below). Vet only tilmovet is still the best.

• Topical something – a 10% zinc troughing or blue spray into lesions after the diagnostic trim and dose of antibiotics.

• A night on the grating post treatment. This allows feet to dry out and allow treatment reach peak concentration on the hoof. Seems to make a big difference.

• Follow up treated cases. Do this ~14 days after treatment is important. This is to remove dried up lesions and expose any pockets of bacteria that maybe hanging on. Applying blue spray or another zinc troughing after the check is ideal. Antibiotics will relieve clinical signs of footrot, but they can also suppress footrot bacteria that can re-surface 2-3months later, and possibly be more tolerant to subsequent treatments, so this clear-up check and trim is essential.

Footvax sensitizer to clean sheep now can give you options for booster shot pre-tup and/or pre-lamb. For irrigated properties troughing and footvax are your best footrot control tools.

Bulls - Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Poor Performance

Bulls are crucial to the success of any beef breeding enterprise. We place tremendous faith in the bulls to work alone or in small teams and continue to deliver a new crop of calves year on year.

If we set the following aspirational goals for our beef cow mating:

95% in calf for a 3 cycle/9 week mating period.

• 65 calves in the 1st cycle/3 weeks.

• 20 calves in the 2nd cycle/3 weeks.

• 10 calves in the 3rd cycle/3 weeks.

A little time and attention to making sure the bull team is fit, free from disease and actively working is critical to achieving these goals.

During mating

• Check bulls twice each week for the first 3 weeks and then weekly for the next 6 weeks. Get up as close as reasonably possible. Watch each bull walk, check for swellings around the sheath and for lameness. Once bulls are 6 years old and beyond their 4th breeding season, they are much more susceptible to subfertility, poor mating ability and breakdowns. These bulls should be subject to more rigorous scrutiny as they often fail to mate effectively and start fight with the younger bulls. Ideally bull teams would have been matched on age and body weight. I’d be deeply suspicious of a dominance issue if a younger bull has poked up a gully and is constantly “off by himself”.

• Have a spare bull or bulls available to immediately replace any that break do due to lameness, back issues, broken penis or obvious illness.

• Rotate bulls in single-sire groups to make sure that any bull infertility is covered. Single sire joining works well, but it has risks.

After mating

Suspicions may be raised during the mating period, but scanning is the first true indicator of weather these goals have been achieved. Alarm bells start ringing when a higher-than-average empty rate occurs, particularly those results above 20% empty. In these situations, the first question I’m often asked is “could it have been the bulls”. My response is to ask the question “did you have confidence in your bull team during mating” and then to suggest a deeper dive into the scanning data and examination of any suspect or broken down bulls.

The Weaning Process – Expressing your Stocks’ Full Potential

Most of us think of, and treat, weaning as a date on the calendar – something that gets ticked off and moved on from. For the lambs however, weaning is the biggest event in their lives and undoubtedly the most stressful. They are separated from their mums’, taken off milk, often have to adjust to a new feed source, exposed to the stress of yarding, dogs and people, and this all happens very abruptly.

Modern stock have a lot of genetic potential – but if they are not fed well then that potential will not be fully realised. After making that investment you must then give them the chance to express it – which means fully feeding them, especially at key times such as premating, late-pregnancy and lactation, and when they are young growing stock.

If post-weaning growth rates are lower than you would like has a weaning check played a part in this?

The two main areas that will impact how the weaning process will affect the young lamb are:

• The amount of stress it places the lamb under:

  • This comes from handling by people and dogs, changes to their environment, and changes to their management and routine such as being removed from their mums

• The change in feeding the lamb undergoes:

  • Remember we are feeding the bugs in the rumen, not the lamb itself

    – the lamb lives off acid produced by the rumen bugs and they also digest the rumen bugs as a source of protein. Weaning means the final transition from a monogastric animal (milk is main energy source) to a full ruminant (forage feeds bugs in rumen).

Over the ditch feeding grain every few days for a week before and then several after weaning is used to help with rumen transition – it suits their systems as sheep are then accustomed to grain in case of drought. The lambs also get used to people coming into the paddock to feed out in the few days before being handled before weaning, reducing that stress. Here in NZ a more realistic option may be making sure lambs and their mums are on the high quality feed the lambs will be weaned onto before this happens – so lambs and their rumens are used to it.

Any changes you can make to your normal weaning process that will reduce stress on the lambs and ease the transition of the rumen bugs to their new diet will help make this change easier. This can translate to a couple of kg either way – lost or gained – which could add up down the road to several kg for a hogget mated. Getting the rumen bugs cranking also optimises the output of rumen protein – which helps growth rates and resilience against parasitism.

A Clinical Case of Goitre

The lamb pictured is from a local farm around Waimate. The ewes are on grass and they have never supplemented iodine. The enlargement underneath the jaw is due to a condition called Goitre. This occurs as a result of insufficient iodine in the pregnant ewe. The fetus relies on its mother’s iodine intake to transport sufficient iodine across the placenta for its own thyroid hormone production.

Goitre can affect a newborn lamb’s ability to regulate its metabolism meaning they can be highly susceptible to malnutrition and cold exposure. This can reduce lamb survival rates, impair growth, and sometimes even result in stillbirth.

Here are some key strategies for preventing goitre in lambs:

• Balanced Nutrition: Ensure that pregnant ewes are provided with a well-balanced diet that contains sufficient iodine. Iodised salt or mineral supplements can be added to their feed to meet their iodine requirements.

• Monitoring Iodine Levels: Weighing the thyroid glands of 10-15 lambs who are stillborn is the best way.

• Environmental Control: Certain crops like Brassica species can contain elevated levels of goitrogens that impair the thyroid gland’s iodine uptake. Some clover varieties can also have this effect.

• Iodine Supplementation:

Supplementation should be considered if:

• You are feeding brassica crops

• Your farm has a previous history of goitre

• Thyroid: bodyweight ratios from slink/stillborn lambs are higher than recommended

• You have noticed higher losses than expected around lambing

This can be done via an injection of Flexidine - ideally given a month before mating. Alternatively you can use Lamb Survival Drench (LSD). Ideally give 3 doses: Prior to mating (to improve fertility), at scanning and prior to lambing. If not given prior to mating then giving doses at scanning and prior to lambing will provide supplementation for the growing foetus.

Bloat in Cattle

Lush pastures with high amounts of clover or lucerne makes spring a high risk time for bloat especially in young cattle. Bloat is caused by rapid gas accumulation in the rumen. This gas cannot be belched out as it becomes trapped in the rumen contents and forms stable foam.

When cattle are put onto a risky feed they can bloat within 15 minutes and die within 2 hours. If there are early signs of bloat, remove the herd from the offending pasture and feed hay or mature grass/silage. Bloated cattle can be given bloat oil and cattle with severe bloat may need to be stabbed in the left flank to release the gas. Because of the rapid onset, the first sign of bloat may be dead cattle. This can look similar to other common causes of sudden death including clostridial diseases in unvaccinated cattle.

Nothing is 100% effective at preventing bloat but the most reliable bloat prevention can be provided with Rumensin 100 day anti-bloat capsules given a week before being placed on riskyfeed. Other management options include providing fibre, giving bloat oil via troughs and avoiding hungry cattle gorging on highrisk pastures. Rumensin has the added advantage of improving feed conversion efficiency (7-15%) meaning bloat prevention can also improve production/profitability of finishing cattle.

Feeding Mouldy Supplements

Mould is the dust like coloured fuzzy structure that a lot of fungi form when growing conditions are correct. Some fungi form mushrooms and others are single cells that we can’t see with the naked eye but can see changes in the feeds they’re growing on.

There are thousands of species of mould-forming fungi and these moulds can produce hundreds of different toxins (mycotoxins) that can affect the body in many different ways. Moulds may affect the body directly causing pneumonia, mastitis or abortions, or via toxins causing a myriad of symptoms.

Storing winter feed in good condition can be difficult especially during a wet summer like we had this year, and we have had a lot of reports of mouldy feeds.

Mould decreases the ME and palatability of feed, as well as limits vitamins and thiamine. The end result is a feed that tastes bad, won’t make them gain weight and has limited vitamin support.

There is a certain amount of each type of mould cows and sheep can tolerate, the exact amount is unknown so therefore we don’t have a ‘safe’ amount of spoiled feed that you can feed.

The rumen is an excellent ‘decontaminator’ of mycotoxins and moulds, therefore sheep and cattle are more resistant to disease than monogastrics like us, pigs or horses, however dairy cows, high producing sheep and beef cattle around calving may be more susceptible to mycotoxins due to altered rumen transition times and a suppressed immune system. Young calves and sheep with undeveloped rumens are also susceptible.

Clinical signs vary from poor doers and weight loss to pneumonias and abortions. I once saw cows with blistered swollen vulvas from mouldy feed and no other signs, likely due to estrogenic effects of certain mycotoxins, vaginal and rectal prolapses can happen too. Occasionally we see sporadic abortions in sheep and cattle from mycotic placentitis-fungal infection of the placenta (photo below).

Feed analysis is hard because mould growth is inconsistent, the affected feed may be gone before signs are apparent and mycotoxins aren’t uniformly distributed within a feed. Lab analysis is expensive and limited to only a few mycotoxins out of the over 400 known. Diagnosis is usually from the history.

Remember that bacteria like Listeria can also overgrow in spoiled or improperly stored feeds like silage.

The general consensus is white mould is probably okayto some degree, others probably aren’t. If you have to feed mouldy feeds, the main solution is dilution –that is feeding good feed with the mouldy stuff and preferably feeding the worst of it to adult non-pregnant cattle and sheep.

Lice Control

Off shears and pre-lamb, before the next generation of lice residences arrives, is the best opportunity to deal with lice.

Jetting off-shears with short acting knock-down chemical such as Extinosad or Seraphos is cheaper, but jetting is never 100% effective. It just does not totally wet the skin enough. Can’t be that pleasant off -shears in winter conditions.

Off shears pour-on options include Zapp Encore, Magnum, Expo Pour-On and Wipe-out. The IGR in Magnum and Zapp Encore gives persistent activity for 2-3 months. With Zapp Encore there is also a knock down imidacloprid which gives instant kill, this differentiates Zapp Encore from other straight IGR based chemicals. It does have limitations with cover-comb shorn merinos however. Double dose Expo Pour-On may be the best knock-down for lice in fine wool.

The trick is to treat all sheep and do it properly. Don’t leave an island sanctuary around the head and neck for lice to survive.

Winter Footrot Management

With the warm and moist conditions we had over late autumn we’ve seen an increased amount of footrot in flocks. However the drop in temperature over winter means a decreased spread of infection from sheep to sheep, hence an opportunity to control the level of infection in your flock before we head into the spring high challenge period.

Scanning/ shearing are great times to assess and manage the spread of footrot in your flock;

• Tip sheep and examine type and stage of infection also ruling out other causes of lameness such as abscesses, frosted mud burn.

• Remove and treat infected sheep. Treatment options include:

Tenaline (ACVM A007843) or Tilmovet antibiotics (ACVM A011195) - get in touch with your vet to discuss options. For mild early-stage infections Tetravet (blue) spray may do the job. Dave has been experimenting with a “new spread-phase brew” that has shown promise if anyone is interested…

• The “clean” mob can be foot-bathed which will cure grade 1-3 lesions. Ensure sheep are standing in the bath for at least 15 minutes if any under-run type footrot is present.

• Put the “clean” mob onto pasture that hasn’t been grazed by sheep in the past 4 weeks.

• Re-inspection of the “clean” mob is best practice, but difficult to achieve at this stage of the production cycle. So aiming for one last crack at removing footrot from the mob is the best you can do.

Foot work can be a time consuming process but getting on top of the infection in your flock whilst it’s not spreading is a great opportunity to reset the clock on your flocks footrot status. Often management programmes tend to start at the height of an outbreak when the disease is already spreading, but intensive effort when the number of new infections are at their lowest will have the best success.

Vaccination

Footvax will reduce the amount and severity of footrot during the high challenge periods by approximately 50% depending on the season. Protection from the booster lasts for 2-4 months (less for fine wool, more for strong wool breeds), therefore timing’s important so immunity is highest over spring when the challenge is greatest. For first time users, a sensitiser shot will be required at least 6 weeks before the booster shot.

• 1st time users: June/ July sensitiser and 6 weeks later booster dose

• Annual users: timing varies from farm to farm depending on risk period, pre lamb shearing and tailing are common times to give a booster shot

• Don’t vaccinate within one month of lambing.

Mineral Check

Trace elements are the talk of the town at this time of year, when everyone is checking the herd and flock level prior to winter. One very simple option for monitoring those mineral levels is checking the liver stores at the meatworks, with the help of a single piece of paper- the Mineral Check formthat goes with the truck driver. At least 10 animals are required to get a gauge of copper stores in the mob, as it can be variable, but just 5 samples are needed to establish selenium, cobalt and zinc levels.

One limitation of the Mineral Check option is that the cull animals are likely to be the worst-performing of the mob, so may have disproportionately low trace element stores. But it can be followed up by liver biopsies and/or blood tests for trace elements in live animals, to establish the average herd level. Mineral Check is an excellent starting point for establishing the lowest trace element levels and the process is very straightforward. Simply give us a call and we’ll send you a form to fill out. This includes your farm details, the name of the trucking company and the name of the meatworks the animals are going to. Then email a copy to the meatworks, give the paper copy to the stock truck driver with the ASD form, sit back and wait for the results!

A New Way to Drench Lambs

I’ve had a couple of discussions about turning lambs out on to dirty pasture for 2-3 days before shifting onto clean crop or re-seeds etc. Whilst this remains good advice with regards to delaying drench resistance, some farms will be unable to put this into practice for legitimate reasons (big distance between dirty/clean paddocks, no need to shift mob twice etc.) Drenched lambs will leave behind them only worm eggs resistant to the drench used, so when turned onto “clean” pasture, the paddock will build up a population of resistant worms. A technique known as Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) is a means of reducing this risk associated with “drench and move.”

What is Targeted Selective Treatment (TST)?

TST is a drenching strategy. It requires identification of the lambs still achieving good growth even though they’re due to be drenched (ie. identifies the most worm resilient lambs), simply by weighing them and working out a growth rate. Hopefully 10% of the mob can be left undrenched, whilst the rest are drenched as normal. This allows non-resistant worm eggs to be carried on to the new pasture, whilst maintaining production.

How is it implemented?

Usually TST requires an automated calculation of average daily weight gain, with electronic weigh cells and an EID tag. Animals at or above the TST growth rate target are drafted out and left un-drenched. The remaining lambs are drenched as normal before moving to clean paddocks.

How do we calculate the desired weight gain?

The most practical method would be to weigh roughly 70 lambs, calculate the Average Daily Gain (ADG), then sort the rest of the mob according to this figure. Some farms might already know their target lamb growth rates and decide to use these, however the actual growth rate will fluctuate from month to month according to feed, weather etc., so would be best recalculated. You will know quite early on in the day if the figure needs changed – e.g. if the first 20 lambs in the mob are not to be drenched, the weight target is probably too low.

What are the benefits?

The single biggest benefit is that it will prolong the useful life of drenches on your farm. You may also be able to identify your most worm resilient hoggets to keep as replacements. Reduction of drench use/costs will also bring a modest saving.

What are the downsides?

Set up costs for weigh cells/tags, and the additional time required to weigh/sort the mob are considerations – these may however already be in place for ewe lambs in some stud flocks. The technique is unlikely to be appropriate for; Merino’s due to their worm susceptibility and; times of year when larval burdens on pasture are particularly high (Autumn). However, TST is a practical tool to prolong the life of our remaining drench actives, whilst genetics for worm resilience are brought up to the task.

Teaser Rams

It is nearly time for mating to begin for another season. We are tidying up the last of our ram palpating jobs and getting well through the ram teaser surgeries.

Rams should be checked ideally 6-12 weeks before mating. This gives you time to treat any issues you find and they have time to recover.

When checking your rams remember the four T’s: Teeth, Toes, Tackle & Testes, (plus Torso according to the Aussies which means condition score).

For those who haven’t used a teaser ram, they are rams who have been vasectomised so they are sterile but still produce testosterone. They still have normal libido and will mate ewes.

Teasers are used to synchronise ewes and hoggets that are already cycling, and stimulate non-cycling ewes and hoggets to cycle earlier. They may also improve ovulation rate so the number of twins is higher. The ideal teaser ram is healthy, has passed the four T’s test and preferably isn’t a ram lamb.

Teasers are ideally cut 6 weeks minimum before mating so they have time to heal and any viable sperm in the tubes is gone.

Ewes should be isolated from all rams and teasers for 21 days, then the teasers can be introduced 17 days before mating. This should stimulate the ewes to have a silent heat if they aren’t cycling, so they are in their second and more fertile heat when the rams are joined.

Some people recommend using teasers at the normal ram ratio (1:50- 1:100), other suggest 1:300 for hoggets and 1:500 for MA ewes. A New Zealand study concluded that when using teasers for hoggets ratios of up to 1:197 can increase the percentage of hoggets bred in the first cycle by at least 16.4% so 1:200 is what we normally recommend for both hoggets and MA ewes.

Teased hoggets have larger ovarian follicles and heavier hoggets (>36kg) have the best response to teasers as they are more likely to already have started cycling.

Give your local clinic a call if you’d like to book in any last minute ram vasectomies for the upcoming mating season.

I hear there is no capsules this year – what do I do?

“So no Bionic capsules this pre-lamb, what do we do?” This is the most common question for a vet that has just walked in the door of a country pub at present.

Notwithstanding “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”, this is my attempt to address the question.

Two pathways exist

1. The “Fatter ewes and prioritise quality feed at key times” option.

Plan to feed twinning ewes quality protein and energy post shearing to set stocking. This is the time to line it up. Is there time to spray out and drill some Autumn rape, Italian or ryecorn for twinning ewes? Is now the best return on grain feeding? The buffer that fat and muscle storage provides ewes pre-winter is considerable with respect to…everything health and production wise. Light ewes in May often go away - to a non-productive land, a dog freezer in August, and/or hand in one scrawny orphan lamb at weaning.

Lighter ewes take more feeding to get back on track. The extra energy required to lift a 2 body condition score (BCS) ewe to 2.5 BCS is around 71Megajouls of metabolizable energy. In practical terms that is ~7.5kg of barley or 300g of barley over 25days + maintenance grass. To fatten a BCS 2.5 to optimum BCS 3.0 takes and extra 14 MJME = 1.5kg of barley or 100g over 15 days + maintenance grass. (Incidentally the cost of the barley for lifting ewe condition is about the same price as that plastic pill thing we used to give them). So it is much more cost effective to get ewes up to weight from weaning to mating with a good rotational pick of quality grass. Take out the light ewes for a late summer holiday on 4cm of green leafy grass or a daily golden figure 8 of grain….very helpful imagery. Targeting lighter ewes will make the best use of feed. The BCS 3 ewes do not need the extra feed and can be held on drier summer feed.

2. Option “two jabs”- instead of a capsule

Use long acting moxidectin and smart shot B12-Se this year as an alternative to capsules. If moxidectin has good efficacy against your worm population the drench response with respect to less dags, better condition ewes and heavier lambs at weaning will be the similar to capsules. Half of the benefit of a capsule comes from the cobalt and selenium in some cases, so using 1.5mL dose of smartshot B12+Se will deliver what a capsule does.

To work out if La injection is going to work for you this year you can do some drench checks with some moxidectin injection on lambs this autumn. Do a pre-count, inject lambs with cydectin, do an egg count 10-14 days later. If the results show leaking eggs post drench, you are probably not going to get good efficacy out of LA injection in ewes pre-lamb.

Targeting twinning ewes and 2 tooths with LA injection would be the way to go. It is just for this year that the capsules are out so this will not wreck your farm drench status. Capsules will make some sort of come back next year…

The January and February dry conditions do mean there are potentially some “ordinary” ewes out there. They don’t always bounce back that quickly on a resurgent grass growth following the rain. Ironically worm larval challenge may spike this March. Oral drench to light ewes and 2 tooths will be beneficial this pre tup period if that is the case.

Summary of no capsules

• Great opportunity to feed ewes better.

• Improve animal health and reduce spending on chemicals and more on feed.

• Use LA injection and Smart shot instead. Monitor moxidectin efficacy first this autumn.

• Practice worm avoidance farming with more cattle integration, forage crops for winter and legume-herb mixes for milking ewes. Can you avoid set stocking on Autumn lambing finishing blocks? If not run the cattle through first.

• Culling light ewes that don’t respond to TLC.

• Start the genetic journey of selecting for health traits and worm tolerance.

• Look up the lyrics to Subterranean Homesick Blues for more insights.

Heatstroke in Dogs

Heatstroke, or hyperthermia, is the illness we see in dogs following exposure to excessive heat which may or may not involve exercise.

The normal upper limit of body temperature is around 39.4, above 41.2 organ failure starts to occur.

Dogs with heatstroke pant, they have dry, sticky gums, they are lethargic and sometimes disoriented, very bad cases may have seizures.

Dogs only have a small number of sweat glands so they can’t regulate their body temperature like we do, their main method is by panting.

The most common heatstroke cases we see are working dogs who have worked hard during warm days. It is important to note that working dogs may be at risk even if it doesn’t seem like a very hot day.

Heatstroke is a serious medical emergency. The dog’s body temperature must be dropped safely.

You can start the process if your nearest clinic is far away with cool water (not ice water) poured over the head, legs and stomach, or wet cloths which need to be continuously replaced as they retain heat. Make sure there is good air flow in the vehicle while you travel. Using water which is too cold may cause vasoconstriction in the extremities and not reduce the core body temperature.

Once at the clinic we treat with fluids and oxygen and watch the temperature closely to ensure we don’t cause hypothermia. The next day dogs usually have bad diarrhea and are reluctant to eat. Permanent organ damage can occur in bad cases that survive.

Investigating Wet-Dry Rates and Protecting the Asset

“ 400 bloody wet-dry ewes at tailing…I’m not doing that again.”

Over the last couple of months I have done a number of investigations into higher than normal wet-dry rates in ewes at tailing.

With hill ewes it can be hard to determine when these scanned in-lamb ewes are losing their lambs. The main areas are:

• Disease that causes abortion (toxo, campy, hairy shakers). This includes early embryonic losses through to weak live lambs.

• Iodine, cobalt and selenium deficiency.

• Poor body condition and lack of adequate feeding of multiples in late pregnancy.

• Storms after pre-lamb shearing.

• Mob size and stocking density of twins too high.

• Lack of shelter/starvation.

• Genetics of both ewe and lamb.

Speed of delivery, lamb birth weight and lamb fat reserves are all important for getting up to get the first drink. It is interesting that “lamb smarts” are reasonably heritable also. Triplets are of course up against it on many fronts with respect to the survival stakes.

Blood testing of wet-dry ewes can assist with investigations. Below is an example of results from unvaccinated ewes with less lambs at tailing. 40% of w-d ewes have had recent infection with toxoplasma. Infection with campylobacter was evident also, with 70% showing recent exposure and shedding of the bacteria. Toxoplasma is from cat (especially kitten) faeces and campylobacter lives in the gut of ewes and shed through faeces.

Protecting your next year lamb crop

The majority of our clients now use Toxovax and Campyvax4 vaccine in first year breeding ewes to prevent abortions. It is very routine now. 100% farms have some level of toxo on the place. 83% of farms have evidence of Campylobacter in ewe flocks.

Toxovax is a single, 1 shot for life vaccine. It helps plug the gaps in ewes that have not had natural exposure. In the early days of toxovax development they demonstrated 7-9% increase in numbers of lambs weaned when flocks did not observe any abortions or perceive a problem.

Campyvax4 requires 2 shots with the minimum recommendation being sensitizer and booster shots to first year breeding ewes. Longer term protection occurs if a single campyvax booster is given in the 2nd year. If you gave hoggets a 2 shot course then as 2 tooths they will only require a campyvax booster. Farms with high challenge have seen benefits to boosting all mixed aged ewes annually.

It's Fly Time

With a combination of heat and moisture the danger zone for fly is now upon us.

If you are getting fly strike, stop and have a think about why there are struck sheep:

• Are they uncrutched and offering smelly dirty bums to interested flies?

• Lambs missed a drench?

• Could a preventative dip have been done sooner and more efficiently?

• When were they last dipped and was the dip applied correctly?

• The best and most cost-effective approach to prevent flystrike is to use a combination of strategies that keep sheep as unattractive to flies as possible.

1 No fly chemical works in dags

• Preventing sheep becoming daggy is vital.

• Have a robust worm control programme using an effective drench to reduce scouring. Don’t extend drench intervals unless you are monitoring with FEC.

• Crutch or shear to remove dags and allow the crutch to dry out.

• Grazing high tannin crops or clean pasture results in less dags.

2 Reduce fly challenge

• Keep sheep away from fly hotspots.

• Flies love sheltered conditions such as shelter belts and gullies with scrub. Move sheep to higher open ground where the temperatures are cooler, and the wind speed is higher.

• Get dead carcases down the offal hole as quickly as possible.

3 Chemical application

• Faulty application is often to blame for poor fly results following dipping

• For saturation dips to be effective the sheep must be wet to skin level along the backline, over the rump and around the crutch. Pushing large numbers of sheep quickly through the jetting race is often to blame for inadequate coverage. When the first pen of sheep has been through the jetting race, stop and part the wool at multiple sites to ensure the skin is wet.

Ewe Mastitis

I have not written too many articles on ewe mastitis, possibly because there is not a lot we can do about it when discovered. The classic signs from a distance are:

• Lame /stiff gait.

• Sitting down when other ewes grazing.

• Shelly gaunt lambs hanging around a ewe.

Closer inspection

• Udder swollen and purple/blue. Cold. Watery bloody discharge. This is black mastitis.

There main course of action when cold and blue is to cut the teat off to drain the poison out. Administering long acting antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory drugs may have some benefit to keeping her alive. The vet only footrot antibiotic is actually the most potent for treating ewe mastitis. I have never found cow tube treatments any use. Removal to a hospital paddock for monitoring is a good idea.

The cause has often been reported to be Staph aureus bacteria, but there are other bacteria types that can cause sheep mastitis. If you have had some causes getting laboratory culture could help tease out the risk factors of the pathogen. If you are seeing any higher rates of mastitis, joint ill or pneumonia it might be worth investigating.

Common risk factors for sheep mastitis are:

• 1 – 6 weeks into lactation. Usually higher producing multiples.

• Teat damage (chewing, cracks, scabby mouth).

• Recent cold snap.

• Mob stocking/ higher densities.

• “Dirty” paddocks. i.e. that have over hanging shaded trees, swamp areas or common dirty camp areas.

Checking udders 1 month after weaning is advised to prevent the subtle cases slipping through for another season.

Animal Welfare Guidelines

• Transporting lame sheep and cattle

Sheep, Cattle deer and pigs must be able to bear some weight on all limbs. Severe lameness can only be moved for treatment. If unsure get a Vet certificate. With lines of lame sheep a vet certificate is required.

• Dehorning

To dehorn any cattle local anaesthetic must be used. This includes calves.

To transport animals the horns must be inside the ears. Ingrown horns left unattended are an offence.

The best time to dehorn an animal is as a calf, this includes beef cattle. Using local plus debudding iron will achieve the best results. We do have a certification process to farmers to administer local anaesthetic and dehorn their own cattle. It does require an on-farm audit annually.

• Castration

Can be done with a ring up to 6 months of age, after that local anaesthetic must be used when castrating.