Kay O’Sullivan is thorough in preventing animal health issues
Kay O’Sullivan, Future Beef Programme Farmer, had the lowest veterinary bill in the Future Beef Programme n 2022 at €22/ha. She successfully achieved this figure by taking precautions to prevent animal health issues.
One of these measures is taking faecal egg count (FEC) samples regularly and only dosing based on the results.
What stock are FEC sampled?
Weanlings, yearlings and cows.
When?
Weanlings are done monthly over the summer, with yearlings being sampled every two months for gut and lung worms. Cows are tested in October/November for liver fluke, rumen fluke, gut worms and lung worms.
Interpreting results
Kay consults with her vet on all FEC sample results. If the threshold exceeds 250 eggs per gram (EPG) she will administer a dose based on the results. It is typically only gut worms that cause an issue on her farm, and she treats young cattle with an ivermectin product. She does not use combination products unnecessarily, as it can help to build anthelminthic resistance. The dosing withdrawal period is tripled for the organic cattle.
Kay signed up to the 2023 Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health (TASAH) programme, which is a free service that offers two free FEC samples and a farm visit from a vet. Further details and sign up information are available at: https://animalhealthireland.ie/programmes/parasite-control/parasite-control-tasah-consult/.
Kay is fortunate that she has both sheep and cattle on the farm. This means that she can operate a mixed grazing system and has the choice of grouping cattle and sheep together to graze, or else alternate the sheep and cattle paddocks annually. This helps to reduce the worm burden on each paddock, as it is different worm species that causes issues for sheep versus cattle.
She weighs young cattle regularly which also helps to determine if their performance is being affected by a worm burden on the farm, and if animals should be sampled before treating.
The farm system is another way of reducing anthelminthic use – typically older animals such as the cows will develop an immunity to gut and lungworms over time and rarely need to be treated for them. Meanwhile the suckler calves tend to have lower herbage intake for the first 6 months and as such don’t ingest the same amount of worms as a dairy beef calf would.
Newly sown, ungrazed swards also reduce the risk of a worm burden on farms. Kay has 38% of the farm reseeded over the last 2 years and this provides fresh, uncontaminated pasture to her lambs, weanlings and yearlings for grazing.
If Kay does need to dose cattle, she administers the dose at a rate based on the heaviest animal’s weight, typically later in the grazing season where burdens tend to be higher, uses the most appropriate wormer and follows the manufacturer’s instructions.
Taking steps to reduce the use of anthelminthics on the farm helps Kay to keep her veterinary bill low. Regular sampling helps to avoid any setbacks to animal performance and reduces her labour as she is not dosing unnecessarily. Another big benefit is that is reduces any build-up of anthelminthic resistance in gut and lung worms on the farm, which is an ever-increasing issue nationally as it threatens the effectiveness of existing wormers.
Kay follows the following protocol when taking faecal egg samples:
- Collect samples in the morning after a period of rest
- As calves are quietly disturbed, they should defecate in one spot
- Worms are not evenly distributed. Faeces should be collected from three different areas
- 10 different samples from at least 10 different animals should be taken
- Dung should be placed in sample pots and placed in sealed, airtight zip bags
- Fill in the required information on slip, the more information the better. Include recent dosing history
- Post to the lab that day or a least within 24 hours of collection
- Try not to post from Thursday on in case they are left in the post over the weekend.
- Do not place samples in fridge
- Do not freeze
- Do not place in direct sunlight