Spring Cattle Focus: Strategic Deworming
Spring is a great time to evaluate your deworming program. Deworming helps ensure overall herd health but also promotes weight gain in calves. This can mean more money for you. With more and more deworming products on the market it my be difficult to choose the one that best fits your needs. It is easy to grab a bottle off the shelf, but are you deworming with a plan?
Merial LongRange
Strategic Deworming involves developing a program with the goal of maximizing the economic benefit of deworming cattle while also removing the larvae from infected pastures. Animals have often been dewormed at the start of the grazing season and at the end, but may not be complete. One deworming in the spring is not cost effective because it does not prevent a buildup of the worm burden later in the grazing season. Deworming in the fall may prevent the quiet larvae from doing damage the following spring. However, this is only the case if the right drug is used and cattle are kept off contaminated pastures following deworming.
Newer deworming programs, based on the persistent activity of dewormers, provide for much greater benefits of deworming. Studies have shown that strategic deworming programs can provide 50-100 extra pounds of gain per grazing season. In order to be most effective, these programs should start when cattle are first turned on to pastures to graze in the spring, with subsequent dewormings depending on the length of persistent activity of the chosen dewormer.
Please contact us to discuss these newer options for healthier cattle and higher profits.