A little reminder…

As winter approaches, many sheep producers move their mindset into a different perception of what worms are going to do. Unfortunately, this may be wrong, with disastrous consequences.

Let's take our old mate barber’s pole worm: the common perception is that it is a ‘summer’ problem, and only when things are wet.

Not quite right—sure, if it gets really cold eggs may not hatch.  If it is dry enough for long enough, eggs and larvae will desiccate and die. If it is hot enough with the ‘dry enough’, eggs and larvae die more quickly. 

So, it’s not a surprise when you find out that our mate barber’s pole is a significant parasite of sheep from northern Canada to the middle of sub-Saharan Africa!

Other internal parasites are similarly tough nuts when it comes to survival strategies.

You might well ask ‘if this is so, how come we can run sheep at all?’

The answer is surprisingly simple—and is the key to non-chemical management.

• There are not a lot of districts where conditions suit year round survival—the intervals of temperature and moisture in the right combination have to be right.
• The availability of suitable vegetation for migrating larvae has to be present (along with the temperature/moisture).
• And, at the critical times, there has to be suitable (and susceptible) host species to graze the pasture.

By manipulating host (sheep) availability at any given time of the year, and their susceptibility (genetics/nutrition) you can make life very challenging for the grubs that eat away at your productivity and profit. >> Find out more.

Add to this the use of known to be effective drenches applied when needed and your internal parasite problems are few. >> Find out more.