Spring-born ‘bucket reared’ calves are now weaned off milk and out in the fields, with grass making up a significant proportion of their diets.
Many farmers will continue to supplement these calves with concentrates for the duration of their first summer and throughout their first winter-housing period.
However, many farmers are altering the amount fed to calves and changing some of the components in their calf ration in an effort to combat the rising cost of meal.
Spring-born suckler-bred calves are still on the cows and grass is making up a much lower proportion of their feed intake, so this should be kept in mind when considering whether a worm dose is needed or not.
Dosing calves
Before calves are treated for worms with the use of an anthelmintic, farmers should first determine whether the worm burden is high enough to be problematic in the calves.
This can be determined by taking dung samples from the calves. The dung samples can then be sent to a laboratory for a test known as a Faecal Egg Count (FEC).
The FEC test will determine whether an anthelmintic worm treatment is needed or not.
When taking dung samples, the best time to do this is early in the morning to ensure fresh samples are taken. The samples should also be taken early in the week to ensure they samples are not left lying over the weekend before being tested in the lab.
Farmers in many parts of the country are noticing a reduced effectiveness of anthelmintics when treating livestock for worms. This is because, internal parasites are becoming resistant to specific types of worm drenches. Using FEC to determine if dosing is needed or not is just one way of helping to reduce resistance to wormers on farms.