Four ways to keep stock safe this winter

After an unusual summer and heavy falls of rain in many regions, winter is time to take action to safeguard your livestock’s health to maximise production into spring and beyond.

Read on for three ways to ensure your herd or flock are set up for a successful season.

1. Get barber’s pole under control

Barber’s pole worm (BPW) occurs in sheep and goats and is particularly prevalent in warm and wet conditions. While the parasite can occur sporadically in any state, it is especially common in the summer rainfall zones of north-eastern NSW and southern Queensland.

With BPW larvae being killed quickly in a hot and dry summer, the cool, wet summer seen this year in these regions may have enabled barber’s pole worm eggs and larvae to survive – meaning next spring and summer, the larvae could become active and ready to affect livestock.

Your local veterinarian, livestock consultant or ag supplier can assist you to create a plan to help prevent livestock losses from barber’s pole worm this spring and beyond. They may recommend strategies such as:

• Using a worm test kit to assess worm burdens in mobs and drenching sheep with high worm burdens. Some laboratories can also perform a larval culture to identify the types of worms present
• Drenching sheep only when necessary and returning them to ‘clean’ paddocks (paddocks that have not had sheep grazing on them for an extended period).
• Keeping records of what paddocks sheep with worms have been running on, to try to allocate clean paddocks for lambing and weaning.

2. Invest in pain relief during lamb marking

When castrating and tail docking lambs, consider using pain relief wherever practical to protect your livestock this season.

The NumNuts tool is a pain relief option available for castrating and tail docking lambs. This tool uses a handheld device to dispense a rubber ring while injecting local anaesthetic to alleviate pain when lambs are marked.

Find out more about NumNuts or take a look at MLA’s factsheet and e-learning module for more information and practical tips on pain mitigation in sheep and lambs. A factsheet on pain mitigation in cattle is also available from the MLA website.

3. Keep pulpy kidney at bay

Pulpy kidney (clostridial disease) can affect sheep, cattle and goats of all ages, often striking when animals experience a sudden change in feed – particularly on to lush pastures or to heavy grain feeding.

With heavy rainfall experienced in many production regions of late, vaccination of your herd or flock against this disease could help prevent stock losses and protect livestock health.

Your local veterinarian and rural re-seller can provide advice on the best vaccine to use to protect your livestock against pulpy kidney.

The following strategies are often recommended for vaccinating sheep and lambs against pulpy kidney:

Meanwhile, the following strategies are often recommended for vaccinating cattle against pulpy kidney:

When vaccinating, follow the directions on the vaccine label and make sure you document and file all animal treatment details to meet your Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) requirements, if you are LPA accredited. Read more about your LPA requirements around conducting safe and responsible animal treatments.

If you suspect pulpy kidney is occurring, contact your local veterinarian for assistance. In outbreaks of pulpy kidney, removing stock from lush pastures will often stop losses.

4. Be prepared for grass tetany

Grass tetany can develop when cattle have a magnesium deficiency. It is most likely to develop in the following conditions:

• properties with a history of grass tetany
• very fat cows with a fat score of 3.5 or more, very thin cows with a fat score of 2 or less, lactating cows held off feed, cows in oestrus or older (6 years+) cows while lactating
• short pasture of less than 1,000kg DM/ha, or grass dominant pastures from late autumn to early spring
• pastures with high potassium or nitrogen content, or low sodium or roughage intake
• increasing fertiliser application and pasture quality.

If you’ve experienced stock losses and suspect grass tetany could be the cause, contact your local veterinarian for assistance. Some ways to prevent grass tetany include:

• avoiding pastures where cows have a history of grass tetany
• avoiding high-risk pastures (e.g. pastures with high potassium)
• feeding hay as a source of calcium, or hay treated with magnesium oxide during at-risk periods
• providing loose licks containing limestone, salt and magnesium oxide mixed with molasses
• avoiding sudden changes of feed or feed quality
• lowering the herd age structure as older cows are at higher risk.