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Livestock Logic recommends that:
Livestock Logic advises that:
Seasonal conditions in the south west of Victoria continue to be fantastic. We had a wonderful wet start to spring, but the last few weeks have brought some much needed sun and warmer temperatures to finally get the pastures to take off, and to also provide some dry ground for sheep.
We investigated a number of cases of mortality due to worms in the last few weeks, particularly due to the black scour worm. Instances have included lambs, 6 weeks post weaning and drenching, and ewes, 4–8 weeks post lambing. In most of these cases feed had been reasonable. Mortalities were due to 3 main factors:
With mortality events occurring from worms there will also be many sheep that have undetected subclinical worm burdens. At this time of the year, to take advantage of the grass that is growing and convert it into meat and wool, stock need to be healthy and free of intestinal parasites. If you have not worm egg counted your lambs in last 3 weeks or mature sheep in the past 5, then it is time.
The chart below shows how worm egg counts rose higher in September, a timely reminder to monitor stock, as worm levels are now high.
Figure 1. Percentage of sheep requiring drenching in the last four months based on WormTests – Livestock Logic Laboratory