Back in Minions when we had our animals grazing on just one acre, intestinal worms were an issue for our livestock and we frequently did faecal egg counts to see what burden the livestock might be carrying. Now that we have a wondrous ten acres and are under-stocked rather than overstocked, we are hopeful those worms burdens won’t be anywhere near the issue they were. ALL animals carry some worms and most of the time that’s okay. If the numbers get too high however, the worms inside the animal consume the food intended for the animal, the said animal loses its appetite, then starts to lose weight and if the worms are not dealt with, death can occur.
Adult animals are better at dealing with worm burdens than younger ones and sheep are better than goats, with alpacas somewhere between the two. Nursing females can also be at risk as a lot of their energies go into producing milk for their young rather than dealing with any nasty parasites inside their gut!
We tested the poo from two of our three Dartmoor sheep last month as we were worried about their runny poo (often a sign of worms as it suggests the food the animals are eating is not being digested properly) and thankfully, they came back clear.
As summer turns into autumn and the grass growth starts to slow, now is a good time to check again for any worm burdens, especially in any still-nursing mums or youngsters destined for the abattoir and still gaining weight. And so today we tested our lambs, the Shetland sheep, the alpacas (including a separate test for Saturn as she is youngster) and the goats, and we were rather pleased that aside from the goats (!!) all came back clear! The goats had a low to medium burden which is disappointing but perhaps not surprising given their susceptibility and the fact that compared to their time back in Minions, they do a huge amount more grazing here. We treated them with a drench and will test again in two weeks.
The other good thing about our land and animals here at Cadbury, is that whilst sheep, goats and alpacas ‘share’ the same worms; the worms that affect cows are, on the whole, totally different. This means that if we graze the cows on the land where the sheep et al have been, they will digest the worms but not be affected by them (and in essence therefore reduce their population as the worms won’t be able to reproduce) and vice versa, i.e. the sheep et al grazing where the cows grazed, will do the same job of worm reduction on the cow worms. Grazing rotations and shared grazing all therefore need to be carefully planned. Fingers crossed we get things right and have a lot more clear faecal egg counts!!