Wednesday 5th April 2017
Worm counts!!
Bad news: the Boer goats have a high worm count!! (Good News: Garlic is such a fab mum that even whilst trying to sleep, she tolerates having her ear bitten by Ryka… bless her.)
But back to the worm counts: it was kind of inevitable once they started grazing (which they have been doing for a few days now, hence doing a count) as in the words of Rachel from the vets: ‘they are goats!!’. As we have explained before, goats are really prone to high worm burdens (and can prove resistant to some of the wormers as well) but other than what we are doing (i.e. not over stocking and testing regularly), it is hard to prevent high burdens in goats. One thing we can do which will help however, is to get the cows to graze the top 3-acre field this year as they are not affected by the same worms as the goats, sheep and alpacas. When they graze a sheep/goat/alpaca pasture, ingesting any worms and eggs as they go, they actually ‘clean’ the pasture, without becoming affected themselves!! And the reverse is also true, i.e. sheep, goats and alpacas will 'clean' a cow pasture!
Last year, due to not getting the cows till September, there was not time to graze them on this field before it got too wet but this year it is part of our rotational planning. Our current aim is to get the cows in here, hopefully by June. Of course we do now have a problem in that the goats are shedding worm eggs which the lambs and kids could pick up once they start grazing (usually around 3-4 weeks), young stock being more vulnerable to suffering from the effects of a worm burden due to not having fully developed immune systems. Our solution here is to move the sheep to the bottom 3-acre field which was grazed by the cows in the autumn. The timings will take some working out mind you as the age of the lambs will be across a 5-week spread!!
We are using a ‘yellow’ drench for the goats as recommended by our vets. This is because last year we used a white drench and good practice dictates changing your wormer in order to prevent the worms developing a resistance to it. There are in fact FIVE types of wormers, although usually only three are used: white, clear and yellow – each containing a different chemical base. The other two are orange and purple and are both newer and not as widely used in order to prevent resistance occurring. The general consensus is that they are to be used if and when the other three repeatedly fail!!!
We need to re-test in 7 days so all fingers to be crossed till then!!
But back to the worm counts: it was kind of inevitable once they started grazing (which they have been doing for a few days now, hence doing a count) as in the words of Rachel from the vets: ‘they are goats!!’. As we have explained before, goats are really prone to high worm burdens (and can prove resistant to some of the wormers as well) but other than what we are doing (i.e. not over stocking and testing regularly), it is hard to prevent high burdens in goats. One thing we can do which will help however, is to get the cows to graze the top 3-acre field this year as they are not affected by the same worms as the goats, sheep and alpacas. When they graze a sheep/goat/alpaca pasture, ingesting any worms and eggs as they go, they actually ‘clean’ the pasture, without becoming affected themselves!! And the reverse is also true, i.e. sheep, goats and alpacas will 'clean' a cow pasture!
We are using a ‘yellow’ drench for the goats as recommended by our vets. This is because last year we used a white drench and good practice dictates changing your wormer in order to prevent the worms developing a resistance to it. There are in fact FIVE types of wormers, although usually only three are used: white, clear and yellow – each containing a different chemical base. The other two are orange and purple and are both newer and not as widely used in order to prevent resistance occurring. The general consensus is that they are to be used if and when the other three repeatedly fail!!!
We need to re-test in 7 days so all fingers to be crossed till then!!