With the arrival of warmer spring weather, you will see most herds out in pastures all over the UK. However, it is still important to consider housing. You need it to protect animals from any extreme weather. When you house animals though, there is a higher risk of illness and disease. This is because they are in closer proximity. You may need to look at wormer to tackle worms and other parasites.

Low risk

The important thing to keep in mind here is using wormers on cattle at housing is efficient and low risk. It is a good way to cover the bases. If you do it correctly, it can address the worm load and keep animals free of them while they are housed.

You have to think about some important things here though. You have to factor in the age of the herd, size of animals, grazing and pasture history, and new arrivals.

One vital thing to keep in mind is animals in their first or second grazing seasons have the highest risk of infestation. Younger animals won’t have much immunity. They will be most vulnerable to gut worms. You need to think about this and ensure they get sufficient wormer treatment.

Lungworm is one of the worst outbreaks to have. It can cause severe issues with cattle, including respiratory distress. They can lead to weight loss, a drop in milk production, and even death. It is important to treat these worms, especially when animals are in housing. Any immunity is short lived here though, so old and younger animals will need treatment.

Finally, you need to think about liver fluke. Sadly age does not grant any immunity to it. As a result, it is better to administer wormer to all animals to treat it.

When to administer

You can generally treat worms at any time during housing. It may be best to do it early though to reduce the load.

It is different with treating flukes. Here you may need to wait until they reach the right age. For example, some flukicide may only kill fluke that is eight weeks old or more. In this case you should house the animals for at least the eight weeks and then administer the treatment.

Do you need wormer?

At JS Hubbuck Ltd we know how important it is to use the right products here. You need to ensure you choose one that can deal with the specific parasite burden with your herd. In some cases choosing a combination product is the best, but you need to use them properly. In addition, you must take care to make sure you don’t over or under-use.

A good tip for cattle at housing is to avoid white and yellow wormers. They may not be effective at tackling gut worms in their dormant stage.

If you have any questions about wormer, feel free to contact us. We can help you to select suitable products.