The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: m3joeEm on May 11, 2015, 07:55:36 pm
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So I dosed the sheep and lambs for worms recently and moved them to a clean pasture. the field they were in has nice thick leafy grass so I was wondering how long until I can put them back in the contaminated field. Do the worms etc die within a few days ?
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NO , try 6mths and some over winter
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You wormed the sheep and moved them to fresh pasture immediately? You will have killed a large %age of the worms but there will be some that survived and these will be resistant to the wormer you used, these worms will be surviving and flourishing on the new pasture and your sheep will of course be picking them up as they graze----so now they are infected with resistant worms
Best practice is to worm most of your sheep (leave the really strong/healthy ones alone) and let them sit on the old pasture for a day or so---this way they will ingest some of the weaker worms as well as the resistant ones. The weaker worms will compete with the resistant worms and you will have a population of parasites that your wormer can kill
Worm eggs are killed by UV light and frost (UV is the best) and significant reduction of pasture contamination takes a year or more---but with low stocking rates and rotational management you can graze the infected land with little worry, just keep an eye of worm levels by taking occasional FECs
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It can help if you're able to turn out lambs onto pasture that wasn't used for turnout the previous year oe, even better, for the previous two years.
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I'm thinking of doing rotational grazing to keep the grass shorter but leafier for the lambs to thrive on. I also am led to believe it increases growth rate of the grass itself . Does this mean they will constantly be on dirty pastures requiring worming more often?
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If they are constantly moving onto good grass they will be growing better and hence be in good health
They will still get worms but may need treating less often than if on a set stocking system....just do an occasional FEC to keep track of the situation
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I graze in a rotation, 6 paddocks, about 1 week (ish) in each. I barely have to worm now, apart from for Nemo in the spring, and any individuals that have a problem with worms (esp if more than once) get marked for culling.
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I worm the lambs just after weaning, put them back on the same field for a couple of days to get used to life without the ewes then move them to whatever field I cut for hay last year on the basis that it will, hopefully, have a very low worm burden having been shut up January to June or July, deending on the weather that year.