A new era in parasite control for sheep As a company, Donaghys pride themselves on bringing innovative solutions to the market to make life easier for farmers, while maintaining farmers’ production. Examples of this are N-boost and Grunt (Glyphosate 600), where challenges faced by farmers in the field, such as the pressure on nitrogen and glyphosate use, saw Donaghys bring these new products to the market. Donaghys have also looked to bring similar levels of innovation to complement its broad range of anthelmintics. The next step in this process is the launch of Scorpius Elite Spot-On for sheep.
with a farming friend one Saturday morning at a netball game. Jeremy’s friend described that drenching lambs was a significant investment in time and labour on his farm. He had worked out that drenching lambs orally for him was the equivalent of one extra labour unit over summer and made the comment that there had to be a better way to protect his lambs from parasites. After discussions with Donaghys’ formulation scientists on what was achievable and other farmers facing similar issues, the development project for Scorpius Elite began. The brief was simple. Farmers wanted an easy and effective way to treat
The story began in 2010 when
their lambs for internal parasites, while
Donaghys Managing Director, Jeremy
reducing the chances of developing
Silva, was discussing drenching lambs
drench resistance. This meant that,
36 | THE FARMLANDER
unlike attempts in the past with topical formulations for sheep, Scorpius Elite needed to be a combination product. For application, a skin-level spot-on method was chosen, as thick layers of wool could form a barrier preventing absorption of the active ingredients. Between the shoulder blades was the ideal place for application as it was easily accessible in standing sheep and picking one spot ensured consistency of application. Scorpius Elite uses a normal oral drench gun nozzle to penetrate the wool so no new equipment is needed for use. Using their experience from combination cattle pour-ons, Donaghys selected the actives eprinomectin and levamisole. Eprinomectin is a potent macrocyclic lactone from the same
Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited | © March 2021. All rights reserved.
WWW.FARMLANDS.CO.NZ
