ANIMAL MANAGEMENT
Controlling parasites helps cows deal with challenges Calving is a stressful time for farmer and beast alike. For dairy cows it’s physiologically challenging – imagine having to suddenly change your diet and start producing kilos of milk solids. Then just as you reach peak milk production, your ovaries need to crank into gear to produce viable eggs that hold the pregnancy. It’s a tough gig being a cow. There are a few things we can do to ease the challenges they face. One is minimising their exposure to parasitic roundworm larvae. Cows ingest these larvae with grass every day, thousands of them. Adult cows, being older, bigger and with immunity through previous exposure, are less affected than calves but the larvae still cause production loss. The cow’s genetics will determine how the loss is expressed. Improved production and conception have been shown when worm larvae are removed. Removing the larvae isn’t done by
| Cows ingest thousands of roundworm larvae with grass every day.
spraying pasture but by using a
in poor condition or have been sick
For further information, contact your Farmlands Technical Field Officer or the friendly team at your local
or compromised in some way will
Farmlands store.
be strategic about which animals you
long-acting endectocide such as Cydectin® Pour-On. Cydectin Pour-
treat. Logically, cows that are younger,
On has the longest activity against the key production-limiting worm in
likely have poorer immune responses
cows, Ostertagia ostertagi. As larvae
than other cows and so may be more
are ingested, they are killed in the cow
affected by worms. Treat them rather
before the body needs to react, saving the cow’s nutrients for a better purpose.
than the ones that are in good condition
Trials in New Zealand and overseas
and doing well.
have shown that when cows are
To make things easy, Cydectin
exposed to a larval challenge there are
Pour-On has nil withholding periods
production responses from treatment,
for milk, meat and bobby calves,
and this effect is repeatable.1,2,3,4,5
making it a great option to have in
We should always be mindful of drench
the shed around calving. It’s also
resistance, so to minimise the risk of
rainfast and made in New Zealand to
this and maximise production gains,
rigorous Zoetis quality standards.
WWW.FARMLANDS.CO.NZ
Cydectin is a registered trademark of Zoetis. ACVM No. A6203 1. Murphy, A. The effect of treatment with moxidectin, a long acting endectocide, on milk produc-tion in lactating dairy cows, Buiatrics World Congress, 1998. 2. McPherson WB, et al. Effect of a peri-parturient eprinomectin treatment of dairy cows on milk production, NZVJ, 2001. 3. McPherson WB. The impact of eprinomectin treatment on dairy cattle reproductive performance, Proc Society of DCV NZVA, 2000. 4. Sanchez J, et al. A meta-analysis of the milk-production response after anthelmintic treatment in naturally infected adult dairy cows, Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 2004. 5. Geurden T. et al. A multi-country study to assess the effect of a treatment with moxidectin pour-on during the dry period on milk production in dairy cows, Vet Parasitol, 2017. Article supplied by Zoetis NZ
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THE FARMLANDER | 49
