Lice

I have heard of a number of issues with lice in sheds, and in one of these cases lice was treated at housing. However, as treatments will only kill hatched lice, if a large proportion of lice eggs were present a second treatment will be necessary.

Very mild weather conditions have exacerbated the issue, with cattle sweating a lot in sheds over the last few weeks.

Some products will also have a residual activity of just 5-6 weeks, so second treatments may be needed where product was applied 2 months ago at housing. There are two types of lice that affect cattle: biting and suckling lice.

Mange mites may also be an issue. One thing that farmers need to be aware of is that not all products that will kill suckling lice will kill biting lice.

Pyrethroids and externally applied endectocides are the only two active ingredients that will kill both biting and suckling lice, and mange mites.

Signs of lice activity are cattle scratching and/or licking, poor coats, excess hair loss and, in some cases, anaemia. Clipping cattle along the back and neck will also help.

Weanling performance

Are your weanlings performing on target? Weighing is the only foolproof way of knowing whether they are gaining weight or not.

A lot of farmers will have weighed for SCEP in autumn time, so it would be an interesting exercise to see what weight has been gained since the previous weighing.

A minimum of .7kg/day should have been gained over the winter period. If weight gain is below this, check the diet, parasite burden, lying space, ventilation and feeding space for any potential issues.

Sometimes it can be a really simple thing like a feed barrier being too high or too low, and this can affect feed intakes. Make sure that water troughs are cleaned out regularly so animals have an adequate supply of clean water.

Spring born bulls destined for under 16 month bull beef shouldn’t dip under 1kg/liveweight gain/day at any point during their life and should be hitting 1.3/1.4kg/day over their lifetime. These animals should be stepping up to higher concentrates at this stage on most farms.

Cold weather management

While it’s been a very mild winter so far we generally get a bout of frost at some stage, so make sure you are prepared if it comes – it’s important to be prepared for no water in yards.

It’s critical that animals being fed ad-lib meal have access to sufficient water supplies. A good idea is to fill a few barrels or IBC tanks full of water in advance of frost so you can use them if the yard freezes up.

Make sure all the farm vehicles have antifreeze in them and take care for any slips of falls around yard areas on frosty mornings.

Those feeding forage crops need to be very careful during a cold snap. Frost causes higher nitrate levels in the plant and this can lead to poisoning if animals are allowed graze frozen crops. The best way to avoid this happening is to move the fence when frost has cleared at midday or afternoon. If the frost lingers all day, you will have no option but to remove access to crop and feed hay or silage for a few days until frost lifts.