Lice

There are always problems with lice in sheds at this time of year. In some cases, lice will have been treated at housing. However, as treatments will only kill hatched lice, if a large proportion of lice eggs were present this means a second treatment will be necessary.

Mild weather conditions up to now 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 two 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 products that aimed at eradicating suckling lice will not necessarily also 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 weanlings 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 0.7kg/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.

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.

Cold weather management

While the hard frosts and cold weather may be gone for a while, there is plenty of time for it to return between now and March. 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.

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 be mindful of ice around yard areas on frosty mornings. Those feeding forage crops need to be very careful during the cold snap.

Frost causes higher nitrate levels in the plant and this can lead to poisoning if animals are allowed graze frozen crops. Avoid this by moving 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.

You also need to take care where animals have had a resticted access to water, not to let them gorge cold water when the thaw comes. This has led to sudden deaths in the past.