As attention turns to housing on many farms around the country, winter health plans will also be kicking into action.

This week’s focus looks at preventative therapies to avoid outbreaks of disease on farms this winter. Martin Merrick takes a look at addressing parasite burdens this winter. With a difficult summer and autumn grazing on many farms, parasite burdens are likely to be a problem as we enter into the winter housing period.

People sometimes get hung up on the brand of product that they use in their winter dosing programme. Whether it is pour-ons, injectables or oral doses, the active ingredient is more critical when treating fluke and worms. The active ingredient will determine when you use it, which is key to a successful dosing programme.

Fluke is the big one, especially where farmers are working on marginal land. If the product you are using just covers adult fluke you need to have cattle housed 11 weeks before you use it.

Darren Carty has some very good tips on finishing lambs indoors, with good advice on how to ensure a smooth transition over the next few weeks.

Keeping lambs housed for 48 hours after purchase is his number one to avoid any spread of lameness through your flock. Elsewhere, we profile our upcoming suckler marts roadshow, which kicks off next Tuesday night in Elphin mart in Co Roscommon.

Health is one of the topics we are covering on the nights, and we’ll have a vet at all the demos to answer your questions on animal health. These demos kick off at 7pm each night and will include a livestock demo, which will focus on breeding and AI.

Finally, Aidan Brennan takes a look at some of the key factors when managing a high somatic cell count (SCC) and mastitis in dairy herds over the next few months.

The winter is a high risk time for the spread of mastitis on dairy farms as cows are in close proximity. He advises farmers to use the ICBF HerdPlus website to identify the most suitable cows in the herd for selective dry cow therapy.