Farmer Writes: the housing checklist

I took a few days off work last week which gave me a bit of time to gather up most of the cattle that were still at grass and get them housed.

All that remains outside is 15 bulls, most of which, I hope will be sold before they need to be housed.

Once housed the annual ritual of clipping, treating for fluke, worms and lice must begin. Clipping cattle is one of those jobs that I always wonder is it as beneficial as it’s supposed to be.

I usually clip the tails of all animals, which definitely keeps them cleaner and clip a couple of widths of the clippers each side of the back bone.

Which theories make sense?

There are all kinds of theories to the benefits of this.

Lice tend to congregate on the top of the back, so if there is no hair for them to hide in it tends to reduce the population.

Cattle don’t sweat as much which also helps reduce lice and, lastly, as cattle lose most of their heat through the top of their back, they are supposed to stay cooler if they are clipped. They then eat more to keep themselves warm, which in turn can lead to higher daily live weight gains.

There is no point treating cattle with a product that only covers adult fluke a week or two after they are housed

I’m not sure about the last one but I’ve been clipping cattle here at housing for a good number of years now and I can’t see me stopping anytime soon.

As for the fluke, worm and lice treatments, obviously when it comes to administering a lice treatment it is vital that all cattle in the shed are treated on the same day.

Sample the samples

I usually house the cattle for a few days, then when they are settled I’ll take them out and clip them. Any cattle over three years of age receive a cypermethrin- or deltamethrin-type pour on to cover both sucking and biting lice.

All other cattle, weanlings, maiden heifers and young cows are treated with an Ivermectin-type pour on, this will cover both sucking and biting lice as well as stomach and lung worms. Now this is where the programme can sometimes fall by the way side.

As none of these products kill lice eggs, it is important that all cattle are treated again for lice within a three-week period.

This second treatment can sometimes get over looked or forgotten which means the process must be started over.

As no product that I’m aware of will kill lice eggs, the eggs stay active on the animal after treatment, they then hatch out and within three weeks are laying eggs themselves, therefore carrying on the life cycle.

Therefore the second treatment is vital.

I usually inject for fluke using Trodax when the animals have been housed seven to eight weeks, Trodax covers immature and adult fluke, so all fluke should have reached the immature stage after seven weeks.

This is something to be very mindful of. There is no point treating cattle with a product that only covers adult fluke a week or two after they are housed and think they are covered for the winter.

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