Beat pests to the punch

On the North Coast, where kikuyu, seteria and other summer grasses are in overdrive after a prolonged dry spell, toxicity can be an issue.

Veterinarians have urged farmers to look out for problems like bloat and nitrate, oxalate or kikuyu poisoning.

North Coast Local Lands Services district veterinarian Phil Kemsley said there had been deaths from bloat around the Kyogle area and rotationally- or strip-grazed pastures seemed more prone.

Putting cattle in later in the day and bloat oil in water troughs or supplementary feed were preventative methods, Mr Kemsley said.

Buffalo fly numbers were also rising as the season hits its peak, however, there had been some good lessons learned during the past year in terms of cost control in parasite programs on the back of the need to offset poor cattle returns, livestock advisors said.

The higher level of internal and external parasite burden on the coast means, even where herd health management is very strategic, thousands of dollars are spent annually on control.

"Last year, tighter margins triggered a close look at the best use of money spent on dealing with buffalo fly, liver fluke, worms and ticks on the North Coast," LLS livestock officer Nathan Jennings said.

"What came out of that will continue to benefit producers now the season has turned, and they can apply a lot of the same thinking to vaccination programs."

The main message was there were savings to be made with a planned program as opposed to a month-by-month approach.

A case study has shown more than $1200 in savings were possible in a North Coast 200-head breeding herd, with 170 calves, 30 replacement heifers and six bulls, treating those four main problem parasites, Mr Jennings said.

"That was on product costs alone, with no labour built in," he said.

"It came essentially on the back of having accurate animal weights, using pack sizes to full advantage and taking a whole-of-season approach."

Certain products, if stored according to label directions, have a reasonable shelf life and by purchasing as big a pack as possible upfront and factoring in future treatments, substantial savings can be made.

With the shift in cattle prices, some North Coast producers are also now looking to take parasite program cost control further and have worm and liver fluke testing done to prevent unnecessary treatments or to further tailor their animal health programs.

For many producers in the region, buffalo fly control represents the largest slice of the cake.

Most opt for buffalo fly tags applied late December and into January with the hope of being covered for the entire peak season but areas closer to Queensland have traditionally needed to do a pre-Christmas spray, then apply tags a month later, to last until the burden period wanes.

"By rotating chemical groups, close monitoring and better timing of tag application, it may be possible to drop the December spray in some seasons," Mr Jennings said.

"Some producers are trialling that this season.

"Remember it is a must to remove old buffalo fly tags at the end of the fly season or as label directs."

There is data suggesting the effectiveness of back rubbers and for some they are a cost effective solution if it suits the management style.

But producers should be aware there is a need to train cattle to use them properly.

STRATEGIC timing and mixing a number of control measures is the basis of Northern Rivers yearling producer Tom Amey's parasite control program.

Mr Amey runs 700 head on improved pastures at "Araucaria", near Mummulgum, and "Greenmount", at Dyraaba, turning off yearlings which last year averaged just under 200 kilograms dressed weight.

He also breeds all his own replacement heifers.

Murray Grey/Friesian cows are joined to Brahman bulls and heifers retained as breeders, which are then joined to Murray Grey bulls to produce yearlings.

The main parasites needed to be addressed are buffalo fly, ticks and worms, said Mr Amey (pictured with Virbac's Craig Hosking, his product advisor).

Rotating organophosphates and pyrethroids, applied as ear tags at the end of January for buffalo fly, had been effective in decreasing resistance, Mr Amey said.

Cows also receive a long lasting injectable Moxidectin pre-joining in July, which is not only for internal parasites but is effective for ticks.

"Closer to processing for yearlings, in autumn, ticks are less a problem, so we can revert to white drenching which gives us the lower withholding period," Mr Amey said.

Yearling heifers, however, are treated differently.

"We want to minimise the amount of buffalo fly treatment yearling heifers receive in order to have them susceptible to three-day-sickness vectors and therefore build up their natural immunity before they go in calf."

Mr Hosking said while the initial outlay might be higher, the strategy to use long-lasting products protected animals for the majority of their growth phase and the return for that was higher weight gains.

"The aim is to prevent the need for ongoing vaccination."