Jobs for January

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Facial eczema treatments for sheep, cattle and alpaca need to start in mid January. This is to give zinc levels time to rise so the animal gains protection before spore levels start to rise in early February, and also so the the last zinc treatments are still effective in mid-april (90 days). •

You can do a spore test on your own property by gathering pasture samples - talk to your vet clinic who can explain how best to take asample, and do the test for you. •

Vet clinics nationwide compile reports so you can find out the average FE spore counts in your area each week: www.asurequality.com/our-industries/ livestock/disease-management/facialeczema-monitoring/ •

For more on facial eczema: www.thisnzlife.co.nz/facial-eczema-yearround-problem/ •

You need to be constantly on the lookout for dirty, oily patches on the wool of sheep and lambs. They will nibble these areas to stop the itch of them being eaten alive by the Aussie green blowfly. This needs immediate treatment, so talk to you vet about the best products to have on hand. Have some way to restrain a sheep (preferably yards) so you can treat it safely. •

Current best practice is to delay drench resistance by always leaving 20% of good lambs in a mob undrenched so that they breed worms that are killed by drench. These worms are said to be in refugia which allows non-resistant worms to mate with resistant ones, hopefully slowing up the advance to total resistance. •

Summer is a great time to clean out the hen house and spray for mites. The dust in a hen house will be contaminated by chicken skin cells, which carry campylobacter. Use a garden backpack or pump sprayer to mist water over the interior before you begin cleaning it out. Also, wear a dust mask – it’s very easy to breathe in dust and it will expose you to fungi and bacteria that can make you very sick.