Recognising resistance

As a collective farmers and vets alike must now be responsible for recognising that drench resistance has become a very real threat. The sheep and beef industry of New Zealand has long ago recognised this fact and begun implementing the processes to help mitigate this issue. So why as a collective is the dairy industry not facilitating the very same conversation about drench resistance in our young stock?

The three main drench families which form the basis of our drenches today had all been discovered by the 1980s, with, in my opinion, little progress in the way of new drench development since then.

The main point to highlight here is that in my opinion the rate of development of new drenches is so slow, it is unlikely a new active will be discovered in your farming life. This emphasises the importance of protecting the drenches we currently have in order to maximise their effect in future years.

Each farmer invests hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year on drench. With such a significant amount of money invested one would assume that, at the very least, most farmers would check that their drenches are working. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Your vet will offer a drench checking service where fecal samples can be dropped at the clinic 7-10 days after the drench has been administered.

The samples are then checked for the presence of parasite eggs. If eggs are present in the faeces it is a good indication that something has gone wrong in the drenching process – either it has not been administered appropriately or resistance is developing.

This is a simple and cheap test to perform yet very few farmers take up on the offer!

Doing a simple drench check could save your farming system a lot of time and money.

The cost of carrying a parasite burden to an individual animal can be enormous in terms of growth and these animals need to be well grown to ensure they prosper within your herd in the future.

Next time you are buying drench talk to your vet first. Not all drenches are created equal with different products being suited to different times of the season.

Together you can form a plan that is tailored to your system and will help you to get the most out of the products we can provide.

And please, take in fecal samples from your young stock for us to check to ensure the products you invest in are working!