Spring Cattle Health Checklist
With the onset of spring showers, storms and heat just around the corner, it will not be long before both internal and external parasite eggs that have been dormant over cooler and drier months start to hatch. With livestock grazing close to the ground on low pastures, intake of larvae can be high during spring, especially if even low amounts of rain continue to fall at regular intervals.
To help keep on top of your spring program, we’ve put together a checklist below:
- Perform a faecal egg count to check for worms and fluke.See your local McGregor Gourlay Branch for assistance in taking samples and interpreting results to see if a drench is required or not.
- Spring is Breeding season – is your vaccination program up to date?- 7 in 1 for Breeders.
– Pestiguard for Maiden and 1st calf heifer’s atleast (can do a whole breeding herd).
– Vibrio for Bulls.
– 3 Day (Bovine Ephemeral Fever) vaccine for Bulls and valuable stud females. - Consider topping up trace minerals in females prior to or early in the joining season with a Multimin or Cobalife plus SE and Coppernate. Weaners will also benefit greatly from a “top up” coming out of a hard winter.
- Keep protein supplements up until the ground temperatures rise and fresh spring growth appears.
- Consider moving cattle on to sulphur blocks and trace mineral blocks as summer approaches.
- 5 in 1 for all cattle going onto a spring forage crop (even if they have had their booster earlier in the year).
For products, information or assistance. For all your animal health and rural merchandise, give your local branch a call today https://mcgregorgourlay.com.au/contact/
