THESE worm-resistant rams are being sold with full fecal worm count data attached to the side of their pen. Photo supplied
Clive Dalton
WHEN doing a programme that includes sheep, the directors of Country Calendar seem to love drenching. It’s easy copy as there’s mustering shots, yard action with plenty of noise and then the final battle of the drench gun being forced into reluctant mouths.
The whole farming family, especially the dogs love the exercise. Every sheep gets a shot – not just the daggy ones, and there’s not one to be missed. Did you notice the only real daggy sheep on a recent programme among the great looking mob of young sheep – all clean?
I wonder if the directors have heard of the national programme Wormwise, and its clear messages and implications due to the serious situation the sheep industry is currently in due to the rapid growth of drench-resistant worms. But explanation of all this would be boring for the non-farming audience, which have been the main viewers of Country Calendar for decades.
But you never know, there could be an increasing number of watchers wondering what that chemical is doing to the meat, never mind the worms, especially those in overseas markets remembering us skiting about our clean green image. What’s in that stuff used to kill worms? You might not be very happy to know!
Imagine a shot to camera where the farmer says, ‘we are following the National Wormwise programme where first we do a faecal egg count (FEC) before deciding to drench. Then imagine him saying, “we consult with our veterinarian about which is the correct product, and then we use the concept of ‘refugia’ where we don’t drench young sheep that are doing well and clearly don’t need a drench, have clean rear ends and are pooping marbles or solid poo like hand grenades’.
“Mature sheep don’t get any drench as their immunity protects them from internal parasite damage,” the farmer tells the Country Calendar presenter.
Imagine that? Pigs could fly. But you never know, and I hope the programme directors read this suggestion if the next farmer they film is actually doing anything about it.
All these problems were known more than 20 years ago, and of course nothing was done as it was always so easy to drench the hoggets on a Monday morning every month to the hour and give them a “blardy good drench” not missing one out.
At the Whatawhata Research Station, if one sheep escaped when drenching, a whole gang of technicians and their dogs took off after it. When it got back, it was given an extra shot for its crime.
Everybody enjoyed the exercise – especially the dogs having been tied up all weekend and we workers needed a blowout.
The message known decades ago was to use breeding to solve the problem. Work at Ruakura found that out as was done with solving the facial eczema problem. But it was long-term and vet clinics and stock companies made big markups off drench, attracting farmers by giveaways like clothing and even Christmas hams.
They could not afford to tell farmers to cut down on drench. There were even long-term capsules sold that were the worst thing ever invented, killing the vulnerable worms to let the resistant ones grow and tolerate the drench. The MAF farm advisors in the old days tried to get farmers to start along the genetics pathway. They were wasting their breath. But they did start some stud breeders on the long haul, but it took decades of dedication with little reward.
What happens is like when the facial eczema disaster really hit in the North Island some decades ago and farmers were losing up to 1000 hoggets. Farmers hit the panic button and rushed to buy facial eczema-resistant rams as they have been advised to do. But after getting them home and skiting to the neighbours, they turned them out among the flock ewes and expected to see no more of the problem.
I would bet this is going to happen with worm resistance when farmers in a panic rush to buy rams from the few dedicated breeders who have been selecting for worm-resistant rams for many generations – a sheep generation on average is three years, not 12 months.
Solving the worm resistance problem with genetics in a commercial flock starts with identifying 2tooths with low FEC and are dag-free from producing marbles or hand grenades.
Then it’s all about FEC testing what worm resistance you have in the young sheep, tagging them to start a nucleus and mating them to purchased worm-resistant rams, culling any that fail by not passing the FEC test. Farmers will need some help and patience but any cost of this will be a top investment if they want to keep on running sheep.
FORMERLY at Ruakura Research Centre, Dr Clive Dalton also taught agriculture at Waikato Polytechnic and has written several books and many articles on hill country farming.
