Collars make mating simple, keep labour costs down
With the mating season in full swing, cow sheds and farmers across the country have been busy.
Warm summer weather heightens the risk of flystrike.
However, there are steps farmers can take to make sheep as unattractive to flies as possible this summer.
Will Halliday, Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s senior advisor biosecurity and animal welfare, says the best and most effective approach to preventing flystrike is to use a combination of strategies also known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
He says IPM aims to keep pressure on the pest throughout its lifecycle by using a combination of chemical and non-chemical tools.
“It’s about attacking maggots and flies from different angles at different times.”
For example, weekly monitoring for the four blowfly species that cause flystrike (Australian green blowfly, European green blowfly, Brown blowfly and Hairy Maggot blowfly). Using small offal-baited fly-traps will detect when these flies are active which can then trigger a management response.
It could include shearing, crutching, dipping and/or moving sheep to higher ground with cooler temperatures and higher wind speed.
During high-risk periods, intensive grazing should be avoided if possible and hot-spots on the farm identified and avoided. These could include sheltered, scrubby gullies, patches of thistles, bush lines and the lee of shelter-belts.
Chemicals play an important role in the prevention and treatment of flystrike, over-reliance can lead to resistance.
It is important to only use chemicals known to be effective on individual farms and use different chemicals to treat an active flystrike lesion than those used for flystrike prevention.
Halliday adds that the Managing Flystrike and Lice publication put together by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Merino NZ and Sheep and Beef Cattle Veterinarians explains the lifecycle of pests, helps decipher chemical product labels and applications.
“It is an excellent resource to help farmers put together a management plan for the prevention and treatment of both flystrike and lice.”
Preventing Flystrike
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
The horticulture sector is a big winner from recent free trade deals sealed with the Gulf states, says Associate Agriculture Minister Nicola Grigg.
OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…
OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…