This summer has the potential to be a bad one for parasites in young stock. The warmer, wetter winter will mean that there are more worm larvae in pastures than usual, and the forecasted hot summer may mean that worms mature to infective stages more quickly. 
 
While adult cattle usually develop good immunity to parasites by 18 months of age, worms can easily cause production limiting disease in young stock who are not yet immune. Regular drenching of young stock is a critical part of your overall parasite control, but steps also need to be taken to reduce the development of drench resistance. 
 
All material you read about drench resistance will tell you to make sure you use a combination drench product that contains more than one active ingredient. That’s because there is already a proportion of the worm population that are at least partially resistant to one kind of drench. Combination drenches are more likely to be effective against those worms, and make it harder for further resistance to develop. 
 
Oral drenches are much cheaper than pour-on or injectable, and reach the highest drug concentration in the gut. A combination oral product such as Arrest-C is an excellent choice to use for your calves. As animals get bigger they become harder to drench orally and many farmers switch to a pour-on, which will also control external parasites such as lice or mites. 
 
This year we are once again selling a young stock drench pack, which includes enough drench to treat about 100 calves with oral and pour on from weaning through to May, which is when many calves go off farm to grazing. It’s much cheaper to buy the drenches as a pack rather than separately, and each pack comes with a FREE CHRISTMAS HAM. 
 
Contact your local Anexa FVC clinic to discuss developing a drench program for your young stock, including ways to reduce the development of drench resistance.