Sustainable Parasite Management Strategy
“Keeping grazing at heights above 4 inches will help to reduce reinfections from pastures.”
When developing a successful, sustainable parasite control program, producers should use every tool and management practice applicable to their own, unique operation. The implementation of FEC will allow producers to see what is going on inside of the animal, assess the effectiveness of dewormers, and identify cattle that carry heavy parasite burdens. Using grazing strategies will help to reduce the parasitic pressure from pastures and allow for fewer heavily parasitized pastures. Deworming treatments targeted at specific parasites and during specific time frames will allow for more efficient activity against intestinal parasites. Using the entire arsenal of parasite control methods will help to ensure that you keep your cattle healthy and your operation profitable.
Pasture Management Practices that Reduce Parasitisms
Intensive pasture management can go a long way to helping control parasitisms in an operation. These practices (a couple of examples are listed below) will not solely guarantee parasite-free cattle (nothing will) but are very useful tools in helping to maintain manageable parasite levels.
• Do not overgraze pastures. Infective nematode larvae can migrate up to 6 inches on forages with the dew, with the bottom 3 inches containing the highest concentrations. Keeping grazing at heights above 4 inches will help to reduce reinfections from pastures. This can be achieved by implementing rotational grazing based on forage height. Rotational grazing allows producers to control grazing height and consistency by blocking off smaller sections of a large pasture, then rotating grazing animals on a “schedule” (forage height).
• During the dry months with little grass growth, producers can drag pastures (“harrowing”, “brushing”) to expose the infective larvae to the dry environment. Infective nematode larvae require moisture to persist on pastures and are very susceptible to dehydration. It should be noted, however, that dragging pastures when there is adequate moisture for parasite survival can potentially contaminate the entire dragged pasture.