Deworming Methods

[True Grit Farms]

I'm one of the one's Lucky is talking about. I use the the cheapest pour on wormer I can get for fly control. It has always worked real good for flies, but I don't trust it for worms. That's why I always used an injectable wormer. This year we're going to use UltraSabre again for flies and ear tags. But if I'm not happy with the results I'm going back to the cheap pour on wormer. Lucky is the reason why we've tried to get away from the pour on wormer for flies. But nothing is worse than seeing the cows stomping their feet and swishing their tails because of the flies.

 

[Lucky_P]

truegrit,
It's easy to get on a high horse.
I see the problems with anthelminthic(dewormer) resistance on a daily basis - particularly in sheep and goats.
Cattle...not so much. It's been nearly 20 years since I saw 'worms' actually kill a cow... largely because ivermectin has been so very effective in eliminating Ostertagia on most premises.
IMO... I'm not convinced that it's even worthwhile to deworm most adult cows (older than 4 yrs) - and I usually don't. Ever.
Yeah, I know there are Extension bulletins showing that deworming the cow translates to a 31 pound (or something similar) increase in weaning weight of calf... and, if that's true... it's probably economically advantageous... but I'm not convinced that the cow herself benefits all that much.

That said... any $ spent controlling hornflies will return much more in the way of productivity $$ than any $ spent 'deworming' cattle for internal parasites. Ectoparasites - particularly hornflies - have a much greater economic impact on beef/dairy production than 'worms'.