Deworming.

Gather App
Travlr said:
FEC?

Federal election commission?
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That government group probably has a lot in common with the contents of a cow rectum but the term I was mentioning is fecal egg counts (FECs). It is pretty interesting to check calves at weaning that never were wormed to find low or no eggs in the samples. Why would I worm to eliminate nothing?
 
Ebenezer said:
That government group probably has a lot in common with the contents of a cow rectum but the term I was mentioning is fecal egg counts (FECs). It is pretty interesting to check calves at weaning that never were wormed to find low or no eggs in the samples. Why would I worm to eliminate nothing?
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Actually I never wormed calves because I always sold them at seven months, before any hard freeze. I wormed calves I held over to be sold, bred as replacements.
 
We worm calves and up to two year olds and cull cows that don't thrive for whatever reason. That's based on the advice of a few folks I know. I had some health issues in November and couldn't do much physical work so did not worm until February. Might just be a one off but they do look smaller I guess they are correct.

I need to google this but I recall reading that worms exacerbate the impact of the fescue toxin. That's the big issue here. So worming can also help them deal with fescue.
 
I think in my situation, I will deworm using safeguard oral this spring, and then ivermectin injectable in the fall. My only reason for this is I have a lot of young calves, yearlings, weanlings, that will go on to be finished out and butchered. I want them to grow as best as possible since they will be feeder calves. Of course I will look at withdrawl times to make sure I am deworming soon enough in the fall. But after this, I think my older cows do not necessarily need it. They are extremely healthy, keep weight good, etc.
 

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