Fly Botts

[Steve Banks]

I understand that there is a time of year that you don't want to worm cattle, because of the stage that the botts are in. Would it be OK to worm in Nov.?

 

[dun]

Unless the wormer is also a grubicide there's no problem worming them any time of the year. Each part of the country has a different timeframe as to when the grubs/warbles are in a dangerous area. I don;t recall off hand how long after heelfly season it's not save.

dun

 

[TheBullLady]

Personally if I lived in Indiana, I would suggest that worming this time of year is a waste of time. You'd be better off waiting until spring.

 

[randiliana]

Personally if I lived in Indiana, I would suggest that worming this time of year is a waste of time. You'd be better off waiting until spring.

I have to disagree with this. One of the best times of year to worm is in the fall/early winter. That way they don't carry a load of worms through to spring. We worm in Nov/Dec, and then do all the babies when we brand in the spring, but not the cows.

 

[kyblockhead]

A pretty good strategy in this part of the world is to deworm around thanksgiving and the 4th of July. Reasoning is that clean out the cows prior to going into winter feeding. If we have very much winter weather at all the worm activity is slow and reinfestation is pretty slow. Deworming in summer cleans out the cows from the worm load picked up in the spring. The hot dry summer pasture is also a slow time for worm activity on pasture. This timing is suggested by Safeguard. There are a number of ways to deworm now without going through the chute all the time too.