March 30, 2025 • 20 mins
Keeping your stock healthy and your farm thriving takes more than just reaching for the drench gun. Our newest podcast series ‘Drench Wise, Farm Smart’ in partnership with Zolvix Plus from Elanco, takes a deep dive into parasite management, exploring smarter ways to protect your animals and your land. In part one, The Country’s Rowena Duncum sits down with Colin McKay from Elanco and experienced large animal vet Brent Neal, who brings over 24 years of hands-on knowledge to the discussion. Brent shares his insights on drench resistance, what it means for farmers, and the importance of looking beyond drench to sustain farming.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Drench Wise Farm Smart with Zolvis Plus from Ilanco, powered
by the Country.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, Hello and welcome into the first episode of Drenchwise
Farm Smart. It's a nuke series we're launching today in
association with Zolvick's Plus by Alain Coke. Now, my name
is Rowena Duncan, rural lead at the Country, former dairy farmer,
and it is my pleasure to kind of metaphorically slip
into the red bands again for this podcast. We're going
(00:27):
to be looking at, as the title suggests, how to
drench wise farm smart, but it's more than just drenching.
It's about smart round word management overall. So that means
understanding when to drench, how to drench, what else you
can do to keep internal parasites under control while protecting
your stock, your land and your bottom line. So by
(00:49):
taking a bigger picture approach, looking at everything from pasture
management and nutrition to testing and drench choice, we can
slow development of resistance, improve animal health and build resilience
into your farming operation for the long run. So to
expand on this and offer up some tangible examples and
tales from their time at the caul Face, I've got
(01:10):
two guests for you today with me in studio is
Colin Mackay. No relation to Jamie, so no danger of
him digressing into boring travel stories and golf and tool
building and damn stories. You have my assurance on that.
And Colin joins us from Alan Coo. Welcome Colin.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Hello, Hello ro.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And joining us on the line is Brent Meal from
Franklin Vets, a large animal vet with over twenty four
years experience out in the field. Welcome to you also, Brent.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Hello ro.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Now Colin, let's start with you. Tell me a bit
about your background in the animal hulk space.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
I've been involved in this game for a very very
long time, row covering a whole raft of roles from
marketing to technical support to sales. But I guess at
the heart of it it has been a real passion
for the technical side of things, working out how products
can be used to best effect. Educationally, I've have a
(02:06):
science degree and trade cergnificate and farming, but I guess
the sort of foundations for my career with a time
I spent as a technician at the WALLASA Research Center
working for some very imminent parasitologists and just the stuff
which they contributed to our knowledge of parasites and their
(02:26):
control in New Zealand is still valid to this day.
So I think that's probably the most important time I've
had in my working life.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, amazing, Brent. What about you? How did you get
into the animal health space?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, I guess it's started many years ago now when
my father actually seld a Stanley farm, so I was
kind of less stuck for a bit of a career choice,
so I did veterinary medicine down at Massi University in Palmerston.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
North Hey Yo, go Massy Parmy.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, so yeah, that was a good five years of
my life. Of course I wanted to get back into
the rural sector after that, so I've been lucky enough
to work around most areas of the North Island of
New Zealand and also travel internationally there that Western in Australia, Ireland,
England and Scotland. But once we had a family, I've
(03:23):
settled back in north Waykado of the North Island and
I've been here for thirteen years now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Brilliant and a great part of the country as well.
If you're a vet, you've got a lot of farm
animals and properties on your doorstep there, so you would
have seen a bit in this space as well, which
is why we've got you on the podcast today. I
want to start by looking at drench resistance, like what
it is and what it means the New Zealand Farmers
(03:51):
and Brent will go to you first on this.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, So drench resistance, probably in its most basic definition,
is when you drink a worm or treat a worm
with a chemical that would normally kill that that worm
and remove it from the animal's system, that that worm
can survive that chemical's presence and carry on living to
(04:16):
continue to affect the animal colin.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
What do you have to add into this?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Oh, the only thing I would add that and Brent's
absolutely correct. Where where a drench or a anthon winting
no longer has it, it's expected efficacy. But it's also
the fact that there's been a genetic change within the
worm population that's heritable and gets passed on. So it
means that if a drencher continues to be used where
(04:41):
resistance has developed, the population of resistant worms will build
up and cause significant issues.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Brent back to you, you know, in your time practicing,
what changes have you observed in regard to round worm
drench resistance, like you know, prevalence or management practices, you
will have seen quite the bed.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, yeah, there's been massive changes. Nothing stands still so
that there's been massive changes. And I've got enough gray
hairs now to have seen the fair bit of.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Those changes, believe me.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So back when I was first out, while there was
drink resistance around, it was normally only to one product
at a time, one chemical family at a time. And
so this multiple resistance within the same womb was incredibly rare,
and when it was described, it was made it into
(05:39):
all the scientific journals, and you know, it was really
something that we sat up and went God in us.
Imagine that I've found a worm that can survive three
different chemicals at the same time. Whereas these days, over
the last twenty years, it's gone from a scientific rarity
to the point now where we're almost getting to the
(06:01):
point on some of our sheet stations in particular, where
we're surprised when we're not finding multi drug resistance. And
the change in twenty years has been quite remarkable, and
the pace of that change seems to be increasing and
getting faster and faster all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Colin I can see you nodding along here. This is
quite a terrifying prospect.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Oh, absolutely, Rowan. I guess one of the key things is,
for many years we've had new products coming through which
for one of the better terms savor bacon, and science
has come to aid with new chemistry. And it's worth
considering that the most recent active ingredients for drenches were
released fifteen years ago. There's no new ones in the wings,
(06:51):
so we really have to treasure these compounds for what
they are and what they provide to farmers.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Absolutely. I mean, what is clinical drench failure and why
is that something in your opinion that we should all
be aware of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, So what clinical drench failure is is when you
have a mile of animals and as a farmer and
a veterinarian and anybody that's familiar with stop, they'll look
at those animals and feel that they're not looking as
well as they should do, and their performance will be suffering,
whether it's growth rates or their general appearance, and the
(07:33):
farmer will think, well, gosh, those animals they need a drink.
They've obviously got some round worm burden, and so the
farmer will then drink those animals However, they don't pick up,
they don't improve and performance. They're still a lot really rough,
they might have diarrhea, their growth rates are poor, and essentially,
(07:53):
even though you've drinched these animals with what you thought
was an appropriate informatic they haven And that's what clinical
drink failure is.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Again, Colin, I can see you nodding along to Brent.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Absolutely. I mean, unfortunately, we're seeing more and more cases
of where people are thinking they're doing the right thing
by drenching regularly and seeing the animals suffering accordingly, and
the obviously has a big impact on the productivity of
those animals. It's a serious issue. I mean, I've read
some of the old papers from back in the early
(08:31):
nineteen eighties and one particular stood out me saying that
if we didn't have effect of drenches in the dairy
industry would be carving heaf as a three year old,
not two year old. So I can imagine saying that
to a dairy farmer in today's environment that that's what
they would have to do.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's quite an amazing prospects Brent.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yes, Yeah, And the thing is, like this clinical failure,
it has a massive effect on productivity, which affects farmer's
bottom line and the profitability of things. But it's also
a massive animal welfare issue for these affected animals. You know,
it's a painful, miserable condition for them. And no farmer
that I've ever met in the twenty ideas has ever
(09:15):
enjoyed seeing their animals looking poor and not doing well
and being miserable. You know. So while it's really really
important from a profitability point of view, we can't overlook
that animal welfare point of view as well. So, yeah,
it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. So what are the concerns
of having so few highly effective drenches available? We know
that Colin mentioned and nothing has been really developed in
the last fifteen years print.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, So the issue is that as we lose the
effectiveness of more and more of these drugs, we're coming
to rely on fewer and fewer of them, and as
each one of them falls off, the cupboard is locking
increasingly be there, and so we're running out of options.
(10:07):
And we know that as we lose that effectiveness of
our drenches, we suffer these productivity losses and the animal
welfare issues. And that's why I think we need to
lock at a bit of a culture change within a
lot of our farm and industry to have less and
(10:30):
less reliance on the drenches and use the drenches more
appropriately at the right times in the right doses.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Absolutely so. In the past, round worm management has largely
been around drench choice and perhaps to agree what giveaway
comes with the drench. Now it's certainly moving to a
whole farm management or system approach to control round worms
rather than simply what comes in they can drench.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
When you said you know what comes with the drench,
I was thinking you meant the Christmas ham there on
the ham or.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
The rice cocker. Yeah, the flamethrower, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, So how do you reckon, Britt will come back
to you on this one. How do you reckon farmers
can look beyond drench to slow resistance and why is
this so important?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah? So, probably long term, a big part of this
is going to be the genetic modification of our of
our sheep or our cattle or whatever class of livestock
you're talking about. However, that is going to take a
significant amount of time. That is not a fact that's
going to occur in the next few years. That's that's
(11:46):
several generations of the animal away, so we're talking ten
twenty years. So what we need to be doing is
we need to be looking after the drench families that
we have now to prolong their effectiveness for as long
as possible so that farmers can carry on farming in
a productive and profitable way, maintaining awesome animal welfare on
(12:10):
our New Zealand properties until the genetics sort of catch
up with the problem. And so that's about getting an
individual tailored solutions for your farm. So there's some generalizations
that we can talk about, and those sorts of things
are growing the best, most robust, healthy animal that you
(12:33):
possibly can, so that that animals has a really strong,
healthy immune system to fight the worms itself. It's about
feeding them as well as you possibly can so that
the animal isn't under stress, because we know that stress
increases the chances that that animal is going to suffer
(12:56):
from a worm burden and not be able to fight
that worm burden as well as it can. It's around
using grazing management practices so that we're exposing the really
susceptible and at risk animals to lower levels of parasite
challenge so that they don't build up such a big
(13:19):
burden so quickly, and hopefully they don't need as much
drench In saying that we can do these these management
practices which are really really important and we need to
be doing much more of, but we also need to
be using the right drench at the right time on
the right animals. And that's largely based around testing, so
(13:44):
that we know how many worms does this animal net
have and doesn't need a drink yet, or can it
go for a slightly longer period before we need to
retest and see whether it needs drenching. And that's certainly
something that we've been really focusing on up in my
area up here, and it's been really pleasing to say
that overall we've been using a lot their strength. So
(14:06):
even though our clients have been paying more money for
testing because they never used to pay any money whatsoever
in testing, their drink dollar has gone significantly down without
losing their performance of their animals. So in that situation,
that's a little bit of a win win. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, absolutely great practicable, actionable steps that farmers can take. There.
Anything you'd like to add, Colin, and.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I just really agree with it. Again, agree with everything
Brent says that the one point what it does, it's
really important that they establish that farmers establish their their
baseline and understand what drenches actually kill the parasites present
on their farm, and from there they can use their
drench inputs most effectively.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, because it's not really just a one size fits all.
Everyone's got different histories on their and has used different products,
and it's about understanding that as well in the holistic approach. Look,
what advice would you give farmers who may be facing
bottom of the cliff situations And can you share any
examples that you've seen out there on the ground, Brent
(15:16):
that might give farmers a bit of hope.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, there's definitely hope out there like this doesn't throw
our hands up in the air and run around like
the sky is falling. It's a big issue and it's
a serious issue. The advice would be to find somebody
that does know about this. It will probably cost you
some money to get good advice, but the cost of
(15:40):
bad advice, even if it's free, will cost you a
lot more than giving them some touch with somebody that
knows your farm, knows your system, and can give you
good advice. And every farm is different, and it frustrates
me when I see advice being given where we're trying
to pigeonhole all farms into the same box, and everybody
(16:03):
should be doing the same thing. So get some individual
advice for your individual system and your individual farm. But
you know, I've got one client. He found triple drinch
resistance in his calves, which was a big deal because
he's a car for Era. He rears hundreds of calves
every year and he had travel drinch resistance. He had
(16:25):
reached the point where he was getting the chinical drench failure,
so he was drenching his carves every three to four
weeks routinely, which is very costly because he was using
a good drinch like it wasn't because he had just
gone out and bought a rubbs drench. He was using
a good drinch and the worms had become resistant to it.
And he was at the point of, right, that's it.
(16:46):
I need to sell my farm. I'm going to sell
it to one of these forestry companies that's running around
for carbon credits and it's going to go under pine trees.
And he was devastated by that. So we chatted it through.
He makes some different systems on his farm, so he
now rears the carves on a different area of the farm.
(17:07):
All of his big stock is are two bulls and
the larger animals have all come to the front of
the farm where he used to have all the carves.
He's getting better production now. He's wearing a few less carves.
So the carves he has got are doing better because
they've got more feed available. And he's massively reduced a
(17:28):
drink bill because we're now testing and he's only drinching
when they have got a worm dird in there and
it hasn't come for free. As I say, he is
wearing a few less calves, but the carves he's got
are doing better. He's changed the management on his farm
by having the big stock at the front of the
farm where he traditionally rams the carves, but making more
(17:52):
money now with a smaller drink bill. And the biggest
factor is he's really really happy can see his stock,
his stuff is performing, and he's just much much happier
now that he can see that. As the animals are
thrive in the game like they were before. The strench
(18:13):
failure sort of red it's hit on this property.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, awesome, awesome example there in Colin. He wouldn't have
been alone in that kind of situation.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Absolutely not. I was just thinking about what Brend's just
been speaking of, and when drench resistance was first recognized
as a problem, probably back in the mid nineteen eighties,
the management of drench resistance was considered easier though, as
it was just rotating your drenches on an annual basis,
and there was five lines dedicated on the back of
(18:43):
a drum of drench to tell you how to prevent
the manager or manage drench resistant parasites. And I think
in the from the mid nineteen eighties or early nineteen
eighties through to the current time, there's been a massive
amount of information gained gained, and I think Brent's right
tapping into people who have the experience and the knowledge
(19:06):
to be able to develop an individual program for a farm.
That's the key to having a long lasting round wood
control program. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Absolutely, Well, I'm glad we finished on that night where
we gave people hope that there is a way through this.
You've just got to get in touch with the right
people and actually be prepared to really invest in this
issue so it doesn't continue to be an issue and
so you can actually address it. There's more information as
well online at Farmanimal dot alanco dot com forward slash
(19:39):
in Z as well, so go and check that one out.
We will be back soon with another episode of a
Drenchwise Farm Smart thanks to Zolvis Plus from Alanko, but
for today Britt Neil veterinarian out of Franklin VETZ and
Colin Mackay out of Alanco. Thank you both so much
for your time.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Thank you Figure, Thanks Brent.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Drenchwise Farm Smart with Solvik's Plus from Ilanco, powered by
the Country
Drench Wise Farm Smart with Zolvis Plus from Ilanco, powered
by the Country.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, Hello and welcome into the first episode of Drenchwise
Farm Smart. It's a nuke series we're launching today in
association with Zolvick's Plus by Alain Coke. Now, my name
is Rowena Duncan, rural lead at the Country, former dairy farmer,
and it is my pleasure to kind of metaphorically slip
into the red bands again for this podcast. We're going
(00:27):
to be looking at, as the title suggests, how to
drench wise farm smart, but it's more than just drenching.
It's about smart round word management overall. So that means
understanding when to drench, how to drench, what else you
can do to keep internal parasites under control while protecting
your stock, your land and your bottom line. So by
(00:49):
taking a bigger picture approach, looking at everything from pasture
management and nutrition to testing and drench choice, we can
slow development of resistance, improve animal health and build resilience
into your farming operation for the long run. So to
expand on this and offer up some tangible examples and
tales from their time at the caul Face, I've got
(01:10):
two guests for you today with me in studio is
Colin Mackay. No relation to Jamie, so no danger of
him digressing into boring travel stories and golf and tool
building and damn stories. You have my assurance on that.
And Colin joins us from Alan Coo. Welcome Colin.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Hello, Hello ro.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And joining us on the line is Brent Meal from
Franklin Vets, a large animal vet with over twenty four
years experience out in the field. Welcome to you also, Brent.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Hello ro.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Now Colin, let's start with you. Tell me a bit
about your background in the animal hulk space.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
I've been involved in this game for a very very
long time, row covering a whole raft of roles from
marketing to technical support to sales. But I guess at
the heart of it it has been a real passion
for the technical side of things, working out how products
can be used to best effect. Educationally, I've have a
(02:06):
science degree and trade cergnificate and farming, but I guess
the sort of foundations for my career with a time
I spent as a technician at the WALLASA Research Center
working for some very imminent parasitologists and just the stuff
which they contributed to our knowledge of parasites and their
(02:26):
control in New Zealand is still valid to this day.
So I think that's probably the most important time I've
had in my working life.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, amazing, Brent. What about you? How did you get
into the animal health space?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, I guess it's started many years ago now when
my father actually seld a Stanley farm, so I was
kind of less stuck for a bit of a career choice,
so I did veterinary medicine down at Massi University in Palmerston.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
North Hey Yo, go Massy Parmy.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, so yeah, that was a good five years of
my life. Of course I wanted to get back into
the rural sector after that, so I've been lucky enough
to work around most areas of the North Island of
New Zealand and also travel internationally there that Western in Australia, Ireland,
England and Scotland. But once we had a family, I've
(03:23):
settled back in north Waykado of the North Island and
I've been here for thirteen years now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Brilliant and a great part of the country as well.
If you're a vet, you've got a lot of farm
animals and properties on your doorstep there, so you would
have seen a bit in this space as well, which
is why we've got you on the podcast today. I
want to start by looking at drench resistance, like what
it is and what it means the New Zealand Farmers
(03:51):
and Brent will go to you first on this.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, So drench resistance, probably in its most basic definition,
is when you drink a worm or treat a worm
with a chemical that would normally kill that that worm
and remove it from the animal's system, that that worm
can survive that chemical's presence and carry on living to
(04:16):
continue to affect the animal colin.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
What do you have to add into this?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Oh, the only thing I would add that and Brent's
absolutely correct. Where where a drench or a anthon winting
no longer has it, it's expected efficacy. But it's also
the fact that there's been a genetic change within the
worm population that's heritable and gets passed on. So it
means that if a drencher continues to be used where
(04:41):
resistance has developed, the population of resistant worms will build
up and cause significant issues.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Brent back to you, you know, in your time practicing,
what changes have you observed in regard to round worm
drench resistance, like you know, prevalence or management practices, you
will have seen quite the bed.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, yeah, there's been massive changes. Nothing stands still so
that there's been massive changes. And I've got enough gray
hairs now to have seen the fair bit of.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Those changes, believe me.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So back when I was first out, while there was
drink resistance around, it was normally only to one product
at a time, one chemical family at a time. And
so this multiple resistance within the same womb was incredibly rare,
and when it was described, it was made it into
(05:39):
all the scientific journals, and you know, it was really
something that we sat up and went God in us.
Imagine that I've found a worm that can survive three
different chemicals at the same time. Whereas these days, over
the last twenty years, it's gone from a scientific rarity
to the point now where we're almost getting to the
(06:01):
point on some of our sheet stations in particular, where
we're surprised when we're not finding multi drug resistance. And
the change in twenty years has been quite remarkable, and
the pace of that change seems to be increasing and
getting faster and faster all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Colin I can see you nodding along here. This is
quite a terrifying prospect.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Oh, absolutely, Rowan. I guess one of the key things is,
for many years we've had new products coming through which
for one of the better terms savor bacon, and science
has come to aid with new chemistry. And it's worth
considering that the most recent active ingredients for drenches were
released fifteen years ago. There's no new ones in the wings,
(06:51):
so we really have to treasure these compounds for what
they are and what they provide to farmers.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Absolutely. I mean, what is clinical drench failure and why
is that something in your opinion that we should all
be aware of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, So what clinical drench failure is is when you
have a mile of animals and as a farmer and
a veterinarian and anybody that's familiar with stop, they'll look
at those animals and feel that they're not looking as
well as they should do, and their performance will be suffering,
whether it's growth rates or their general appearance, and the
(07:33):
farmer will think, well, gosh, those animals they need a drink.
They've obviously got some round worm burden, and so the
farmer will then drink those animals However, they don't pick up,
they don't improve and performance. They're still a lot really rough,
they might have diarrhea, their growth rates are poor, and essentially,
(07:53):
even though you've drinched these animals with what you thought
was an appropriate informatic they haven And that's what clinical
drink failure is.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Again, Colin, I can see you nodding along to Brent.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Absolutely. I mean, unfortunately, we're seeing more and more cases
of where people are thinking they're doing the right thing
by drenching regularly and seeing the animals suffering accordingly, and
the obviously has a big impact on the productivity of
those animals. It's a serious issue. I mean, I've read
some of the old papers from back in the early
(08:31):
nineteen eighties and one particular stood out me saying that
if we didn't have effect of drenches in the dairy
industry would be carving heaf as a three year old,
not two year old. So I can imagine saying that
to a dairy farmer in today's environment that that's what
they would have to do.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's quite an amazing prospects Brent.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yes, Yeah, And the thing is, like this clinical failure,
it has a massive effect on productivity, which affects farmer's
bottom line and the profitability of things. But it's also
a massive animal welfare issue for these affected animals. You know,
it's a painful, miserable condition for them. And no farmer
that I've ever met in the twenty ideas has ever
(09:15):
enjoyed seeing their animals looking poor and not doing well
and being miserable. You know. So while it's really really
important from a profitability point of view, we can't overlook
that animal welfare point of view as well. So, yeah,
it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. So what are the concerns
of having so few highly effective drenches available? We know
that Colin mentioned and nothing has been really developed in
the last fifteen years print.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, So the issue is that as we lose the
effectiveness of more and more of these drugs, we're coming
to rely on fewer and fewer of them, and as
each one of them falls off, the cupboard is locking
increasingly be there, and so we're running out of options.
(10:07):
And we know that as we lose that effectiveness of
our drenches, we suffer these productivity losses and the animal
welfare issues. And that's why I think we need to
lock at a bit of a culture change within a
lot of our farm and industry to have less and
(10:30):
less reliance on the drenches and use the drenches more
appropriately at the right times in the right doses.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Absolutely so. In the past, round worm management has largely
been around drench choice and perhaps to agree what giveaway
comes with the drench. Now it's certainly moving to a
whole farm management or system approach to control round worms
rather than simply what comes in they can drench.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
When you said you know what comes with the drench,
I was thinking you meant the Christmas ham there on
the ham or.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
The rice cocker. Yeah, the flamethrower, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, So how do you reckon, Britt will come back
to you on this one. How do you reckon farmers
can look beyond drench to slow resistance and why is
this so important?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah? So, probably long term, a big part of this
is going to be the genetic modification of our of
our sheep or our cattle or whatever class of livestock
you're talking about. However, that is going to take a
significant amount of time. That is not a fact that's
going to occur in the next few years. That's that's
(11:46):
several generations of the animal away, so we're talking ten
twenty years. So what we need to be doing is
we need to be looking after the drench families that
we have now to prolong their effectiveness for as long
as possible so that farmers can carry on farming in
a productive and profitable way, maintaining awesome animal welfare on
(12:10):
our New Zealand properties until the genetics sort of catch
up with the problem. And so that's about getting an
individual tailored solutions for your farm. So there's some generalizations
that we can talk about, and those sorts of things
are growing the best, most robust, healthy animal that you
(12:33):
possibly can, so that that animals has a really strong,
healthy immune system to fight the worms itself. It's about
feeding them as well as you possibly can so that
the animal isn't under stress, because we know that stress
increases the chances that that animal is going to suffer
(12:56):
from a worm burden and not be able to fight
that worm burden as well as it can. It's around
using grazing management practices so that we're exposing the really
susceptible and at risk animals to lower levels of parasite
challenge so that they don't build up such a big
(13:19):
burden so quickly, and hopefully they don't need as much
drench In saying that we can do these these management
practices which are really really important and we need to
be doing much more of, but we also need to
be using the right drench at the right time on
the right animals. And that's largely based around testing, so
(13:44):
that we know how many worms does this animal net
have and doesn't need a drink yet, or can it
go for a slightly longer period before we need to
retest and see whether it needs drenching. And that's certainly
something that we've been really focusing on up in my
area up here, and it's been really pleasing to say
that overall we've been using a lot their strength. So
(14:06):
even though our clients have been paying more money for
testing because they never used to pay any money whatsoever
in testing, their drink dollar has gone significantly down without
losing their performance of their animals. So in that situation,
that's a little bit of a win win. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, absolutely great practicable, actionable steps that farmers can take. There.
Anything you'd like to add, Colin, and.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I just really agree with it. Again, agree with everything
Brent says that the one point what it does, it's
really important that they establish that farmers establish their their
baseline and understand what drenches actually kill the parasites present
on their farm, and from there they can use their
drench inputs most effectively.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, because it's not really just a one size fits all.
Everyone's got different histories on their and has used different products,
and it's about understanding that as well in the holistic approach. Look,
what advice would you give farmers who may be facing
bottom of the cliff situations And can you share any
examples that you've seen out there on the ground, Brent
(15:16):
that might give farmers a bit of hope.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, there's definitely hope out there like this doesn't throw
our hands up in the air and run around like
the sky is falling. It's a big issue and it's
a serious issue. The advice would be to find somebody
that does know about this. It will probably cost you
some money to get good advice, but the cost of
(15:40):
bad advice, even if it's free, will cost you a
lot more than giving them some touch with somebody that
knows your farm, knows your system, and can give you
good advice. And every farm is different, and it frustrates
me when I see advice being given where we're trying
to pigeonhole all farms into the same box, and everybody
(16:03):
should be doing the same thing. So get some individual
advice for your individual system and your individual farm. But
you know, I've got one client. He found triple drinch
resistance in his calves, which was a big deal because
he's a car for Era. He rears hundreds of calves
every year and he had travel drinch resistance. He had
(16:25):
reached the point where he was getting the chinical drench failure,
so he was drenching his carves every three to four
weeks routinely, which is very costly because he was using
a good drinch like it wasn't because he had just
gone out and bought a rubbs drench. He was using
a good drinch and the worms had become resistant to it.
And he was at the point of, right, that's it.
(16:46):
I need to sell my farm. I'm going to sell
it to one of these forestry companies that's running around
for carbon credits and it's going to go under pine trees.
And he was devastated by that. So we chatted it through.
He makes some different systems on his farm, so he
now rears the carves on a different area of the farm.
(17:07):
All of his big stock is are two bulls and
the larger animals have all come to the front of
the farm where he used to have all the carves.
He's getting better production now. He's wearing a few less carves.
So the carves he has got are doing better because
they've got more feed available. And he's massively reduced a
(17:28):
drink bill because we're now testing and he's only drinching
when they have got a worm dird in there and
it hasn't come for free. As I say, he is
wearing a few less calves, but the carves he's got
are doing better. He's changed the management on his farm
by having the big stock at the front of the
farm where he traditionally rams the carves, but making more
(17:52):
money now with a smaller drink bill. And the biggest
factor is he's really really happy can see his stock,
his stuff is performing, and he's just much much happier
now that he can see that. As the animals are
thrive in the game like they were before. The strench
(18:13):
failure sort of red it's hit on this property.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, awesome, awesome example there in Colin. He wouldn't have
been alone in that kind of situation.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Absolutely not. I was just thinking about what Brend's just
been speaking of, and when drench resistance was first recognized
as a problem, probably back in the mid nineteen eighties,
the management of drench resistance was considered easier though, as
it was just rotating your drenches on an annual basis,
and there was five lines dedicated on the back of
(18:43):
a drum of drench to tell you how to prevent
the manager or manage drench resistant parasites. And I think
in the from the mid nineteen eighties or early nineteen
eighties through to the current time, there's been a massive
amount of information gained gained, and I think Brent's right
tapping into people who have the experience and the knowledge
(19:06):
to be able to develop an individual program for a farm.
That's the key to having a long lasting round wood
control program. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Absolutely, Well, I'm glad we finished on that night where
we gave people hope that there is a way through this.
You've just got to get in touch with the right
people and actually be prepared to really invest in this
issue so it doesn't continue to be an issue and
so you can actually address it. There's more information as
well online at Farmanimal dot alanco dot com forward slash
(19:39):
in Z as well, so go and check that one out.
We will be back soon with another episode of a
Drenchwise Farm Smart thanks to Zolvis Plus from Alanko, but
for today Britt Neil veterinarian out of Franklin VETZ and
Colin Mackay out of Alanco. Thank you both so much
for your time.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Thank you Figure, Thanks Brent.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Drenchwise Farm Smart with Solvik's Plus from Ilanco, powered by
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