Orf - prevent/cure/management

[shumungus]

Good shout, how far in advance of lambing do you give the drench? Last lambing time was hard both weather and feed wise up here so I'm really hoping we've seen the worst of it. Really knocked some of our early lambs and put them back maybe 6 - 8 weeks. We made a good price but if they'd been off 6 weeks earlier they would have really made a difference to the bottom line

They get a vitamin drench mixed with their fluke drench when we are vaccinating them with hepta-vac or covexin 2 weeks before lambing and then try not to lay a hand near them till they are lambed.

 

[shumungus]

The lick buckets, rock salt, bolus and trace element drenches are all pointing the same way, ie: supply of vitamins and trace elements. To use any of them will help and we will have lick buckets with our ewes all the time whilst in lamb and sucking, but what I like about the bolus and drench is I know its in them because I put it in them. Not all sheep consume the licks whether it be by choice or breed. I know when we were running Texel x ewes some of them were dynamite to keep teats right and they weren't big users of licks, the Mules and Suffolk x would have consumed 2 or 3 times as many, but when we started bolusing and dosing there was a marked improvement on teats and lambs mouths especially on the Texel x.

 

[dunk999]

I put them out when I think I might see arisk, usuallyfrom about 3-4 weeks post lambing. They nibble at them, without taking any great quantity, so you can put the lids back on and store them away for another year when the risk is passed. I would only put out about 1 to a hundred lambs, and the same buckets will do several years.
I change mine for the Cocci & Orf buckets from 6-8 weeks, so as to cover both problems, which obviously limits intakes of the straight Frobut ones.

On the Himalayan Rock Salt (which i’ve Never found anywhere near as effective tbh), @Adam@Rumen on here will supply the same product at approaching half the price.

How did you find the cocci and orf buckets last year with the maize now added? I couldn’t stop ewes destroying them and will have to make lamb creep areas to allow only lambs access to them. Pre maize buckets were magic.

 

[Obi Wan]

I put them out when I think I might see arisk, usuallyfrom about 3-4 weeks post lambing. They nibble at them, without taking any great quantity, so you can put the lids back on and store them away for another year when the risk is passed. I would only put out about 1 to a hundred lambs, and the same buckets will do several years.
I change mine for the Cocci & Orf buckets from 6-8 weeks, so as to cover both problems, which obviously limits intakes of the straight Frobut ones.

On the Himalayan Rock Salt (which i’ve Never found anywhere near as effective tbh), @Adam@Rumen on here will supply the same product at approaching half the price.

Thanks for the advice, good that they should last a while I'll try and get in touch with @Adam@Rumen shortly

They get a vitamin drench mixed with their fluke drench when we are vaccinating them with hepta-vac or covexin 2 weeks before lambing and then try not to lay a hand near them till they are lambed.

Sounds like a plan thanks. Our big bale silage and ammonia barley has come back with a good scores so hoping this should help. Ewes are looking fit and we're already a month later than normal for giving them a bite. Will start into hay next week to gauge intake. I've not priced sugar beat or ewe rolls yet but really hoping the dry weather will mean the turnip fields are accessible earlier to help a bit.

 

[neilo]

How did you find the cocci and orf buckets last year with the maize now added? I couldn’t stop ewes destroying them and will have to make lamb creep areas to allow only lambs access to them. Pre maize buckets were magic.

Same here, but luckily it was a low challenge year for cocci due to the weather, so they were enough. I am assured that the new recipe (without maize) is better. It will need to be!

I did get some CocciPro buckets from Rumenco to try (as I wasn’t Going to buy any more DB ‘maize’ buckets). Intakes were so ridiculously low, even given grass being short, that I don’t believe they would have cleared any cocci up.

 

[dunk999]

Same here, but luckily it was a low challenge year for cocci due to the weather, so they were enough. I am assured that the new recipe (without maize) is better. It will need to be!

I did get some CocciPro buckets from Rumenco to try (as I wasn’t Going to buy any more DB ‘maize’ buckets). Intakes were so ridiculously low, even given grass being short, that I don’t believe they would have cleared any cocci up.

New recipe? The immuherb tubs I don’t think had any effect as I had one batch of 300 lambs which had access to the immuherb all summer after maize tubs were eaten in 24hrs then go down with a bad cocci outbreak at weaning which needed vecoxan treatment.

 

[neilo]

New recipe? The immuherb tubs I don’t think had any effect as I had one batch of 300 lambs which had access to the immuherb all summer after maize tubs were eaten in 24hrs then go down with a bad cocci outbreak at weaning which needed vecoxan treatment.

Yes. I understand they’ve replaced the maize in the CocciClear/DXO tubbies with something less palatable. I suspect it’s their last chance to get it right.....

Interesting feedback on the Imuherb. I’ve not heard a bad report on them, but it was a low cocci challenge year. Maybe they were saved by the sun?