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Ryegrass Staggers Ramping Up

The last week has bought with it a huge uptick in Ryegrass Staggers reports in North Canterbury. One of our vets was out palpating rams recently and noticed a number of these rams with significant staggers signs. Easily 5-6 discussions in the last week where local farmers have raised the topic of Ryegrass Staggers in ewe mobs. We have had a very hot and dry Jan/Feb and had our first significant rainfall last week. We are right on the point of tupping and many of the discussions today focussed on reducing the impact of Ryegrass Staggers on mating performance. The conditions are right for Ryegrass Staggers and we would strongly encourage sheep farmers in at-risk regions, with at-risk older ryegrass pastures to seriously consider how to manage this condition with the ram going out. Important consideration points:

- Consider options to get ewes (and rams) off ryegrass. This may or may not be possible. e.g. ewes onto rape/kale for flushing and early tupping. This practice has been hugely successful in NC over the last few years.

- Continued from above. It may not be possible to avoid high risk areas for the whole of tupping BUT make a big effort for the week before the ram and the first cycle after to avoid the highest risk areas - limit the impact.

- Dilute the endophyte toxins - other feed in the diet - baleage, grain, on/off grazing of crop. Where at-risk ryegrass needs to be part of the diet, providing other feed reduces the intake of endophyte toxin.

- Maintain higher residuals either through feeding supplements or speeding up the rotation. The lower you graze, the higher the toxic challenge.

- ID your worst problem paddocks for two reasons:
1) You know which paddocks to avoid with priority stock during the next risk period
2) You can factor this into re-grassing decisions to take care of the worst offending paddocks.

- When replacing pastures consider the grass species and endophyte selected. This may be obvious but ryegrass staggers is from the endophyte in ryegrass. We can improve the risk through use of AR37, AR1, NEA2 endophyte etc, but we can also select cocksfoot, brome, fescue, prairie grass (list goes on) pasture species that in many cases suit a dryland environment very well.

Unusual Case of Red Root Poisoning

One client recently lost 30 lambs due to red root poisoning. Red root is a weed that can often be found in crops or on bare ground especially around yards, troughs and gateways. The exact toxin in the plant is not known but it causes renal failure and deaths can occur over a protracted time frame.

Look out for this weed especially in crops.

Beef Cow Pregnancy Testing

This is now in full swing so please call your local clinic to make your booking. It is a good time to check BVD and trace element status of cows.

Use of Teasers in Hoggets

The introduction of vasectomised rams (teasers) for 17 days immediately prior to the ewe hogget breeding has consistently been shown to increase the proportion of hoggets breed in the first cycle.

The optimal teaser to ewe hogget ratio is in the range of 1:70 to 1:100 but up-to 1:200 still showed benefit over not using teasers. It is important that teasers are used for only 17days so timing is critical.

Good rains

Keep an eye out for increasing parasite burdens especially in young stock. Now is also a good time to do a “knock-out” drench in ewe lamb replacements. That means to use a novel active, such as Startect or Zolvix Plus, instead of your usual monthly drench, to kill any resistant parasites that may have survived your standard monthly drenches. Talk to your local vet to formulate a plan.

Ewe & Hogget Competition

Contact your rep listed below if you are interested in entering this competition.

We're loyal, not just local.

www.ncvets.co.nz | enquiries@ncvets.co.nz