FARMERS TREND AFRICA LTD

Effective worm control in cows(Worms and flukes are a burden on animals) Worms and flukes attack sheep, goats and cattle. Animals gain less weight, give less milk and may die. Roundworms, tapeworms and liver flukes ? Roundworms cause animals to lose body condition. The animal loses appetite and grows more slowly or stops growing. A roundworm can lay 5 000 or 10 000 eggs per day inside the body of the animal. An animal with three ? thousand female worms may contaminate a pasture with several million eggs daily for 20 months. The worms hatch on the ground and can survive for months before entering another animal as it grazes. ? Signs of tapeworms include a rough coat, pot belly, diarrhoea and anaemia. The animals have a good appetite, but they do not gain weight and may even lose weight. When there are many worms, the animals look out of condition, and get other diseases more easily. ? Liver flukes make scars in the liver. The bile ducts become large. The liver becomes fibrous, and bad to eat. When you slice up the liver you find many flukes going all through the liver. After liver fluke eggs hatch, the tiny flukes need to penetrate and develop into a Limnea snail, which is found in wet areas. The snail releases larger flukes which are eaten by animals while grazing. Sheep and cattle can die within a few days. But normally the animals become weak over a few months. How to control liver flukes, roundworms and tapeworms ? Treat calves for worms after weaning, and graze them on clean pasture. Treat animals for worms at the beginning and end of each rainy season. Young animals, sheep and goats are more susceptible and should be treated not just at the beginning and end of the rains, but also in between. In countries with long rainy seasons, you may need more treatments, but never more than four times a year. Leave 4 to 8 weeks between treatments.

Preparing low-cost concentrate feed: Many farmers do not have enough good feed for their livestock and fish. You can buy concentrate feed that is rich in nutrients, but such feed is costly. Make your own concentrate feed at half the cost You can save money by making your own concentrate feed. Two-thirds of the mix is made of grains, such as paddy rice, maize, sorghum and wheat. Grains are rich in starch so they give the animal energy. Concentrate feed should contain lots of protein and fat. About one third of the mix can be made of groundnut cake and some soya bean. You can also use pulses, such as beans or peas. Change the ingredients, depending on what is available locally. How to make concentrate feed Mix all the ingredients to prepare a base mix that can be fed to all sorts of animals. This will save you time and money. Take the mix to a mill and ask them to adjust the mill to produce coarse flour. Make sure that the flour is not fine like dust, as it could get into the animal’s lungs. Fish feed also needs to be coarse. If the feed is too fine it will float on the water and surface feeders will take most of it. Bottom feeders will not eat anything. You can store base mix for up to 4 months. Keep it off the ground so the bottom will not get damp. ? Depending on the type of animal, you need to add a few other ingredients. To feed fish, add dried fish powder to the base mix. The fish will be attracted by the smell and eat more feed, and grow faster. The same can be done for poultry feed. The dried fish powder provides nutrients for the birds, and they like it. ? For sheep, goats and dairy cows, add an equal amount of wheat bran or rice bran to the base mix. This adds minerals and vitamins which help your animals grow faster and give more milk. Add a little salt. ? You can replace groundnut cake with azolla, which is rich in protein. You can also replace groundnut cake with coconut cake or sesame cake. For fish, don’t use coconut cake, because it will create an oily layer on the surface and block oxygen from getting into the water. The fish will die without oxygen.