Are worms eating your profits?

We had such an interesting phone call with Jamie Wright today we couldn’t wait to share it!!!

Jamie and Tracy run cows and steers at Wongwibinda, east of Armidale. It is a truly beautiful spot and with mild, moist summers it is a great spot to grow grass and put weight on steers. So naturally Jamie was surprised to find that his new Optiweigh told him the steers weren’t gaining weight on great pastures.

As Jamie explained the history:

• The steers were drenched in December and everything was on track until about mid January;
• The slip in weights in mid January prompted him to move the steers to paddocks with better feed – assuming this was the problem;
• There were some short term lifts, but even on really good feed the weight gains kept dropping back;
• Eventually a discussion with other producers prompted him to treat for Cooperia; and
• There was an immediate uptick in weights – with the most recent ADG now standing at 2.1 kg/day.

This is certainly not the first time we have seen internal parasites be the cause of weight loss – and particularly when a good conventional treatment regime had been followed.

What this case study demonstrates really clearly is the power of data for decision making. There are lots of lessons to be learnt from these steers:

1.?????? Not to jump to conclusions about the reason for a drop in weight gain rates;

2.?????? That good nutrition is only one leg of the weight gain stool;

3.?????? That constant monitoring of weights is going to be a very valuable tool to add to animal health programs.

Again, this is not a comprehensive study but it is so typical of what we hear back from Optiweigh users: that by continuously monitoring the weight of the cattle we are learning more and more about the drivers of weight gain.

If you’d like to know more or talk to one of our team about Optiweigh and the advantages it could offer on your farm contact us here