increase font size
Controlling the risk of flystrike could include actions such as shearing, crutching, dipping and/or moving sheep to higher ground with cooler temperatures and higher wind speed.
Warm summer weather heightens the risk of flystrike.
However, there are steps farmers can take to make sheep as unattractive to flies as possible this summer.
Will Halliday, Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s senior advisor biosecurity and animal welfare, says the best and most effective approach to preventing flystrike is to use a combination of strategies also known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
He says IPM aims to keep pressure on the pest throughout its lifecycle by using a combination of chemical and non-chemical tools.
“It’s about attacking maggots and flies from different angles at different times.”
For example, weekly monitoring for the four blowfly species that cause flystrike (Australian green blowfly, European green blowfly, Brown blowfly and Hairy Maggot blowfly). Using small offal-baited fly-traps will detect when these flies are active which can then trigger a management response.
It could include shearing, crutching, dipping and/or moving sheep to higher ground with cooler temperatures and higher wind speed.
During high-risk periods, intensive grazing should be avoided if possible and hot-spots on the farm identified and avoided. These could include sheltered, scrubby gullies, patches of thistles, bush lines and the lee of shelter-belts.
Chemicals play an important role in the prevention and treatment of flystrike, over-reliance can lead to resistance.
It is important to only use chemicals known to be effective on individual farms and use different chemicals to treat an active flystrike lesion than those used for flystrike prevention.
Halliday adds that the Managing Flystrike and Lice publication put together by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Merino NZ and Sheep and Beef Cattle Veterinarians explains the lifecycle of pests, helps decipher chemical product labels and applications.
“It is an excellent resource to help farmers put together a management plan for the prevention and treatment of both flystrike and lice.”
Preventing Flystrike
It's common to look at reproductive challenges through the lens of the mating season. If cows aren’t cycling, if submission rates are low, or if too many come up empty, most farmers will dig into their mating programme to figure out what went wrong.
Waikato sharemilker Matthew Zonderop had no inkling that one day he would become a matchmaker for cows.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Dunedin-based Techion offers digital diagnostic solutions to complex disease and environmental problems.
Sheep and beef farmers have voted to approve Beef + Lamb New Zealand signing an operational agreement between the agricultural sector and the Government on foot and mouth disease readiness and response.
Reuters reports that giant food company Wilmar Group has announced it had handed over 11.8 trillion rupiah (US$725 million) to Indonesia's Attorney General's Office as a "security deposit" in relation to a case in court about alleged misconduct in obtaining palm oil export permits.
DairyNZ is celebrating 60 years of the Economic Survey, reflecting on the evolution of New Zealand's dairy sector over time.
As electricity prices soar, farmers appear to be looking for alternative energy sources.
There is an appeal to New Zealanders to buy local citrus fruit.
Avocado growers are reporting a successful season, but some are struggling to keep their operations afloat following years of bad weather.
It's time to start talking up science again, especially as a career for young people. That's one of the key messages from the Prime Minister's new chief science advisor, Dr John Roche.
