Rotating Pastures?

[sawfish99]

Rotating pastures for parasite management is largely a flawed concept in most regions. Last year, we participated in a parasite management seminar given by Univ of VA Blacksburg with UConn. The information and studies they provided demonstrated that in our region of New England (and most of the US) the parasites can survive dormant for 9+ months because it does not get hot enough to kill the dormant parasites and until hard freezes come, they are still viable. Additionally, the life cycle is so short on many of the parasites that animals can only be on a pasture area for 3 days before they risk reintroducing parasites. So basically, you would have to use a pasture for 3 days and then leave it empty until the next year. Assuming the winter actually gave you hard freezes.

The seminar was not promoting "scheduled worming" but rather the better practice of fecal analysis and targeted management. This year we participated in a resistance study and have fecal samples done on the entire goat herd (14 animals). We used Levamasole to deworm and resample the fecals 2 weeks later on the goats that had high enough counts to be statistically relevant (5 goats). Of the 5, 4 goats had 100% removal of parasites from a single dose of levamasole and 1 goat had only a 60% removal. We also saw a disconnect between the famancha scoring and actual fecal egg counts. Some goats that had a Famancha scorer of 3 had a FEC of 0. So clearly, nothing works all the time.

Just my input.

 

[ArtisticFarmer]

Thank you for that, sawfish99!

 

[treeclimber233]

maybe the key to successful rotation is have another species that the worms don't affect to graze after the infected ones. Like goats first then cow or chicken. Then rest the area and put the goats back on?

 

[goatboy1973]

What are those 8" flowers anyway. Me neighbor has a 5 acre pasture that fits your description to a T and it was covered with those things. He moved 3 months ago and the weeds have outgrown everything and it's a jungle.

In E. Tennessee we call these flowers "Buttercups". They are a sign of a mineral deficiency, overgrazing, and soil that's too acidic if I remember correctly. The high acidity probably caused from too much manure in the soil. When we see buttercups growing, a good load of lime needs to be added to the field. This is what my grandfather did for years and it always worked.

 

[goatboy1973]

If you don't rotate pastures you'll need to deworm probably every 2 months and you will get internal parasites that will eventually be resistant to all dewormers. Goats should have large areas to graze and if they don't have this, you will need to feed lots of hay and occasional concentrated goat specific feed.