New grass paddocks offer great feed quality and low parasite burden – a recipe for great lamb growth! However, they also have the potential to make any drench resistance really bad, because if you drench onto this pasture and worms survive, you will end up with a parasite population that is 100% resistant!
Refugia is essential on new grass paddocks. We MUST put some parasites on here that have not been exposed to drench, but, we also need to benefit from this low challenge area.
How?
There are a lot of options for this. Below are some that farmers like:
Run undrenched ewes over the paddock for the first quick tiller-grazing.
Put some undrenched ewes in with lambs for grazing. Use your light ewes – they will pick up in condition being fed like a lamb - win-win!
Run undrenched ewes in after the lambs.
There are other options too, which we are very happy to explain and discuss with you further at any time.
You spend a lot getting the grass in, so let’s ensure you can make the most of it without compromising your drench status!
