Sheep Managment: To Worm or Not to Worm

Let’s dive right into the hottest topic in sheep farming: Parasite Control!  There are three main methodologies with sheep farmers in regard to worming.

1.     The most prevalent in the industry is to follow the textbooks written by the veterinarians and the drug companies.  You probably won’t be surprised to hear that most Vets are just like most Doctors… they LOVE to prescribe all the newest and strongest DRUGS on the market.  Hello Western Medicine!  So, they say blah blah something like Ewes should be wormed 1-2 times per year with rotating classes of wormer to prevent parasite resistance to the drugs and Lambs should be wormed every 2-3 months.  And Shepherds who follow this system and have doubts and try to stop, well their sheep fall over dead real quick, because the animals become reliant on the drugs.  So, once you start you pretty much can’t stop.

2.     Then you have the middle of the roaders who make up another large chunk of mostly the small to mid-sized flocks, they adopt the strategy of closely monitoring each sheep by checking the whites of the eyes, messy rear ends and parasite egg counts in the feces.  These indicators help the producer if the flock or just individual sheep are in need of worming.  Keep in mind that all animals have internal parasites, its part of nature.  So these sheep still end up getting a pretty good dose of wormer each year but less than the by the textbook producers.  This middle of the road methodology will also be likely to experiment with all kinds of natural and herbal remedies that they read about online and in farming magazines.

3.     The third group has been quite small since the dawn of modern medicine but is growing particularly in the world of holistic multi species grazing operations.  This approach acknowledges that parasites are a natural part of all animals biomes and that an overload of parasites is a result of management practices usually related to overgrazing, overstocking and believe it or not over worming!  Numerous studies have found that healthy sheep raised in healthy pastures still have internal parasites, but these do not negatively affect the animals healthy or performance.  Furthermore, studies have found that most wormers on the market are extremely lethal to many other beneficial critters both in the animals treated and once excreted in the manure… think dung beetle genocide!  Considering all of this it is evident that wormers have a vastly negative impact on the farm in comparison to the purported benefits that the veterinarians and drug companies have been preaching.

By this point you have probably guessed which group we are in (go group 3!).  Ok so how do you get to the point where you have healthy sheep on healthy pasture that do not require wormers?  Because if you’ve raised sheep you probably know that parasites can completely wipe out your entire operation if your not careful.  Here’s how you do it:

1.     Start with good genetics from a farm you know and trust.  Ask them about their pasture management and how they handle parasites.  Ideally purchase stock from a farm that has been selecting for parasite resistance for many many years.  Starting with good stock is the single most important thing you can do to get started on the right track.  If you are beginning this process with a group of really wormy sheep on a really wormy farm it’s still possible to turn them around but will involve lots of culling and lots of patience.  Animals more prone to negative effects from worms must be culled, you only want to breed the animals that thrive in the low input system.  I have known some brave sheep operators who after struggling for years with parasite and hoof problems decided to cull the entire flock, give the farm a rest and start fresh with new genetics.  While this is a financially painful experience it has paid off in the long run…they now have a perfectly healthy flock.

2.     Frequent rotation through pastures, long rest periods and top third grazing when possible. These are not rules but they are goals always strive to meet these goals but don’t beat yourself up if you get busy one week and slack a little as long as they have plenty to eat. If nutrition drops parasites take over! Here’s the reason for the three grazing goals:

·      Frequent rotation: Parasites have a life cycle that involves laying eggs, the eggs come out in the poop then hatch into lots more parasites who then crawl up the grass and are eaten by the sheep. So move the sheep every day and you’re leaving all those parasite babies in the dust.

·      Long rest periods: This one is tricky because it changes throughout the year depending on weather and the stage of grass growth. General rule is don’t return to the same pasture for a minimum of thirty days. Our rotation ranges from thirty to ninety days. Once the parasite eggs have hatched they can only survive for so long without a host. Long rest periods allow time for most parasites to wither away or to become food for other critters. Establishing your rest periods will also help you learn what the proper stocking rate for your farm is, if you run out of grass to soon that probably means you have too many animals.

·       Top third grazing: Means only grazing one third of the plant material in a paddock. This allows the animals to reach peak nutrition and performance and also the parasites tend to be down lower to the ground. This is also a great drought insurance program (more on that later).

3.     Multi species grazing! For the same reason that mono crops are bad just having one species of animal is not a great idea. In a multi species grazing environment each animal contributes its own unique benefits. For parasites cattle act like vacuum cleaners gobbling up all the eggs and young parasites in the grass. Cattle do not share the same parasites as sheep so the parasite life cycle ends in the cow. Cows tend to breed black flies which lay their eggs in cow manure. This is where poultry really shine as they love to scratch around in the manure gobbling up all the fly larvae and other critters. Aren’t symbiotic relationships just so cool?

In conclusion using chemical wormers does not really help the shepherd in the way all the veterinarian and drug companies were hoping. Luckily for them a whole sector of the population has decided that these drugs are better suited for curing Covid (this is a joke, there is no evidence of wormer curing Covid). Furthermore, just like the other pesticides and insecticides used in agriculture the result of repeated use year after year has bred quote on quote super bugs that no longer are affected by the poison. Surprise, surprise nature outsmarts human technology! Farming using natural methods based on mimicking biologically diverse natural symptoms is the future of farming, not more drugs, not more technology. Technology and chemicals are designed to imprison farmers. Once a farmer starts down the path of using chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and wormers it is nearly impossible for them to stop. It is like an addiction, once the land, the plants, the animals and the farmers are addicted, could mean total collapse and ruin of a delicate system held up by crutches that trick us into feeling stable and effective. The companies manufacturing the ag chemicals and technology profit each year billions of dollars at the expense of farmers, animals, plants, and the planets well- being. Parasite control is just one example put of hundreds of how we have been mis-lead and lied to by the modern “industry leaders”.