We are at the beginning of our summer grazing period, so it is important that we keep on top of worming sheep burdens to minimise production and life losses.

– Monthly worm egg counts throughout the grazing season. This will allow you to identify issues before scours and weight loss begin, reducing your production losses. It also will prevent you from unnecessarily treating your animals, saving time and money and avoiding contribution to resistance!

– When collecting faeces for a worm egg count, take samples from 10 fresh piles or directly from the anus. Do not just choose firm, well-formed faeces – the loose scour will likely contain the problem. It is best to collect a variety for a fair reflection of your flock’s infection level.

– Only use white wormer for treating Nematodirus (the first worm in spring). The Nematodirus forecast on the SCOPS website informs you when your area is at the highest risk – https://www.scops.org.uk

– Where possible, leave 10% of animals untreated. This provides a refugium of worms that haven’t been exposed to the wormer, reducing the chances of resistant

worms taking over.

– Rotate your wormers each time you use them, usually between clear and yellow groups or as advised by the vet off the back of a WEC. If you have any doubt about what to use, call your vet to discuss.

– When using white, clear or yellow wormers, delay moving them to a new clean pasture for 24-48 hours to allow them to pick up a few worms off the field. Otherwise, the only worms they bring onto the clean pasture will be the ones that survived treatment, leading to bigger resistance problems.

– If you are unable to weigh all animals being dosed and treat them accordingly, always dose for the heaviest animal in the group. Underdosing will encourage resistance issues.

– Purchased sheep can bring in resistance, so give these animals a quarantine dose of orange wormer.

– Give your drenching kit an MOT before use to ensure it is calibrated and working properly.

Click here for a handy YouTube video on how to calibrate a gun or injector when getting ready for worming sheep – https://youtu.be/EeAAQecHZGc?si=aazSiMlO6CzQeiFL