1 FARMLANDS
DEALS INSIDE
Vol 22 No 9, March 11, 2024
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Drench battle out of ammo Richard Rennie & Neal Wallace
NEWS
Animal welfare
F
ARMERS are being warned there is no silver bullet in the works to stem the rapid spread of drenchresistant internal parasites in livestock. The issue has been building in sheep for 20 years but, concerningly, cattle are now showing triple resistance to drench treatments, prompting scientists and vets to urge farmers to monitor worm burdens and consider grazing systems that enable some parasite control. Animal health bosses say the development of a chemical white knight to stave off resistance in farmed livestock is unlikely. “There is nothing new on the horizon and unlikely to be. There is research going on, which we are involved in, with respect to parasites but that is across all species,” said Paul Fitzpatrick, head of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health NZ. Elanco’s marketing manager, Ben McFarlane, said large multinational animal health companies are focused less on pastoral parasite controls and more on high-margin pet products. It has been 10 years since the
last new drench active targeting farm livestock was released, with animal health companies instead focusing investment on more lucrative companion animal treatments. Globally this market is worth US$22.7 billion a year ($37bn) and growing at 10% a year. Massey University parasitologist Dave Leathwick has found drench efficacy in cattle on some sample farms has dropped to just 4070% for levamisole, a previously effective treatment against cooperia. “One farm we visited only the other day had taken a faecal egg count only 10 days post-drenching and it was already up at 650 eggs per gram. The drench simply had not worked,” he said. The systems most at risk are intensive single-animal-class systems such as bull grazing, “techno” cell systems, dedicated heifer grazing units and runoffs, and intensive beef finishing operations. Dr Ian Scott, Massey University’s senior lecturer in parasitology, said the current level of drench use is not sustainable given the absence of any new active. The most recent releases in New Zealand have been Zoetis’s Continued page 3
‘The hills are that awful grey colour’ Farmers in the Tasman region are facing their driest spell since 2019. Farmer Colin Gibbs says there is not a lot of feed around and not much likelihood of rain anytime Photo: Tim Cuff soon.
NEWS 6
Lessons that cover a lot of ground Donald’s Farm near Auckland is where city kids, such as Benjamin Weston, 13, go to learn the ABCs of farming.
PEOPLE 22
Global trade ministers fail to progress the scrapping of billions of dollars in agricultural subsidies.
Prospects for Australia’s farming year ahead could put smiles on the faces of Kiwi sheep farmers.
Farmers can often achieve more when they focus their energies on Just Doing It, says Phil Weir.
NEWS 4
NEWS 8
OPINION 21
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