Farmers warned of high facial eczema risk

Dairy farmers need to be on high alert against underfeeding their cows now that some rain has fallen on drought-parched Waikato, says Livestock Improvement's FarmWise service.

Generally cow condition is still "very acceptable" but with the weekend rain not enough to break the drought, dry matter in the paddocks will start to decompose and farms are moving into a feed high-risk period leading to May 31, winter and calving, says FarmWise manager Jon Nicholls.

"They've got to feed them. The rule of thumb is to double the amount of supplement you have been giving."

Meanwhile, vets are predicting the risk of facial eczema, which had been low until the weekend, will soar with the rain and associated muggy heat.

The senior veterinarian at Anexa Te Aroha, Jan Meertens, said there could well be an "explosion" of facial eczema spores as a result of the decomposing dry grass.

Preparing cows by building up facial eczema prevention a week before spore counts rose was simply good risk management and farmers should have done it "yesterday", he said. Most farmer-clients in his area had dried off their herds, he said.

With ewes soon to go for mating, facial eczema monitoring and prevention was also critical in the sheep and beef sector, said Beef + Lamb NZ chairman Mike Petersen.

The effects of facial eczema could affect an animal for its lifetime, he said.

"It's important to make sure you are monitoring, and there are a number of services for this, and to stay away from facial eczema hot spots. Many farmers will know where these are on the farm, and there are some treatments."

MetService is forecasting showers for the Waikato today and then it's back to warm days of settled weather with no rain in sight. A weak front will approach by Sunday, but meteorologist John Law was not expecting it to deliver significant rain.

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Farmers warned of high facial eczema risk