Tips for NOVEMBER

PASTURE

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Set aside pasture for hay, baleage, or silage.

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If pasture is in good supply in your region, stock prices tend to go up. One strategy is to sell stock and turn excess grass into hay, silage, or baleage to sell through autumn and winter.

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Check your region's climate forecast for the season and plan for a worst-case scenario. If you're considering buying stock, will you have enough rain to grow pasture to get through summer and into autumn? Can you afford to buy supplements?

niwa.co.nz/climate/seasonalclimate-outlook

GENERAL

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Any animal eating good quality feed but not gaining weight needs checking for signs of worms, lice, stiffness in limbs, anaemia (check the inside of the eyelids and gums for pinkness), dehydration, temperature, swollen limbs, and limping. Talk to your vet if you're unsure.

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Regularly run faecal egg counts, rather than just drenching to a schedule to prevent drench resistance, a big problem in sheep and cattle. You can either take a representative sample from a group or test individual animals.

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If you see signs of diarrhoea, it may be due to the richness of the pasture at this time of year, not parasites. Check for other symptoms of a worm infestation (runny eyes, weight loss, dull coat, coughing) before drenching, or preferably do a faecal egg count first.

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Watch for hoof scald and/or footrot if you have humid conditions. If one animal has footrot, give all animals a foot bath. Trim and clean out any areas affected by footrot. Bathe the hoof in a 10% zinc sulphate solution (add zinc sulphate until it stops dissolving). Soak for 20 minutes, then stand somewhere clean and dry (preferably a concreted area) until the hooves are dry.

SHEEP

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Check sheep daily, up close, for signs of flystrike. Signs include:

• stamping of feet;

• nibbling at the body (due to irritation); • teeth grinding (a pain behaviour); • lethargy, lying down more than usual, often away from others in the flock/herd; • flies buzzing around the animal;

• dark pigmented wool or wool falling out (due to skin damage from a large maggot infestation).

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Shear stock. If you work in with your neighbours so the shearer can do everyone's sheep on the one day, it can be easier to get a booking.

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Remove dags and long wool from back ends and under the belly beforehand, or check if the shearer will do it for you.

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On the day, keep stock cool and dry in dust-free, covered, or shaded yards. Always offer cold water as a combination of stress and dust can cause pneumonia. •

Check with your shearer if they require you to be on site. Sheep should be just outside or in the pen when the shearer arrives.

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Apply a preventative insecticide after shearing. Four weeks later, do it again – protection doesn't last long on newlyshorn wool. After a few weeks of growth, it should last for 8-12 weeks.