Combating Drench Resistance with Agritech

Tararua sheep farmers Rob and Alex Foreman have faced a formidable battle to get on top of drench resistance on their family station Ruatea. Accurate recording and data management provided by Gallagher Animal Management has been key to their campaign.

Ruatea station covers 712 hectares near Pahiatua. The station has been in Rob’s family since 1985. Rob and Alex took over the farm from Rob’s parents in 2012, when Rob gave up his professional rugby career. Today they farm 3,600 Romney ewes, 1400 Hoggets. They also trade 150 store cattle depending on the season each year. The operation had been running smoothly until 2020 when they started noticing poor growth rates in their two-tooth ewes heading into mating. A drench reduction test confirmed their worst fears. Ruatea had developed resistance to triple combination drenches.
 
“We were ticking along nicely and our two-tooths were about to go to the ram, but we noticed their performance was slipping,” says Rob. “I had been to a drench resistance workshop and saw the signs. We did the reduction test and the wheels fell off pretty quickly after that.” The Foreman’s got vets and specialists involved but Rob says he was looking for hard evidence to combat their challenge. “People were giving us lots of advice but none of it was based on hard and fast figures. It was anecdotal,” says Rob. At that point, he started using EID tags on his ewes and ewe lambs, together with the Gallagher HR5 handheld reader and Gallagher TW3 weigh scale, which are all connected to Gallagher’s Animal Performance Plus App.
 
The Gallagher system allowed the Foreman’s to record the tagged flock’s data on the spot every time they had them in the yards and track their performance over time. “If we wanted to get on top of the issue, we knew we needed to streamline our data recording and analysis. We needed to know how every animal in our flock was performing,” says Rob. They started by tagging all their ewe lambs with EID tags, recording drenching and treatments and weight gains from docking onwards.
 
Over time the system has helped them identify which sheep respond to treatments, which sheep can have worms and cope okay with having them, and even which sheep are resistant to worms, says Rob. “It has allowed us to accurately trial treatments and see if they are working on the treated sheep. We can accurately identify the ones that perform and respond to drench treatments and the ones that don’t, just by looking at weight gains and performance,” says Rob. Every time the sheep are handled, the Foreman’s record data about each individual animal. “Every time we have them in the yards, we’re recording data and not just for drench resistance. We are also noting things like black wool or bad feet. It all helps us make optimal breeding decisions,” says Rob. 
 
While vaccinating the freshly shorn Hoggets Rob was able to add a note to a Hogget in the system if shearers had found black wool. “So, at drafting time for tupping, an alert shows us she needs to go into the B mob,” says Rob. The system also allows them to place animals in multiple groups for select traits while remaining in their mobs out in the paddock, allowing the Foreman’s to tailor exactly what traits they are chasing. “The opportunities for data recording are endless and the Gallagher Animal Performance Plus App is really user friendly,” says Rob.
 
This year is the first year they have done drench checks and had zero egg counts come back for both lambs and older ewes, suggesting their drench resistance issue is on the way out. “I wouldn’t say we’ve beaten it, as I don’t know if you can ever beat it, but we’re certainly at a point where we can manage it. Being able to accurately record the data on every ewe in our flock has been a huge part of that,” says Rob. The system is also critical in ensuring the most efficient and safe use of all animal health treatments on their flock. If Rob has sheep in the yards for treatment and a gate bursts, using the Gallagher system he can run the mob back through and the data will tell him immediately which sheep have already been treated so he doesn’t double up.
 
“Farmers are always condition scoring at docking, and you may need to drench them at that time. You record that you've drenched them in the system on the way through and if they jump back into the mob, you don’t lose them. You know they've been drenched because you already recorded it. “Being able to record all this vital information right there on the spot has been a complete game changer for our operation and has certainly helped us get on top of the drench resistance with hard and fast data."

Want to learn more about how streamlined, accurate data capture can improve your operation? Learn more here.