If you’d like to know how to reduce deworming and still have healthy goats or sheep, you’ll want to check out the the ATTRA/NCAT publication “Managing Internal Parasites: Success Stories.” It includes stories from two sheep producers and one goat producer on the management steps they took to almost permanently eliminate deworming from their operations. This excerpt from Paul Casey of Heifer Project International gives you a good idea of the solution he found to work best:
Dave Scott shares a similar story based on his experience raising a flock on irrigated pasture in Montana. By managing his grazing and only worming ewes and lambs with FAMACHA scores of 4 and 5, he went from deworming three to four times a summer to not deworming any of his flock within just three years.
The last story in the publication is from Dr. An Pieschel, Small Ruminant Specialist and owner of Goats Unlimited in Tennessee. She started working with goats in Hawaii, where the climate means there’s no dead time for parasites. In spite of that extreme challenge, she reduced the need for worming over time using culling, good nutrition, and good grazing management. She went from a herd she described as unhealthy in 1985 to a herd that she stopped worming in 1994. It’s now been more than twenty years since she’s dewormed a goat. You’ll want to download the free publication for the details on how she’s managed this.
ATTRA/NCAT has taken the next step in getting you started on these kinds of management practices with “Tips for Preventing Internal Parasites, which is also available for free download. Stay tuned for more. In coming weeks we’ll cover treatment and culling for parasites in more detail.
