ON FARM SHEEP control Reducing SNAPSHOT:Scott Antcliff and the burdenAmanda Woollam, RESEARCH IN Limpinwood, NSW REVIEW Sl PROJECT NAME Running a sheep flock in a three‑metre Barbervax development over average annual rainfall zone is four trials challenging, and worms are among the biggest challenges. RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS Moredun Institute Before they started using Barbervax®, Scott Antcliff and Amanda Woollam were drenching their Tuckeroo FUNDING ORGANISATIONS Stud Dorper flock 10–12 times a year. Moredun, MLA Donor Area: Company, MLA and Goat “We’re now only drenching four or five times a year. 160ha Industry Council of Australia It’s cut our drench costs but the real benefit in terms of money has been the zero death rate from Enterprise: GOAL barber’s pole worm infestation since we adopted the To develop an effective Stud – Dorper sheep and vaccination program. We’re now able to send lambs Murray Grey cattle treatment against barber’s out the gate at target weights with improved weight pole worm gains for age, and we also have more lambs to sell.” Pasture: BUDGET Perennial pastures, mostly $1.2 million The Tuckeroo Stud worm control program is centred Setaria and Rhodes grass on worm egg counts, with Scott running tests himself DURATION once every two to three weeks and drenching at a Soil: 2011–2016 threshold of 300 eggs/g. Red volcanic soils “With our climate, barber’s pole worm Rainfall: “Anecdotally, we’re hearing a 3,000mm (2018: 800mm) lot of positive reports from counts change quickly,” Scott said. producers outlining productivity “Counts could jump from well below 300 eggs/g to up Scott Antcliff benefits that we were unable to E: bowenmt@bigpond. quantify during clinical trials. around 1,600 eggs/g within three weeks. com “Barbervax is a very green “I don’t think there could be a property out there with solution to worm control. Its real a bigger barber’s pole worm challenge than ours in advantage is it’s a preventive a normal year, when we get our subtropical 300mm/ measure; it’s preventing month of rain. infestation with a really nasty “Barbervax has completely changed that. David Smith parasite.” (from the Moredun Research Institute) set up our This in turn reduces the amount (new) worm control program for us, and it’s turned our of worm eggs and larvae business around. Barbervax is a great tool to include contaminating paddocks, thus in the mix of any drench program.” leading to cleaner pasture Scott has found the vaccine reduces the worm and less infection in the future. population in the paddock. There is no problem with worms developing resistance to “It never gets hot enough in summer or cold enough in Barbervax, making it effective in winter to kill the worms in the paddock,” he says. areas where drench resistance “It took 18 months for us to start seeing the full benefits. is a problem. ■ “In the first year, our paddocks were still severely E: info@moredun.org.uk infested and we were still drenching every four to six weeks. Then, after the 18‑month mark, we were able barbervax.com.au to spread the drenches out to 10–12 weeks. Now, four moredun.org.uk years into our program, we’re down to four drenches a year for the flock and an extra drench for our wormboss.com.au and weaners to give them a good start to life. search ‘barber’s pole worm’. mla.com.au/ “Last November we had a worm egg count that came barberspolevaccine back as zero for barber’s pole worm. We’d never had that before. For us now, counts around 80 eggs/g are pretty normal.” ■ 25