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Improving summer stock performance

Improving summer stock performance

When your stock growth rates are lower than expected, there are things you can do get things back on track. Frequent weighing gives an early indication of a reduction in growth rates, and the opportunity to intervene. Young stock are fussy, so their food must be as attractive as possible. PGG Wrightson Animal Health Technical Experts advise how to improve summer stock performance. 

Feed quality
Green pastures and forages are no guarantee of high-quality feed. The higher the energy content of the diet, the higher the growth rates you can expect. Lambs weighing 30 kg eating a diet containing 10MJME / kg Dry Matter (DM) can grow at 100 g/d, whereas increasing this to 11 MJME / kg doubles the growth rates to 200 g/d.¹ Ryegrasses lignify under increased summer temperatures, increasing the fiber content and decreasing digestibility. The rumen takes longer to break down the grass and empty, leading to a lower volume of grass consumed by the animal. A feed quality test identifies the energy and fibre content of your pasture. Consult your PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative for advice or visit your local PGG Wrightson store to collect a testing kit. 

Feed quantity
Consumption levels also impact growth rates. To support high growth rates, you also need enough (quantity) feed to support higher growth rates. Animals with a lack of forage or inability to access high-quality feed have lower growth rates.  Assessing feed quantity is a good skill to teach staff and empowers them to observe and understand grazing management.

Trace minerals  
Pasture feed sampling can also identify macro and micro deficiencies. Wear clean latex gloves to collect pasture samples to prevent salts from your skin impacting the results. Sampling ensures you are supplementing animals optimally.  

Facial Eczema and other fungal toxins  
Fungal toxins can affect growth rates by causing organ damage, heat stress, scouring, and more. Grazing management can reduce the risk of some fungal toxins (e.g. zearaleone) while zinc supplementation prevents liver damage from Facial Eczema. 

Other diseases 
Chronic pneumonia is a common cause of poor growth rates in lambs. Photos of an autopsy are useful to show to someone with experience to identify the cause. Environmental factors like cold, driving rain predispose animals to becoming ill from an infectious agent. 

Parasitic worms 
Reducing the number of worm larvae stock ingest each day results in increased growth rates. To reduce worm challenge, your management should use a whole farm system approach, including cross grazing, grazing rotations, and sale of young stock. Using highly effective drenches is important to slow the development of drench resistance, monitored by using a post-drench faecal egg count.  

If growth rates are not what you expect, speak with your PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative to help identify the causes and offer solutions. Or visit your local PGG Wrightson store today.

¹Beef + Lamb 400 Plus Guide, November 2010.