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ecmn | This is another great example of knowing your enemy. What parasites you have in your area? How do they function, how do they get to the cow. The more you understand that the easier it is to manage
There's a lot of farmers that do exactly what you say. Run the cows out on minimal/ poor feed quality and the anyone that don't breed back within there time frame are culled out. Eventually you have a herd that's very efficient.
And you could do the same with anything. The cow that's always being swarmed with flies get rid of her...I understand that system and why some guys in some areas use it.
We went the opposite direction, we have very high quality pastures and winter feed. Our system is spoiled, big fat happy cows that give us many calves. System of we reduce as much stress on the cows and go for longevity. There is no right or wrong with cows on pasture, it's what fits your area.
Fluke's are a big deal here. We haven't dewormed for 4 years. The first thing is if there's any standing water we don't let them graze in that. Second thing is we move daily so they're not getting to the bottom of the plant.
We also use a very good quality mineral, we have extremely high quality hay. We also use apple cider vinegar. And lick tubs in the winter time.
So far the butcher has not seen anything in parasite load.
We assume at some point in the next 20 years we might have a situation where we need wormer and clean up an out break. And that's okay, that's what it's there for.
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since we are in the mood for outside of the box and it is cold
