Gene White, Nebraska vet and parasitologist, evaluated the samples. He then sat down with each of the producers to look at the results from their pastures and discuss treatment alternatives when warranted. As a small cow-calf producer myself, I took advantage of this opportunity to check out my herd. I gathered six samples from my 30 cows. I maintain a relatively closed herd with only limited new introductions each year.
Cows are on short permanent pasture year round.
One sample contained only two eggs and another 28 worm eggs. While I was feeling fairly good about this, consider the cow from which the last sample was gathered, with 28 eggs. She was shedding 85,000 worm eggs a day, which could cause big problems over a grazing season. The recommendation for my pastures was a strategic treatment the second week of June to clean up the larvae hatching from these eggs, plus the prevention of more egg shed and pasture buildup. Other producers at the Missouri clinic weren't as fortunate.